Money Walks: A Human-Centric Study on the Economics of Personal Mobile Data

In the context of a myriad of mobile apps which collect personally identifiable information (PII) and a prospective market place of personal data, we investigate a user-centric monetary valuation of mobile PII. During a 6-week long user study in a living lab deployment with 60 participants, we collected their daily valuations of 4 categories of mobile PII (communication, e.g. phonecalls made/received, applications, e.g. time spent on different apps, location and media, photos taken) at three levels of complexity (individual data points, aggregated statistics and processed, i.e. meaningful interpretations of the data). In order to obtain honest valuations, we employ a reverse second price auction mechanism. Our findings show that the most sensitive and valued category of personal information is location. We report statistically significant associations between actual mobile usage, personal dispositions, and bidding behavior. Finally, we outline key implications for the design of mobile services and future markets of personal data.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures. To appear in ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp 2014

Curse or Blessing? Combining Personality Traits and Technology Acceptance to Investigate the Intention to Use of Digital Contact Tracing in Germany

In order to trace the transmission of COVID-19, digital contact tracing (DCT) provides an enormous value for the public health. However, the acceptance of the German contact tracing app, the Corona-Warn-App (CWA), falls short of the expected coverage in the general public. Accordingly, this study focuses on investigating the influencing factors on the CWA’s acceptance to demystify the missing puzzle and to face future pandemics. To assess this objective comprehensively, we investigate personality traits (guiding perception and behavior), subjective norm (expressing social influence), and trust in technology on acceptance variables. Our empirical results emphasize that besides the personality traits conscientiousness and agreeableness, perceived usefulness, subjective norm, and trust in technology play a vital role for engagement with the CWA. Our research offers starting points for the use of mobile health solutions, particularly in early epidemic stages

The Role of Social and Technological Predispositions in Participation in the Sharing Economy

This study contributes to the growing body of research on drivers of participation in the sharing economy. We extend the well-established technology acceptance model and include layers of personality architecture related to the social nature of these markets (extraversion) and their technology intermediation (technology proclivity). Findings from a cross-sectional survey (n = 292) show that extraversion is related directly to the intention to use sharing economy applications, such as in home gig services, and related indirectly to likelihood to use these technologies and to engage as a provider of such services, through technology proclivity and the technology’s perceived usefulness

Understanding the usage of Mobile Payment Systems- the impact of personality on the continuance usage

Payment convenience has benefited from the revolution in mobile technologies. M-payment users, however, seem inconsistent in their payment activity, resisting change from traditional payment methods. Ensuring consumer continuance of m-payment technology usage is critical to ensuring the ubiquity of m-payment solutions. Although research has examined the influence of individual difference on the acceptance of m-payment, most studies fail to consider whether ongoing acceptance is maintained by the user, or whether a change in perception occurs as a result of use. Moreover, current studies consider user demographic profiles to segment mobile users, yet this dismisses the impact of individual difference, e.g. personality or cognitive style. This paper proposes a model that can be used to investigate the impact of individual difference on user perception of m-payment systems. The Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model factors (i.e. effort expectancy, performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition, habit, hedonic motivation, price value, trust and perceived risk) allow capture of data relating to two use perceptions; pre- and post-usage perception. The proposed model allows capture and comparison of pre-usage expectation and post-usage beliefs, allowing consideration of perception variance as a result of technology use. This model will be applied to gain a deeper insight into how to address users’ satisfaction, acceptance, and continuance usage of Near Field Communication m-payment technologies

Understanding workers’ adoption of productivity mobile applications: a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA)

Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets become more present in our lives every day. Most of these devices use the Android operating system (O.S.), becoming the most popular O.S. for mobile devices. For these devices, there is a huge offer of application software that provides answers to users’ different needs. This study aims to analyse how combinations of personality factors, sociodemographic variables and Internet use influence the adoption of productivity mobile apps by workers. To achieve this, a combination of these variables is analysed using fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA.) that allows us to analyse complex complementarities among factors. The results show the importance of distinct personality traits – extraversion and agreeableness – to understand the adoption of these services. Our study also provides relevant insight for software developers to target segments interested in the use of productivity software in their mobile devices

SUSTAINABILITY IN PRIVATE HOUSEHOLDS - INVESTIGATING ACCEPTANCE OF SMART ENERGY APPS

As the use phase of buildings produces a substantial negative environmental impact, mechanisms to guide individuals towards more sustainable energy consumption are of interest. Smart energy apps which constantly monitor energy consumption and provide energy reduction recommendations to private households are a promising tool to tackle this issue. However, as little is known about factors driving their adoption, it remains unclear whether their potential can be leveraged. Against this backdrop, this study derives a technology acceptance model for smart energy apps which builds on a quantitative survey with 300 participants and the partial least squares approach. The results highlight personal innovativeness and environmental norms as additional acceptance factors. Our study points at the importance of personality traits and individual beliefs in technology adoption research, unveils potential levers for IS to drive adoption, and provides guidance to smart energy app designers

Understanding the Mobile Gaming Context and Player Behaviour: A Review and a Research Agenda

The technological developments in mobile network and mobile computing underpin the dominance of mobile games in the global games market. Extant literature has enriched our understanding on the antecedents of playing mobile games, yet we still lack a comprehensive portrait of this unique gaming context that is distinguished from the context of traditional computer or console gaming. In response, we conduct a literature review to review research gaps on extant mobile gaming literature. Through a review of 181 works, we propose a framework based on the environmental psychology theory to guide future research to investigate the mobile gaming context. Drawing on this framework, we elaborate a research agenda that proposes potential research questions for future research to study the impacts of 1) mobile game design features and mobile application usability, 2) the use context more broadly, and 3) subjective individual differences, on mobile game player’s gaming experience, continued playing intention and in-game purchasing

The influence of national culture on the attitude towards mobile recommender systems

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Technological Forecasting and Social Change. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.This study aimed to identify factors that influence user attitudes towards mobile recommender systems and to examine how these factors interact with cultural values to affect attitudes towards this technology. Based on the theory of reasoned action, belief factors for mobile recommender systems are identified in three dimensions: functional, contextual, and social. Hypotheses explaining different impacts of cultural values on the factors affecting attitudes were also proposed. The research model was tested based on data collected in China, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Findings indicate that functional and social factors have significant impacts on user attitudes towards mobile recommender systems. The relationships between belief factors and attitudes are moderated by two cultural values: collectivism and uncertainty avoidance. The theoretical and practical implications of applying theory of reasoned action and innovation diffusion theory to explain the adoption of new technologies in societies with different cultures are also discussed.National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean governmen