What catalyses mobile apps usage intention: an empirical analysis
| Pages | 1269-1291 |
| Date | 10 August 2015 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-01-2015-0028 |
| Published date | 10 August 2015 |
| Author | Jun-Jie Hew,Voon-Hsien Lee,Keng-Boon Ooi,June Wei |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems |
What catalyses mobile
apps usage intention: an
empirical analysis
Jun-Jie Hew and Voon-Hsien Lee
Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman,
Kampar, Malaysia
Keng-Boon Ooi
Faculty of Business and Information Science, UCSI University,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and
June Wei
College of Business, University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida, USA
Abstract
Purpose –Considering the lack of understanding of the mobile applications (mobile apps) market and
low usage rates among Malaysians, Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2)
was adapted to investigate the determinants of consumer behavioural intention (BI) to use mobile apps.
Design/methodology/approach –A total of 288 sample data was collected and analysed using
partial least square equation modelling (PLS-SEM) method.
Findings –All of UTAUT2 constructs (i.e. performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating
conditions,hedonic motivation, and habit),except for price value and social influence,significantly relate
with BI to use mobile applications. Habit was reported to have the strongest influence. Gender and
educational level werefound to be insignificant moderators.
Practical implications –Mobile application developers could have better understanding on users’
needs and intention, based on the findings.
Originality/value –In order toshed light on current problems,and there is a dearth in relevantstudies
which couldresolve the issue, this papercontributes the necessary knowledgeon mobile apps acceptance
to developers. Educational level was added into UTAUT2 as a moderator in addition to gender.
Keywords Consumer behavioural intention, Gender, Educational level, Malaysia,
Mobile applications, UTAUT2
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In recent years, mobile devices (m-devices) have become a necessary gadget in the
modern lifestyle, as the number of m-devices is expected to exceed the world population
(Mclaughlin, 2013). M-devices, such as smartphones and tablets, not only provide users
with entertainment but also productivity through mobile apps (Keith et al., 2013).
Islam et al. (2010) defined mobile apps as software that could perform certain tasks for
the users using their m-devices. Examples of apps include tools and productivity
(calendar, notes, flashlight, alarms), shopping (Amazon), games, and music (games,
radio, music player) (Bomhold, 2013). Gartner Incorporate predicted that the annual
downloads would reach 268 billion by 2017 (Gartner, 2013).
The chief officer of Industry Regulation of Malaysian Communications and
Multimedia Commission (MCMC) emphasized that the app development industry
in Malaysia was still underdeveloped due to the lack of understanding of the market
(The Star, 2013). This possibly drives the low acceptance rate of locally developed apps
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 115 No. 7, 2015
pp. 1269-1291
©Emerald Group Publis hing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-01-2015-0028
Received 27 January 2015
Revised 19 April 2015
17 May 2015
Accepted 18 May 2015
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
1269
Mobile apps
usage
intention
in Malaysia (Eu, 2011). Furthermore, it is difficult for developers to develop a mobile
app, owing to the different hardware specifications such as the memory size, screen
size, and processing capacity (Rodriguez-Sanchez et al., 2013).
As noted by Varshneyand Vetter (2002), there are severalclasses of mobile commerce
(m-commerce)applications, such as mobile entertainment and mobile advertising. Mobile
apps are therefore another class of m-commerce applications. Considerableresearches on
m-commerce applications have been carried out as well, for instance, mobile advertising
(Parreño et al., 2013),mobile payment (Teo et al., 2015), and mobileTV (Wong et al., 2014).
There are some studies pertaining to mobile apps, such as Bomhold (2013), which only
measured mobile apps usages among undergraduate students. Kang (2014) also
combined UnifiedTheory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT); and usesand
gratifications theory to understand mobile apps usage intention. However, UTAUT was
developed for organizational contexts (Venkatesh et al., 2012). Therefore, the study that
utilizes UTAUT2 to investigate mobile apps usage intention currently remains limited.
Considering the current problems, this research intends to discover the motivators
behind mobile apps usage intention by utilizing the constructs in UTAUT2. UTAUT2
is preferred due to its higher predictive power (Venkatesh et al., 2003, 2012) and was
designed based on the consumers’context (Venkatesh et al., 2012). This study is
expected to benefit mobiles apps developers, and at the same time enriching the
existing literature.
The outline of this study is as follows. Literature review is presented next, followed by
the hypotheses development. Subsequently, before presenting the research findings, the
methodology and data analysis of this study are described. Lastly, limitations,
implications, together with future recommendation of this study are laid down accordingly.
2. Literature review
2.1 Overview of mobile apps
There are three types of mobile apps, namely, native apps, web apps, and hybrid apps.
Native apps are developed for one operating system (i.e. iOS). Web apps are websites
that look similar to the native apps. Users first access to this kind of apps by entering a
specific URL address into the browser, in which then the users would be given the
choice of whether to install the app onto the device. After the installation, a “bookmark”
for that URL would be created. Hybrid apps, on the other hand, blend the
characteristics of both native and web apps. Web apps are “wrapped”by the layer of
native apps. Basically, the way of how hybrid apps function is similar to web apps.
Angry Birds, Financial Times, and Banana Republic are examples for native apps, web
apps, and hybrid apps, respectively (Budiu, 2013; Lionbridge, 2012; Skidmore, 2013).
Therefore, in this study, mobile apps have been defined as software or a set of
programme that could be executed to perform certain tasks for users on m-devices
(Islam et al., 2010).
2.2 Evolution of IT acceptance model and theory
There are two important streams that focus on technology acceptance, adoption, and
usage. The first stream determines users’adoption and usage of technology from the
diffusion of technology (DOI) perspective, while the other stream uses intention-based
models and mainly includes Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Theory of reasoned
action (TRA), and technology acceptance model (TAM) (Taylor and Todd, 1995).
DOI (Rogers, 1995) proposes five attributes of innovation that may influence the
acceptance behaviour, which are compatibility, complexity, observability, relative
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