Exploring individual personality factors as drivers of M‐shopping acceptance
| Pages | 739-757 |
| Published date | 26 June 2009 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570910968018 |
| Date | 26 June 2009 |
| Author | Joaquín Aldás‐Manzano,Carla Ruiz‐Mafé,Silvia Sanz‐Blas |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Exploring individual personality
factors as drivers of M-shopping
acceptance
Joaquı
´n Alda
´s-Manzano, Carla Ruiz-Mafe
´and Silvia Sanz-Blas
Department of Marketing, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how personality variables related to technology
(innovativeness, compatibility and affinity) can modify the influence of classical technology
acceptance model (TAM) variables on behavioural adoption intention of mobile shopping.
Design/methodology/approach – The impact of innovativeness, compatibility, affinity, TAM
beliefs (ease of use and usefulness) and attitude on mobile shopping adoption is tested through
structural equation modelling techniques. The sample consisted of 470 Spanish mobile telephone users
selected on the basis of convenience.
Findings – Data analysis shows that the effect of perceived usefulness and, in a minor degree,
perceived ease of use are over dimensioned if personality variables are omitted making intention
formation to be perceived as more rational than it really is. Personality variables (affinity to mobile
telephones, compatibility and innovativeness) have a direct and positive influence on the intention to
engage in M-shopping.
Practical implications – This research enables mobile shopping agents to know what aspects to
highlight in their communication strategies to increase the M-services adoption rate. The
complementary use of the mobile and the internet is recommended since the similarities between
both methods may favour the acceptance of distance shopping systems. Mobile services should not be
simply designed as easy to use, but also as an enjoyable experience.
Originality/value – Despite the importance of personality factors on mobile shopping adoption,
they were explicitly ignored when the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology was
formulated. This research does not try to propose an extension of the TAM model, but analyses the
degree in which the explicit rejection of personality variables could impoverish its performance.
Keywords Mobile communication systems, Electroniccommerce, Innovation, Consumerbehaviour,
Spain
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Mobile commerce has frequently been proclaimed the new service frontier (Kleijnen
et al., 2007). Increased mobile usage in recent years is a clear example of the system’s
growth, significance and the opportunities it offers as an independent sales channel,
and therefore merits special attention from researchers. As the number of mobile
telecom users increases, the decline in conventional voice service tariffs has reduced
the average revenue per user making mobile value-added services, like mobile
shopping, a new opportunity for providers to increase revenue (Kuo and Yen, 2009). As
the future commercial success of the mobile phone depends to some extent on whether
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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The first author acknowledges the financial support of the research project of the Spanish
Ministry of Education and Science – FEDER (SEJ2005-02776).
Exploring
personality
factors
739
Received 26 August 2008
Revised 14 November 2008
Accepted 1 December 2008
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 109 No. 6, 2009
pp. 739-757
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/02635570910968018
current mobile phone users also use this medium for product purchases, it becomes
crucial to analyze which variables determine M-shopping acceptance.
Since, Venkatesh et al. (2003) formulated their unified theory of acceptance and use
of technology (UTAUT), the need for researchers to choose from among a multitude of
models has decreased as the most prominent contributions of the theory of reasoned
action (TRA), technology acceptance model (TAM), motivational model, theory of
planned behaviour, innovation diffusion theory and social cognitive theory were
successfully integrated. But it is frequently forgotten that most of these models, and
mainly their integrator UTAUT, were conceived in an organizational environment, and
their root constructs are bas ically utilitarian: perfor mance expectancy, effort
expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions.
The organisational focus of this integration has meant that individual personality
variables are consciously and explicitly postulated not to be a direct determinant of
intention: intrinsic motivations (Davis et al., 1992), affect towards use (Thompson et al.,
1991)oraffect(Compeauet al., 1999). However, some of the UTAUT integrating models
have showeda great efficacy to explainthe use intention or the use itselfof a wide range of
technologies also by final consumers. By way of example, TAM has been successfully
used to explain the use intention of online shopping (O’Cass and Fenech, 2003), mobile
commerce(Kuo and Yen, 2009; Yang, 2005)and mobile banking (Luarn and Lin, 2005).The
question that arises is what role can be attributed to thepersonality variables that were
explicitly excluded in the final consumer context when the rest of the model works
reasonably well in this context. As Baron et al. (2006) point out, the current research
approachesare probably reachingtheir limits in terms of explainingbehaviouralintention
and they call for the identification of constructs that predict behaviour beyond what is
already known throughthe UTAUT.
In this paper, we focus on three variables that approximate the fit between the
individual personality and the mobile phones medium: innovativeness or the degree of
interest in trying a new concept, or an innovative product or service (Rogers, 1995);
affinity, conceptualised as the perceived importance of the medium in the life of the
individual (Rubin, 1981) and compatibility or “the degree to which an innovation is
perceived as consistent with the existing values, past experiences, and needs ofpotential
adopters(Rogers, 1995, p. 224). TAM is used as the baselinemodel in relation to which the
influence of theabovementioned variables is evaluated.Our objective is not to propose an
extension of the TAM model, but to analyse the degree to which the explicit rejection of
personality variables may have impoverished its performance. TAM has been chosen as
the baseline modelas it is the one of the UTAUT model componentswhich has received
extensive empirical support through validations, applications and replications for its
power to predict use of information systems (Baron et al.,2006;Luet al., 2003).
The study is divided into three parts. In Section 2, the model employed in this study
is presented, focusing on the rationale of the constructs used and deriving testable
hypotheses. In Section 3, design, sample and measures are presented and validated.
Finally, the results are presented and managerial implications are discussed.
2. Literature review and research hypotheses
2.1 Innovativeness
Innovativeness is a personality construct that reflects whether individuals are willing to
adopt products or ideas that are new in the context of their individual experience.
IMDS
109,6
740
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