App evolution has been shown to continuously lead to app success from the developer perspective. However, few studies have explored app success from the user perspective, which limits our understanding of the role of app evolution in app success. Building on app evolution literature and the technology acceptance model (TAM), the authors investigate the influence of the effectiveness of app evolution on users’ perceived app usefulness and ease of use and their app continuance intention, which is a proxy of app success from the user perspective. Survey data were collected from 299 app users on both the Google Play and AppStore platforms in the U.S. The findings indicate that the effectiveness of strategic evolution and effectiveness of evolution speed directly affect a user’s perceived app usefulness, while effectiveness of operational evolution and effectiveness of evolution speed directly affect a user’s perceived app ease of use. In addition, perceived app usefulness and perceived app ease of use are two keys that lead to users’ app continuance intention. A user’s perceived app ease of use affects app continuance intention both directly and indirectly through perceived app usefulness. This study enhances our understanding of the relationship between effectiveness of app evolution and app continuance intention. This is especially important in helping app developers that are small firms or startups with limited resources understand how to retain app users. Limitations and directions for future research are also discussed
