Roles of self-monitoring, fashion involvement and technology readiness in an individual’s propensity to use mobile shopping
| Published date | 14 August 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JSIT-01-2017-0008 |
| Date | 14 August 2017 |
| Pages | 166-182 |
| Author | Hakan Celik,Ridvan Kocaman |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Information & communications technology |
Roles of self-monitoring, fashion
involvement and technology
readiness in an individual’s
propensity to use mobile shopping
Hakan Celik and Ridvan Kocaman
Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Marketing,
Bilecik Seyh Edebali Universitesi, Bilecik, Turkey
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to investigate the relationships between self-monitoring, fashion involvement
and technologyreadiness in the mobile shopping context. Although mobile shoppingis still a novel activityin
Turkish economical and socialspheres, it has the potential to become an important driver of B2C electronic
commerce in Turkey.Many Turkish firms have already extended their multichannelstrategies by integrating
a mobile channel into theirpre-existing on-line and off-line channels. However, customersshould be ready to
actuallyembrace mobile commerce for the success of these strategies.
Design/methodology/approach –To test the proposed research hypotheses, a survey was
administrated online to 284 volunteerundergraduate students, who were potential users of mobile shopping
channel. The measurement items were developed by adapting and modifying the previously validated 13-
item, self-monitoring,16-item technology readiness index 2.0 and 5-item fashioninvolvement scales.
Findings –Results from a partialleast squares analysis showed that the ability to modify self-presentation
has a significant moderating influence on fashion involvement and technology readiness relationships.
However, the moderatingeffect of sensitivity to the expressive behaviours of others for the same relationship
was found to be insignificant.Further, fashion involvement appeared to have significantand direct influences
on both technology readiness and attitudes towardsmobile shopping. Finally, strong relationships between
technologyreadiness, attitude and intentions to usemobile shopping were detected.
Originality/value –There has been littleresearch effort conducted to examine the proposedrelationships
between the cited research variables in a non-Western country. Therefore, these study results yielded
valuableinsights for both theory and actual practice.
Keywords Turkey, Mobile shopping, Technology readiness, Self-monitoring, Fashion involvement
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The world has been witnessing a major transformation from electronic commerceto mobile
commerce because of the advantages of mobile communication technology and the rapid
diffusion of mobile devices in society. As mobile devices, particularly mobile phones, are now
an integral part of daily life, a constant companion of customers and a bridge between customer
and retailer, retailers perceive these devices as an ideal distance communication and
supplementary selling channel (Shankar et al., 2010). The latest report indicates that the
number of smartphone users was expected to reach more than two billion or one-quarter of
global population by the end of 2016 (EMarketer, 2014). Retailers have already taken steps to
change their multi-channel marketing strategies to Omni-Channel marketing ones so as to
exploit the commercial advantages of mobile channel communication. According to the
Forrester Research, media companies and retailers are especially aware that the online traffic
JSIT
19,3/4
166
Received28 January 2017
Revised20 September 2017
Accepted26 October 2017
Journalof Systems and
InformationTechnology
Vol.19 No. 3/4, 2017
pp. 166-182
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1328-7265
DOI 10.1108/JSIT-01-2017-0008
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1328-7265.htm
from mobile devices is constantly increasing (Husson and Ask, 2014). The same situation is
also true in Turkey. There are nearly 74 million mobile subscriptions, and smartphone
penetration has hit 96.9 per cent of households (TU_
IK, 2016). Further, there are nearly 55
million internet users, 33 per cent are regular online shoppers and 85 per cent of those aged
16-25 years are also heavy mobile internet users (TU_
IK, 2016). However, mobile shopping is still a
novelty in Turkey. Especially, the Omni-Channel retailers have made heavy investments in
applications and systems as a way of improving their services. However, many mobile phone
users browse their websites for information on products and services, but very few engage
with mobile shopping using those devices. The success of these Omni-Channel marketing
strategies and return on their investment thus depends on understanding the customer’s
propensity to adopt mobile shopping. This study aims to investigate the relationships between
self-monitoring, fashion involvement and technology readiness in the mobile shopping context.
There are nearly 55 million internet users, 33 per cent are regular shoppers in Turkey and
85 per cent of those aged 16-25 years are intense mobile phone and internet users.
2. Technology readiness
Since the proliferation of information and communication technologies into almost every facets
of daily life, a variety of theoretical perspectives and conceptual models have been conceived to
explain and predict the end-user adoption of these specific applications in organizational and
non-organizational settings. Among them, the theory of reasoned action (TRA), the technology
acceptance model (TAM), the revised technology acceptance model (TAM2), the theory of
planned behaviour (TPB), the decomposed theory of planned behaviour (DTPB), the innovation
diffusion theory (IDT), the model of PC utilization (MPCU), the motivational model (MM), the
social cognitive theory (SCT) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology
(UTAUT) have emerged as the more powerful and parsimonious models that explain and
predict actual technology adoption. However, this effort has brought about the diversion of
researcher attention away from technology adoption to technology continuance. Sun and
Jeyaraj (2013) suggest that there has been a tendency to conflate technology adoption and
continuance by overlooking their iterations in the different responses of individuals for the
diffusion cycle of technological innovations. Rogers (1983, p. 206) proposed that an innovation
diffuses into a society in five successive steps, namely, knowledge (exposure of the information
about innovation), interest (comprehension of innovation details), decision (acceptance/rejection
decision after analysing the positive and negative aspects of innovation), implementation
(initiating more effort to collect data about the dependence and usefulness of innovation) and
confirmation (final decision about usage continence of the innovation). While the adoption
response accounts for the attributions of non-adopters for a specific technology during the
knowledge, interest and decision phases, the continuance response addresses the attributions of
adopters regarding the same technology during the implementation and confirmation stages of
the diffusion process (Çelik, 2013;Sun and Jeyaraj, 2013). Despite the significant contributions
of technology adoption and continuous research on understanding the attribution, individual
and contextual factors that shape the diffusion cycle, the question regarding what makes
individuals ready to embrace technological innovations has remained unanswered before the
recent technology readiness research.
In answering this particular question, Parasuraman (2000) pioneered the development of
technology readiness literature by conceptualizing the determinants of an individual’s
predisposition to adopt and use new technologies. Technology readiness (TR) can be defined as
the extent to which people’s propensity to embrace and use new technologies to accomplish
goals in home life and at work (Parasuraman and Colby, 2001,p.27).Itstandsforastateof
mind that manifests itself as a personal proneness to use new technology that is collectively
Propensity to
use mobile
shopping
167
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