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Acceptance of in-store apps: factors that influence the intention to adopt location-based retail apps – insights from Germany
Abstract
Purpose
Due to recent developments of indoor location-tracking technologies, brick-and-mortar retailers are now able to add location-based marketing capabilities to their existing retail apps, providing retailers with new opportunities to interact with customers inside of their stores. The aim of this study is to identify factors influencing the customers' adoption intention of location-based retail apps for stationary retailing.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the technology acceptance model, a conceptual model was developed. A Web-based survey was conducted in Germany with a final sample of 501 cases. Structural equation modelling was performed to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results confirmed the positive relationship between attitude and the customers' intention to use location-based retail apps. Perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment promote a positive attitude toward location-based retail apps, while privacy concerns and fear of spam hinder the formation of a favorable attitude. Subjective norms have a positive effect on customers' usage intention.
Practical implications
The results help retailers who want to establish location-based retail apps at the point of sale (e.g. in the context of omni-channel strategies).
Originality/value
As previous research about location-based apps has mainly used empirical data from either Chinese or American samples, less is known about the perception of European customers. Research indicates that existing findings might not be transferable to European countries due to differences in values, social norms or regulations. Also, the failure of Shopkick in Germany illustrates the need for more research. Based on this, using a German sample to answer the research question, this study aims to provide a European perspective on location-based retail apps, and thereby extend existing research.
... Apart from risk, technology anxiety and social presence were also discussed and found to have an important role in customers' willingness to participate in relationship programmes given through the proximity BBT-based platform (Lin et al., 2022). Schrage et al. (2022) applied technology acceptance (TAM) model for locationbased retail apps. Results revealed that perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment had a positive impact on customers' attitudes towards location-based retail apps while privacy concerns and fear of spam had a negative impact on attitudes. ...
... Surely, Beacon technology is not the magic bullet and there are some security concerns with it (Lin et al., 2022;Schrage et al., 2022). To overcome them, retailers should try to adopt a personalisation strategy that shows they are not pushy and disturbing. ...
Beacon technology is in the nascent stage and is expected to grow unexception-ally. Despite the enormous scope in this field, limited work is available on this technology. Previous literature on Beacons is scattered and mostly focuses on experimental work and its architecture. This article works on this gap and tries to present a systematic review of the literature and does a SWOT analysis on Beacons. The current study presents the results of 80 academic papers. For the SWOT analysis, a two-phase interview was conducted to collect information. This article is going to enhance the existing literature on Beacons and will help future researchers to understand the concept clearly and concisely.
... For instance, concerning location-based service usage intention, customer attitude and perceived value emerged as significant mediators. The presence of flow was pinpointed as a vital moderator, influencing the relationship between intention and its mediators (Lee & Kim, 2021;Schrage et al., 2022). When exploring revisit intention, hedonic and utilitarian experiences, along with customer satisfaction, were identified as key mediators. ...
This study systematically reviews literature to explore the Moderated Mediation Model of Customer Intention in Omnichannel Technology, particularly under the transformative influence of technologies like AI, AR, and big data analytics. Amidst evolving consumer expectations and the drastic shifts induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, the retail industry's shift from multichannel to omnichannel strategies has become crucial. This review analyzes 59 studies published between 2018 and April 2023 to discern the dynamics influencing customer intention within the omnichannel framework. Our research highlights the sparse but critical discourse on the mediating roles of perceived value and trust and the moderating effects of factors like age and product involvement. Although extensive, the literature reveals gaps, particularly in unified frameworks integrating these diverse insights. We propose a novel conceptual framework centered on these mediators and moderators to better understand and harness customer intentions toward omnichannel technology adoption. Key findings indicate that seamless integration across online and offline channels, responsive to the nuanced needs and behaviors of consumers, significantly enhances customer engagement and loyalty. This synthesis not only offers a consolidated view of the omnichannel retail landscape but also provides strategic pathways for retailers aiming to optimize customer interactions and satisfaction in a digitally dominated era. Our review contributes to the omnichannel retail literature by offering a structured overview of the factors driving customer intentions and suggesting directions for future research to bridge identified gaps, particularly through longitudinal studies and expanded demographic analyses.
As technologies evolve, businesses have focused on enhancing human interactions beyond simple satisfaction. This new research builds on recent exploratory work, responding to calls for testing antecedents and consequences of Smart Retail Technology (SRT) interactions. An online survey was administered to 338 respondents. In addition to structural equation modelling (SEM), fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) was employed to identify value outcomes. Results demonstrate that the more individuals perceive a business's technologies to be distinctive, the more likely they are to interact with those technologies. Respondents' innovativeness was positively associated with their intentions to interact with SRT. The fsQCA outcomes offer an understanding of the types of individuals who perceive value through SRT interaction. Findings offer managerial implications and extend current knowledge about adopting interactive technologies. This is the first study to contribute a comprehensive SRT model that examines the interrelation ships between antecedents and consequences of interacting with SRT.
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the intention of adopting a technological service innovation that is a mix-mode consumer shopping service in the retailing context.
Design/methodology/approach
A modified extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model is tested by using data on a real example named “Mkolay” which is a new mix-mode consumer shopping service. Data are collected from 217 participants and analyzed by using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
Research findings show that the customers' intention to use the new mix-mode consumer shopping service is particularly influenced by performance expectations, effort expectations, social influence and personal innovativeness.
Practical implications
In designing a mix-mode consumer shopping service, keeping the design as simple and easy to use as possible seems to increase the intention of adoption. Additionally, collaborating with reference figures or influencers could be instrumental to spread the new service to a wider audience hence increase the likelihood of adoption. Practitioners should also use new technologies in different ways to attract and surprise customers, especially taking into account the technological profile of potential users.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature of technological service innovation adoption by revealing the factors affecting the intention of adoption of mix-mode consumer shopping service in the retailing context with a modified UTAUT2 model.
Purpose: Retailers can use their mobile app to send location-based advertisements to consumers in the store. Goal congruence is an important driver for this type of ad’s effectiveness. However, evidence of goal congruence influence on positive and negative outcomes and, in turn, on product purchase intention, is lacking. Research also leaves out the moderating effect of shopping motivation and price promotion level. The paper tests the impact of goal congruence on purchase intention through attitude to the ad and its intrusiveness, as well as the moderating effect of shopping motivation and price promotion.
Design/methodology/approach: Two online experiments are conducted to investigate these effects. The first experiment investigates the influence of goal congruence (i.e., low vs high) and the moderating effect of shopping motivation (i.e., utilitarian vs hedonic) on attitudes to the ad, level of perceived intrusiveness and, ultimately, purchase intention. The second experiment introduces the moderating effect of price promotion.
Findings: Goal congruence has a positive effect on attitude to the ad but no impact on intrusiveness. Goal congruence and shopping motivation further have a significant effect on attitude to the ad, as well as on purchase intention. Finally, no interaction effect of price promotion level is found.
Originality: This study tests the effect of goal congruence for in-store mobile apps on attitude towards the ads and intrusiveness and ultimately purchase intention. It further tests the moderating effect of shopping motivation (i.e., utilitarian vs hedonic) and price promotion level on these relationships.
Purpose
Short-term changes in consumers' shopping behaviour due to the Covid-19 pandemic have been studied, but not the long-term effects. This study fills this gap by exploring the long-term changes in consumers' retail shopping behaviour, due to their experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative data were collected from one hundred fifty-nine respondents, and grounded theory approach was applied for interpretation. Gioia thematic analysis method, open coding, and axial coding were used for analysis.
Findings
Individuals who positively approached their experiences during the Covid-19 demonstrated increased pro-sustainable and pro-environmental self-identity, resulting in sustainable consumption and a shift to online shopping. Individuals having overpowering negative experiences demonstrated heightened fear of missing out (FOMO), loss aversion, and rumination. While shopping, they demonstrated herd behaviour and shifted to online shopping.
Research limitations/implications
This study highlights emotional and psychological mechanisms influencing long-term changes in consumer shopping preferences post Covid-19 pandemic. The generalizability of the findings is limited due to the study's exploratory nature and the sample size.
Originality/value
This study contributes to shopping behaviour literature by uncovering novel constructs of self-identity, loss aversion, FOMO, and rumination as antecedents to long-term shopping behaviour changes post-Covid-19. It provides a new conceptual model of consumers' shopping behaviour, which may be empirically validated.
During a crisis such as COVID-19, governments ask citizens to adopt various precautionary behaviours, such as using a voluntary proximity tracing application (PTA) for smartphones. However, the willingness of individual citizens to use such an app is crucial. Crisis decision theory can be used to better understand how individuals assess the severity of the crisis and how they decide whether or not to adopt the precautionary behaviour. We propose a research model to examine the direct influence of perceived crisis severity on intention to use the technology, as well as the indirect impact via PTAs’ benefits for citizens. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirm the two dimensions of the benefits, namely personal and societal benefits. We used PLS-MGA to evaluate our research model. The results confirm the influence of the perceived severity of COVID-19 on the intention to use the PTA, as well as the mediating effects of personal and societal benefits on this relationship. Our findings contribute to the technology adoption literature and showcase the use of crisis decision theory in the field of information systems.
We present an evaluation of the effectiveness of manual contact tracing compared to bulletin board contact tracing. Classical contact tracing relies on reaching individuals who have been in proximity to an infectious person. A bulletin board approach focuses on identifying locations visited by an infectious person, and then contacting those who were at those locations. We present results comparing their effects on the overall reproductive number as well as the incidence and prevalence of disease. We evaluate them by building a new agent based simulation (ABS) model using the Susceptible Exposed Infectious and Recovered (SEIR) framework for disease spread. We conduct simulation experiments to quantify the effectiveness of these two models of contact tracing by calibrating the model to be compatible with SARS-CoV-2. We find that bulletin board contact tracing gives comparable results in terms of the reproductive number, duration, prevalence and incidence but is less resource intensive, easier to implement and offers a wider range of privacy options. Our experiments show that location-based bulletin board contact tracing can improve manual contact tracing.
The increase in the number of social media users and smartphone usage has a positive relationship with the diversity of applications. People use mobile applications that provide location-based service either directly or indirectly to share location with their smartphones. With the increase in the use of applications that determine location information by determining location information on mobile devices, mobile applications have become an important research area for user behavior. These applications are also utilized by users for communication and socialization purposes. The literature has usually focused on popular social media applications and studies on location-based applications (LBAs) have been insufficient. In this study, we investigate the impact of location-based services, such as Swarm and Foursquare. This study uses the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the expectation confirmation model (ECM) to understand why users continue using mobile applications. This article examines the role of hedonic comprised of application aesthetics and perceived enjoyment and utilitarian benefits (comprised of application quality and application utility) for consumer behavior in the development of application markets on satisfaction and application continuance intention. Besides, we show the benefits of the strongest effect on application users. By using the mediation satisfaction effect between hedonic and utilitarian benefits; we test the application continuance intention with regression analyses and the Sobel test. We surveyed young subjects as our sapling frame who regularly use mobile applications. We collected data from 400 users by convenience sampling method to test our hypotheses. Given our findings, we show that utilitarian and hedonic benefits are positively related to the application continuance intention. Besides, we show that satisfaction significantly mediates the relationship between hedonic/utilitarian benefits and application continuance intention. Since the main purpose of the application developers is using the application per se in the long term, they need to focus chiefly on user satisfaction. We also show that determining the relevant factors that affect application continuance intention positively is important for the businesses in a competitive environment.
Upon the General Data Protection Regulation’s (GDPR) application on 25 May 2018 across the European Union, new legal requirements for the protection of personal data will be enforced for data controllers operating within the EU territory. While the principles encompassed by the GDPR were mostly welcomed, two of them, namely the right to withdraw consent and the right to be forgotten, caused prolonged controversy among privacy scholars, human rights advocates and business world due to their pivotal impact on the way personal data would be handled under the new legal provisions and the drastic consequences of enforcing these new requirements in the era of big data and internet of things. In this work, we firstly review all controversies around the new stringent definitions of consent revocation and the right to be forgotten in reference to their implementation impact on privacy and personal data protection, and secondly, we evaluate existing methods, architectures and state-of-the-art technologies in terms of fulfilling the technical practicalities for the implementation and effective integration of the new requirements into current computing infrastructures. The latter allow us to argue that such enforcement is indeed feasible provided that implementation guidelines and low-level business specifications are put in place in a clear and cross-platform manner in order to cater for all possible exceptions and complexities.
Purpose
Given the widespread popularity of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, understanding consumer-brand engagement behavior within social media is fundamental for retail firms. Yet, little is known about how consumers engage with retail brands through social media. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap and extend previous research by examining factors that influence consumers’ attitudes and intentions to engage with retail brands through Facebook, and ultimately purchase products and services.
Design/methodology/approach
This study draws on the theory of reasoned action and the technology acceptance model to develop a model of consumer-brand social media engagement and purchase intentions. Specifically, the model tests the influence of five antecedents of attitude on consumer intentions to engage with retail brands through the brands’ Facebook pages as well as intentions to make purchases through this social media. The hypotheses of the model are tested using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The findings provide an understanding of the main drivers of consumer-brand engagement that can lead to purchase intentions. Results show that consumers’ attitudes toward engaging with retail brands through Facebook are influenced by peer communication, compatibility and credibility, and that attitude has a strong influence on intentions toward this behavior. Furthermore, there is a strong relationship between intentions to engage and the likelihood of purchasing through a retail brand’s Facebook page.
Research limitations/implications
This study is cross-sectional and was conducted at a particular point in time. Thus, results are not purported to make any inferences to causal relationships. Further, the measures of intentions to engage are attitudinal and not objective measures. Future longitudinal studies may help avoid this limitation by testing causal relationships.
Practical implications
The study contributes to the important area of consumer engagement with retail brands through social media in ways that may lead to making purchases. Findings can provide retailers with reference points through which to engage their brands with consumers through their Facebook pages in ways that may lead to more direct returns on their investment in social media sites.
Originality/value
Retailers are noticing the power of social media sites as a platform for engaging with consumers and extending this relationship to purchases. However, scant research has addressed this topic. The proposed model and findings of this study can extend prior research.
Consumer adoption of mobile shopping apps is an emerging area in m-commerce which poses an interesting challenge for retailers and app developers. In this study, we adapt the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) to investigate factors predicting consumer behavioral intention (BI) and use behavior (UB) towards mobile shopping apps, considering the impact of two manifestations of consumer's perceived risk: Privacy Risk and Security Risk. Because cultural characteristics may moderate the impact of these risks on behavioral intention and use behavior, we conduct two studies from two consumer panels from countries with significant difference in technology use as captured by the Computer-Based Media Support Index (CMSI), namely India (high CMSI) and USA (low CMSI). For both countries, the baseline UTAUT 2 constructs predict the Behavioral Intention to use mobile shopping apps (and subsequently use behavior). However, the manifestations of perceived risk are significant only for the country with the highest CMSI score, suggesting that cultural influences play a strong role in the adoption of m-shopping. Our study has practical implications for theory as it poses the use of m-shopping apps in a cross-cultural context, suggesting that privacy and security moderate intention to use differently across cultures as predicted by the CMSI. From that perspective, it also has practical implications for consumer behavior researchers and app developers challenged with app localization as well as retailers designing mobile shopping apps for an intercultural audience.
Purpose
We present an exploratory study on the effectiveness of in-store marketing communication appeals via digital signage applying the Construal Level Theory (CLT) in a field experiment. According to this theory, we hypothesize that shoppers will on the one hand respond more favorably to messages focusing on the desirability of the offering, when they are further distanced from the actual purchase decision. On the other hand, we expect more favorable responses toward messages containing feasibility appeals, positioned closer by to the purchase decision. The ultimate goal of this pilot study is to determine appropriate location based content for in-store proximity marketing.
Design/methodology/approach
A field experiment was conducted in a Belgian coffee bar, examining temporal distance effects in a natural retail/service environment. A 2x2 between-subjects experimental design is implemented (i.e., low vs. high temporal distance x concrete/cost vs. abstract/brand-oriented appeal), examining the impact on marketing communication effectiveness.
Findings
Overall, we find some initial support for CLT on effectiveness measures regarding purchase intentions and actual purchase, but not in terms of self-reported noticing of the screen and the ad, nor in terms of (un)aided ad recall.
Research limitations/implications
This experiment is a pilot study and such finds itself confronted with a limited number of observations.
Originality/value
Our study is among the first to examine how message content (beyond price promotion) can be adapted to in-store locations.
Smartphones have penetrated rapidly and mobile shopping provides promising market opportunities for retailers. However, little is known about mobile shopping patterns and inferring these patterns from online shopping may provide misleading insights. We combine mobile log data and a mobile panel survey, and examine two stages in mobile shopping: the possession of shopping applications (hereafter, apps) and the purchase via shopping apps. Our exploratory investigation of mobile data and its empirical analyses provide three substantive findings. First, online experience and mobile experience both positively relate to the possession of shopping apps. Second, browsing behavior for non-shopping apps helps understand the possession of shopping apps as it reflects user preferences for acquiring more apps. Third, purchasing decisions are explained by digital experience (i.e., online experience and mobile experience) and browsing information from shopping apps, with other factors being of little predictive value. The implications for mobile retailing research and practice are discussed.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to incorporate mobile payment (MP) self-efficacy, new technology anxiety, and MP privacy concerns into the basic TAM to explore MP adoption, particularly tap-and-go payment, among US consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through an online survey conducted among students at a Midwestern University in the USA. A total of 254 participants provided 240 useable responses.
Findings
MP self-efficacy significantly impacts perceived ease of use (PEOUMP) and perceived usefulness of MP (PUMP). These in turn impact MP attitude, which affects intention to use MP. Privacy concerns also impact attitude towards MP and MP use intention. New technology anxiety impacts PEOUMP, but not PUMP.
Research limitations/implications
The study uses a convenience sample of young US consumers, which could limit the generalisability of the results. The study is also limited to tap-and-go payment.
Practical implications
US retailers have information on some of the factors that encourage MP adoption. Retailers need to address self-efficacy concerns, MP privacy concerns, and consumers’ perceptions of usefulness of the technology.
Originality/value
There has been little research on factors impacting tap-and-go payment adoption in the USA. The study highlights the roles of self-efficacy and privacy concerns. It focusses on tap-and-go payment, since this technology can enhance consumers’ retail experience.
Little is known about the influence of motivators that drive consumers to grant permission to be contacted via personalized communication. In this study, a framework is developed to investigate the effect of select drivers of consumers granting permission to receive personalized messages. The authors distinguish between drivers related to benefit and cost to the consumers. They identify the influence of perceived personal relevance, entertainment, and consumer information control as well as monetary incentives and lottery participation as benefit-related factors. Cost-related factors entail the registration process, privacy concerns, and perceived intrusiveness. The authors find that, except for monetary incentives and lottery participation, the identified drivers significantly influence consumers’ decision to grant permission. The strong negative influence of privacy concerns on the probability of granting permission can be lessened by two benefit-related factors, namely message content with entertainment value or personal relevance for the consumer. The study helps to improve firm measures aimed at getting more permissions – granted by customers for interactive campaigns.
Continual innovation and new technology are critical in helping retailers’ create a sustainable competitive advantage. In particular, shopper-facing technology plays an important role in increasing revenues and decreasing costs. In this article, we briefly discuss some of the salient retail technologies over the recent past as well as technologies that are only beginning to gain traction. Additionally, we present a shopper-centric decision calculus that retailers can use when considering a new shopper-facing technology. We argue that new technologies provide value by either increasing revenue through (a) attracting new shoppers, (b) increasing share of volume from existing shoppers, or (c) extracting greater consumer surplus, or decreasing costs through offloading labor to shoppers. Importantly, our framework incorporates shoppers by considering their perceptions of the new technology and their resulting behavioral reactions. Specifically, we argue that shoppers update their perceptions of fairness, value, satisfaction, trust, commitment, and attitudinal loyalty and evaluate the potential intrusiveness of the technology on their personal privacy. These perceptions then mediate the effect of the technology on shopper behavioral reactions such as retail patronage intentions and WOM communication. We present preliminary support for our framework by examining consumers’ perceptions of several new retail technologies, as well as their behavioral intentions. The findings support our thesis that shopper perceptions of the retailer are affected by new shopper-facing technologies and that these reactions mediate behavioral intentions, which in turn drives the ROI of the new technology.
Provides a nontechnical introduction to the partial least squares (PLS) approach. As a logical base for comparison, the PLS approach for structural path estimation is contrasted to the covariance-based approach. In so doing, a set of considerations are then provided with the goal of helping the reader understand the conditions under which it might be reasonable or even more appropriate to employ this technique. This chapter builds up from various simple 2 latent variable models to a more complex one. The formal PLS model is provided along with a discussion of the properties of its estimates. An empirical example is provided as a basis for highlighting the various analytic considerations when using PLS and the set of tests that one can employ is assessing the validity of a PLS-based model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This paper proposes and tests a conceptual model of private-information sensitive mobile app adoption utilizing privacy calculus approach. It also explores the role of personality in affecting perceived benefits of using mobile apps and compares the findings across two countries: the US and China. Irrespective of the cultural environment, millennial mobile app users download apps that require access to sensitive personal information in order to satisfy their informational and social (but not entertainment) needs. Perceived privacy concern does not influence adoption or future use of private-information sensitive apps. Extraversion and agreeableness are positively related to user perceptions of benefits obtained from using apps.
Purpose
– Digitalization denotes an on-going transformation of great importance for the retail sector. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the phenomenon of the digitalization of retailing by developing a conceptual framework that can be used to further delineate current transformations of the retailer-consumer interface.
Design/methodology/approach
– This paper develops a framework for digitalization in the retail-consumer interface that consists of four elements: exchanges, actors, offerings, and settings. Drawing on the previous literature, it describes and exemplifies how digitalization transforms each of these elements and identifies implications and proposals for future research.
Findings
– Digitalization transforms the following: retailing exchanges (in a number of ways and in various facets of exchange, including communications, transactions, and distribution); the nature of retail offerings (blurred distinctions between products and services, what constitutes the actual offering and how it is priced); retail settings (i.e. where and when retailing takes place); and the actors who participate in retailing (i.e. retailers and consumers, among other parties).
Research limitations/implications
– The framework developed can be used to further delineate current transformations of retailing due to digitalization. The current transformation has created challenges for research, as it demands sensitivity to development over time and insists that categories that have been taken for granted are becoming increasingly blurred due to greater hybridity.
Originality/value
– This paper addresses a significant and on-going transformation in retailing and develops a framework that can both guide future research and aid retail practitioners in analysing retailing’s current transformation due to digitalization.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to classify and organize the accumulated knowledge about mobile shopping (m-shopping) as revealed in the present literature regarding retail. A classification framework has been applied, consisting of three categories: online distribution channels, advanced technology for in-store shopping, and technology perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
– A term-based search method was applied in which the literature was restricted to peer-reviewed articles in English-language journals of a certain date and specific online databases. Finally, 81 peer-reviewed articles, published between 2000 and 2012 around the world, were taken into account.
Findings
– Considering the retail environment, the interest in m-shopping for both advanced technology for in-store shopping and for the online distribution channel has increased continuously over the last decade. Moreover, while studies have mostly explored the consumers’ acceptance and reactions to m-shopping themes, the technology perspective is still being researched.
Research limitations/implications
– Due to the selected term-based search method, the number of identified publications is limited. Additionally, the selected framework requires a corresponding assignment to an explicitly stated topic, which was not always possible.
Originality/value
– As far as the author knows, this paper provides the first systematic review of m-shopping literature, which not only helps to organize retail-based literature, but also investigates significant gaps on this topic, thus facilitating future research.
This study aims to determine the factors that influence user intention to use location-based emergency applications. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) is used as a fundamental theory by adding other relevant variables: trust, privacy concern, and fear of crime. Data were collected through questionnaires distributed to the users of the X-Igent Panic Button application. A total of 348 data were collected online using random sampling and processed using structural equation modeling. This study concludes that this application adoption's determinant factors are performance expectancy, trust, social influence, fear of crime, and collection as privacy concerns. These factors become significant predictors of behavioral intention by explaining about 60.5% of the total variation. The study also concludes that trust in services or service providers has the most significant positive impact on the behavioral intention to use location-based mobile applications in emergencies.
This study developed and tested a conceptual model delineating the interrelationships among hedonic shopping orientation, consumer need for mobile app atmospherics, entertainment gratification, mobile irritation, and intention to reuse mobile apps for apparel shopping. A total of 216 U.S. mobile shoppers in the age range of 18–34 participated in the study. Consumers with a higher need for mobile app atmospherics tended to experience increased entertainment gratification and reduced irritation in using mobile apps. Hedonic shopping orientation was found to be an antecedent of consumer need for mobile app atmospherics. However, hedonic shoppers’ mixed emotions toward mobile apps were confirmed through the positive influences of hedonic shopping orientation on both entertainment gratification and irritation. Consumer need for mobile app atmospherics played a significant role in predicting the intention to reuse mobile apps for apparel shopping, along with entertainment gratification and mobile irritation. This study extended the research scope of mobile shopping behavior and provided implications for mobile app retailing.
The world of retailing is changing rapidly, and much of that change has been enabled by customer-interfacing retail technologies. This commentary offers a framework for classifying technologies, based on their primary influence on a customer’s purchase journey – in the pre-purchase stage, needs management and search engagement technologies; in purchase stage, purchase transaction and physical acquisition technologies; and in the post-purchase stage, follow-up service and loyalty management technologies. We then discuss and classify forty recent retail technologies according to this framework. Finally, we identify areas that offer great potential for further research on retail technology.
This paper investigates how mobile app design and social media can be used to influence the intention for continued use of location-based mobile apps. Uses and gratification theory and information systems success model are used to explore the key factors of continued usage intention. Three hundred and fifty-six valid questionnaires were collected to test the research model. The results showed that perceived usefulness, enjoyment, sense of belonging would significantly influence the usage habit and satisfaction of bicycle-based exercise app. In particular, the habit and satisfaction had strong impact on the intention for continued use. This study extended the findings of exercises with mobile apps and provided implications for the developers and operators of fitness and leisure-oriented apps.
Purpose
Clustering is a highly popular and widely used tool for identifying data-based market segments. The purpose of this paper is to apply cluster analysis to identify homogeneous subgroups among impulse buyers based on their demographic characteristics and their preference of atmospheric elements.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a survey approach with 480 fashion consumers, the study discusses impulse purchases during financial crisis. SPSS process is used to determine the effect of atmospherics on impulse purchases as well as the moderating role of demographics. Cluster analysis ( k -means method) is used to determine specific segments of impulsive consumption.
Findings
Despite a significant effect of atmospherics on consumers’ impulsiveness, the frequency of purchases is not significantly affected indicating that the economic environment may shape impulsive behavior. Gender, age and education seem to moderate the above relationship. Demographics and store atmospherics define specific segments of impulse buyers.
Research limitations/implications
The study identifies the clusters formed through the interaction of atmospherics with demographics. It further identifies the impact of atmospheric factors in the case of an economy in crisis. In times of financial hardship, store atmospherics, although appealing, do not seem to adequately promote impulse buying behavior. Understanding consumer’s impulsive behavior based on distinctive profiles is of outmost importance to retailers seeking to increase consumption, in particular under conditions of financial hardship.
Originality/value
The present study explores the role of environmental characteristics on consumers’ impulse behavior amidst a financial crisis and identifies the characteristics of specific segments of consumption.
Following the notion that both individual privacy attitudes and (national) privacy regulation
need to be addressed when understanding the privacy governance system, this article
focuses on the relationship between information privacy risk perceptions and regulation
preferences in two regulatory systems: Germany and the United States. Empirically, the
study relies on semistructured interviews with German and U.S. smartphone users (N =
55). We analyze privacy risk perceptions and perceived control over privacy (RQ1), carving
out four domains of privacy risks (governmental, criminal, and commercial misuse, as well
as social risks). Furthermore, we focus on preferences for privacy regulation (RQ2),
investigating preference for do-it-yourself privacy, as well as state- and market-based
regulation. Findings support the notion that while privacy risks are shared among German
and U.S. participants, U.S. users feel more in control over their data. A discrepancy
between German and U.S. users with respect to their preferences for state- versus
market-based regulation also exists
Smartphones have become a vital part of our
lives, a personal assistant helping us as customers
mastering everyday tasks. For example, the new
stationary supermarket Amazon Go implements
customers’ smartphones as an integral part for
completing the grocery shopping process (e.g. used
to check-in, for payment). As in-store communication
over smartphones becomes increasingly important,
retailers pay their attention to mobile in-store
advertising, which offers them new perspectives to
interact with customers at the point of sale. In this
study, we therefore investigate the effectiveness of
mobile in-store advertising by empirically examining
which combination of message content is most
effective for different in-store locations. Drawing on
Construal Level Theory, we conduct an online choice
experiment, using a simulated supermarket shopping
task. Results show that personalization in
combination with price promotions are most effective
regarding the choice of the target product when
spatially close to the product. Moreover,
personalization strengthens the impact of ad content
at the shelf, representing an amplifying effect on
product choice.
Online recommender systems have triggered widespread privacy concerns due to their reliance on personal user data for providing personalized services. To address these concerns, some systems have started allowing users to express their preferences before receiving personalized content (i.e., reactive personalization) rather than automatically pushing it to them (i.e., proactive personalization). However, this would mean constant calls for user action, which can adversely affect user experience. One potential solution is to offer users the ability to customize their privacy settings at the outset, thus obviating the need for constant consultation. We conducted a 2 (Personalization: Reactive vs. Proactive) X 3 (Customization of Settings: Absence vs. Action vs. Cue) factorial experiment (N = 299) with a movie recommendation system. Findings show that interface cues suggesting customization enhance user experience, even in the presence of proactive personalization. They also highlight the important role played by negative privacy experiences in the past.
This study investigates whether and how gamification in loyalty programs (i.e., gamified loyalty programs) impacts consumer loyalty toward loyalty programs and behavioral intentions, along with the role of the type of rewards (self-oriented vs. altruistic rewards). The data were collected from U.S. consumers responding to LPs offered in the mobile environment. The results confirmed that gamified loyalty programs (vs. conventional ones) increased consumer loyalty toward loyalty programs which in turn enhanced consumers' participation intention and app download intention. Playfulness and attitude toward the program served as mediating mechanisms underlying the impact of gamification. The indirect relationships were stronger under conditions of self-oriented rewards. Also, reward types moderated the indirect pathway of playfulness, but not attitude. These findings support the essential role of gamification in customer relationship management, an understanding which offers important practical implications for how firms might implement gamified loyalty programs to promote consumer responses.
Purpose–This study explores consumers’ profiles for and purchase intentions toward smart
environmental objects. It segments consumers according to two apparently contradictory
dimensions of smart environmental objects: environment (i.e., environmental concern and
environmental beliefs) and technology (i.e., materialistic values and technological beliefs).
Design/Methodology/Approach–A cluster analysis of 658 French consumers involves their
environmental concern, environmental beliefs, materialistic values, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use. A regression analysis identifies the variables with the greatest influence on purchase intentions in the entire sample.
Findings–Four segments result from the analysis: unconcerned, retro eco-friendly, non-materialistic converted, and converted. The converted consumer segment had the highest parchase intentions and exhibited high levels of both environmental beliefs and perceived usefulness compared with the other segments. Both environmental and technological beliefs and environmental concern influence purchase intentions more broadly.
Research implications–A combined consideration of both environmental and technological beliefs is necessary to influence purchase intentions toward smart environmental objects. This study challenges some previous research that assumes a clear opposition between materialism and environmentalism.
Practical implications–The results support tailored managerial recommendations for appealipng to each of the four segments of consumers interested in smart environmental objects.
Originality/value–This study provides novel insights into consumers’ concerns, beliefs, and values in the rapidly expanding context of smart environmental objects.
Location-based advertising is an entrepreneurial and innovative means for advertisers to reach out through personalised messages sent directly to mobile phones using their geographic location. The mobile phone users’ willingness to disclose their location and other personal information is essential for the successful implementation of mobile location-based advertising (MLBA). Despite the potential enhancement of the user experience through such personalisation and the improved interaction with the marketer, there is an increasing tension between that personalisation and mobile users’ concerns about privacy. While the privacy calculus theory (PCT) suggests that consumers make privacy-based decisions by evaluating the benefits any information may bring against the risk of its disclosure, this study examines the specific risks and benefits that influence consumers’ acceptance of MLBA. A conceptual model is proposed based on the existing literature and a standardised survey was developed and targeted at individuals with known interests in the subject matter. From these requests, 252 valid responses were received and used to evaluate the key benefits and risks of MLBA from the users’ perspectives. While the results confirmed the importance of internet privacy concerns (IPC) as an important determinant, they also indicate that monetary rewards and intrusiveness have a notably stronger impact on acceptance intentions towards MLBA. Intrusiveness is the most important risk factor in determining mobile users’ intentions to accept MLBA and therefore establishing effective means of minimising the perceived intrusiveness of MLBA can be expected to have the greatest impact on achieving effective communications with mobile phone users.
Mobile information services have revolutionized business models and service delivery methods by facilitating consumer access to information and order placement via mobile apps. In developed markets, mobile banking (m-banking) and mobile payment (m-payment) applications have replaced text-based mobile services. However, extant research has not addressed these mobile financial services apps (MFSAs) adequately from the perspective of consumer behavior. Thus, the present study developed and tested a series of hypotheses related to the antecedents of perceived value of MFSA use; it also examined how such use affects the development of customers’ overall relationships with banks. Our hypotheses were tested using two samples (N=992; N=524) comprising different types of MFSA end-users in one of the leading countries in digital banking, Finland. The results supported most of the hypotheses and revealed that self-congruence and new product novelty are the principal drivers of perceived MFSA value. In addition, the findings show that the perceived value of MFSAs yields strong positive effects on customers’ overall satisfaction and commitment to their bank. The present study’s key managerial implication is that banks’ investments in developing MFSAs result in improved relationships with customers and increased business.
With the increasing use of handheld digital devices for shopping, retailers are trying to effectively implement mobile applications. Drawing from extant literature on customer value, this research explores the factors that drive customer satisfaction with retailers’ mobile applications (mobile apps) and the subsequent effect on repatronage intentions with the retailer. Data were collected from customers who use retailer mobile apps, and PLS-SEM was used for analysis. We find that the fit between retailer brand image and the mobile application positively affects customer satisfaction with the retailer mobile app. In addition, functional value and hedonic value of retailers’ mobile applications positively influence customer satisfaction with the retailer mobile app. Finally, satisfaction with the retailer mobile app partially mediates the relationships between congruency, functional, hedonic and social values and repatronage intentions towards the retailer. Theoretically, this paper provides a better understanding of how the retail app-brand fit plays a vital role in determining satisfaction and repatronage intentions in an increasingly competitive retail app environment. From a managerial perspective, current paper emphasizes the importance of functional and hedonic values in providing the same experience at each retail touch point for companies that decide to go with omnichannel retailing.
Mobile internet represents a breakthrough technology that has derived much attention from mobile organizations and services providers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).¹ However, the level of acceptance of mobile internet in the KSA is still below the level of ambition. This is in addition to the fact that there is a considerable need to discover the main factors shaping Saudi customers’ intention and adoption of such a mobile system. For this reason, this study is conducted in the hope of providing further understanding about the adoption of mobile internet in the KSA. The extension version of Technology Acceptance Model TAM² with perceived enjoyment was adopted as a theoretical foundation of the current study model. This was expanded by considering two additional factors: innovativeness and trust. The main empirical data collected through questionnaires was analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM).³ Perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, trust, and innovativeness are statistically supported to have a significant impact on the Saudi customer intention to adopt mobile internet. Further discussion regarding the main contribution as well as research limitations and future directions are presented at the end of this paper.
Purpose
This study develops the idea of smart retailing, exemplified in innovative, technology-enriched retail services as part of service-oriented strategies. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to provide a new integrated framework to understand the emerging retail scenario based on the smart usage of technologies to improve retail service and develop innovation management strategies. This framework will provide a comprehensive understanding the basic forms of smart retailing as the current competitive scenario.
Design/methodology/approach
As a viewpoint, this paper employs an interdisciplinary approach, drawing upon the actual challenges in retailing, to propose a new perspective, the smart retailing one, to describe the new competitive scenario and formulates an emerging research agenda.
Findings
The present paper contributes to research on innovation and technology management for retailing by examining the key dimensions of smart retailing, which aims to enhancing retail service quality and retailers’ performance.
Originality/value
The paper clearly explains how current retailing is moving to a smart perspective, and how retail management should be adapted to successfully perform in the current service-dominant logic scenario, as consequence of the increasing consumer involvement in service co-production and the rapid growth of digital technologies.
Controversial information technologies, such as biometrics and radio frequency identification, are perceived as having the potential to both benefit and undermine the well-being of the user. Given the type and/or amount of information these technologies have the capability to capture, there have been some concerns among users and potential users. However, prominent technology adoption models tend to focus on only the positive utilities associated with technology use. This research leverages net valence theories, which incorporate both positive and negative utilities, and context of use literature to propose a general framework that can be used for understanding consumer acceptance of controversial information technologies. The framework also highlights the importance of incorporating contextual factors that reflect the nuances of the controversial technologies and their specific context of use. We apply the framework to consumer acceptance of biometric identity authentication for banking transactions through automated teller machines. To that end, we contextualize the core construct of perceived benefits and concerns to this domain in a qualitative study of 402 participants, determine the appropriate contextual factors that are antecedents of the contextualized core constructs by examining relevant past research, and then develop and validate a contextualized research model in a quantitative study of 437 participants. Findings support the validity of our framework, with the model explaining 77.6% of the variance in consumers’ attitudes toward using biometrics for identity authentication at automated teller machines.
The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0706 .
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of mobile messages on intention to redeem a coupon or promotional offer, depending on location and content. Location (home, city, shop) and content (coupon, promotional message) were used as independent factors.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants in two online surveys (using 3×3 and 3×2 between-subjects factorial designs) received both simulated and real application smartphone messages and they got the location where the smartphone shopping message scenario is located. The surveys produced 528 responses for analysis in the first study and 146 answers for the second study.
Findings
The results indicate that mobile messages can be highly effective for users of discount apps when the consumer is near the shop. However, the high perceived risk associated with such a message could deter potential customers from using mobile coupons.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of this study is that few consumers used the discount mobile applications examined. Future research should implement field experiments with real and potential users to investigate this low usage rate.
Practical implications
Brick-and-mortar retailers can compete with digitization by using mobile messages, as users’ intention to redeem is quite high. However, they should be aware of the privacy concerns preventing some customers from using these apps.
Originality/value
Current research highlights the importance of digitization in retailing by using new technologies for brick-and-mortars, e.g., mobile messages as part of mobile targeting. This study provides evidence of the potential risks and benefits of sending mobile messages to customers in a different context.
The statistical tests used in the analysis of structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error are examined. A drawback of the commonly applied chi square test, in addition to the known problems related to sample size and power, is that it may indicate an increasing correspondence between the hypothesized model and the observed data as both the measurement properties and the relationship between constructs decline. Further, and contrary to common assertion, the risk of making a Type II error can be substantial even when the sample size is large. Moreover, the present testing methods are unable to assess a model's explanatory power. To overcome these problems, the authors develop and apply a testing system based on measures of shared variance within the structural model, measurement model, and overall model.
Despite their generally increasing use, the adoption of mobile shopping applications often differs
across purchase contexts. In order to advance our understanding of smartphone-based mobile
shopping acceptance, this study integrates and extends existing approaches from technology
acceptance literature by examining two previously underexplored aspects. First, the study examines
the impact of different mobile and personal benefits (instant connectivity, contextual value, and
hedonic motivation), customer characteristics (habit), and risk facets (financial, performance, and
security risk) as antecedents of mobile shopping acceptance. Second, it is assumed that several
acceptance drivers differ in relevance subject to the perception of three mobile shopping
characteristics (location sensitivity, time criticality, and extent of control), while other drivers are
assumed to matter independent of the context. Based on a dataset of 410 smartphone shoppers,
empirical results demonstrate that several acceptance predictors are associated with ease of use and
usefulness, which in turn affect intentional and behavioral outcomes. Furthermore, the extent to
which risks and benefits impact ease of use and usefulness is influenced by the three contextual
characteristics. From a managerial perspective, results show which factors to consider in the
development of mobile shopping applications and in which different application contexts they
matter.
Earlier mobile game studies have largely focused on the pre-adoption phase while ignoring the post-adoption behaviors. Additionally, while the intrinsic factor of enjoyment is often considered important in affecting game play, little research has attempted to understand its drivers. To fill these gaps, we examine the role of enjoyment as a motive for continual mobile game use, and the key antecedents of enjoyment. Applying our two-dimensional classification of artifact-related attributes, we adopt game design attributes of challenge, variety, novelty, and design aesthetics; and playability attributes of ease of use, and interactivity, and measure their impact on enjoyment, and its effect on continuance intention. The model is tested against 207 actual users of various mobile games. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is employed for data analysis. The findings put ease of use, novelty, design aesthetic, and challenge under the spotlight. We conclude that continual mobile game use is strongly driven by enjoyment, which in turn is primarily driven by the system's capacity of regeneration and visually attractive and easy-to-use interface. The implications are discussed in the paper.
Mobile in-store advertising is becoming increasingly important, as it offers new options for retailers to communicate with customers at the point of sale. This study investigates how mobile in-store advertising should be designed in order to be most effective. The authors identify three value drivers (price promotion, location, and personalization) and examine their effect on customers’ purchase intention. The influence of the three value drivers was tested in a large-scale representative study with a laboratory experimental design. The findings indicate that all three value drivers increase purchase intention. Surprisingly, the authors find that price promotions are the least important value driver, whereas the location of receiving a mobile ad is the strongest driver of purchase intention. An interaction effect between location and personalization was also found to be significant. Personalization close to the product has little impact on purchase intention. The findings have important implications for researchers and retail managers, particularly when designing mobile in-store advertising campaigns.
Recently, there has been a dramatic proliferation of mobile apps, many of which allow for in-app purchases; however, little research has focused on what motivates a user to make such purchases. Based on the Affect-Behavior-Cognition model (ABC model) of attitudes, we developed a model involving perceived value and social influences. The model is then empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 485 users regarding their perception of mobile apps. The findings indicate that stickiness and social identification significantly influence a user's intention to make in-app purchases. Specifically, significant differences were found between users and potential users in terms of antecedents to forming stickiness and making in-app purchases. The results may provide further insights into the development of effective mobile app business models and adoption strategies.
Interest in the problem of method biases has a long history in the behavioral sciences. Despite this, a comprehensive summary of the potential sources of method biases and how to control for them does not exist. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which method biases influence behavioral research results, identify potential sources of method biases, discuss the cognitive processes through which method biases influence responses to measures, evaluate the many different procedural and statistical techniques that can be used to control method biases, and provide recommendations for how to select appropriate procedural and statistical remedies for different types of research settings.
Social Network Sites (SNSs) rely exclusively on user-generated content to offer engaging and rewarding experience to its members. As a result, stimulating user communication and self-disclosure is vital for the sustainability of SNSs. However, considering that the SNS users are increasingly culturally diverse, motivating this audience to self-disclose requires understanding of their cultural intricacies. Yet existing research offers only limited insights into the role of culture behind the motivation of SNS users to self-disclose. Building on the privacy calculus framework, this study explores the role of two cultural dimensions - individualism and uncertainty avoidance - in self-disclosure decisions of SNS users. Survey responses of US and German Facebook members are used as the basis for our analysis. Structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis results reveal the distinct role of culture in the cognitive patterns of SNS users. The authors find that trusting beliefs play a key role in the self-disclosure decisions of users from individualistic cultures. At the same time, uncertainty avoidance determines the impact of privacy concerns. This paper contributes to the theory by rejecting the universal nature of privacy calculus processes. The findings provide for an array of managerial implications for SNS providers as they strive to encourage content creation and sharing by their heterogeneous members.
This study explores the psychological effects of information tailoring, locational congruity, and product involvement on user attitudes toward location-based advertising (LBA) on mobile devices. Results from a 2 (type of information tailoring: personalization vs. customization) × 2 (level of locational congruity: high vs. low) × 2 (level of product involvement: high vs. low involvement) between-subjects experiment (N = 115) showed that customization and locational congruity were effective strategies for inducing positive attitudes about LBA and its service quality. In addition, the ad’s perceived intrusiveness was found to mediate the effects of product involvement on participants’ attitudes toward LBA. Implications of the findings are discussed.
