Thesis
Examining consumers' continued use of retailers' branded mobile applications
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2019
- Thesis identifier
- T15896
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201266649
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- The aim of this research is to expand our understanding of consumers’ continuous usage of traditional retail smartphone branded mobile applications (apps). Previous research in technology acceptance and continuous usage of technological innovations mainly focuses on functional and hedonic variables specifically related to the technology under research. Also, past research typically focuses on the continuous use of e-services reflecting the loyalty of consumers toward a specific e-service (e.g. loyalty toward a website or m-commerce). While this research examines utilitarian and hedonic variables that influence consumers to be satisfied and motivate them to continue to use smartphone branded apps, it finds that variables related to the brand motivate consumers to continue to use traditional retail smartphone branded apps. Therefore, this research shows that while utilitarian and hedonic variables that are related to the technical characteristics of the technology in use are essential to motivate consumers to continue to use a technological innovation, brand-related variables related to the traditional retailer (e.g. long-term brand reputation and loyalty) are important in motivating consumers to continue to use branded mobile apps. Considering the limited knowledge available on what motivates consumers to continue using traditional retail smartphone branded mobile apps in a multi-channel retail environment, this research adopted a mixed methods approach. The research utilised an exploratory qualitative method in the form of 21 semi-structured individual in-depth interviews conducted in the UK to explore the drivers that motivate consumers to continue to use traditional retail smartphone branded apps and to refine the theoretical model that is tested in the quantitative phase of this research. The quantitative phase utilised an online questionnaire with 1009 consumers who retain and have continued to use traditional retail branded smartphone apps for a period of more than six months from John Lewis, M&S, Next and H&M. This research highlights several findings on what motivates consumers’ satisfaction with the smartphone branded app user experience and the continuous intention to use the app. The findings highlight that the utilitarian variables (perceived ease of use, usefulness, and personalisation), and the hedonic variable (enjoyment) increases consumers’ satisfaction with the branded app user experience leading to an increase in consumers’ continuous intention to use traditional retail smartphone branded apps. Furthermore, this research finds that utilitarian variables of perceived usefulness, compatibility and the hedonic variable of enjoyment, are capable of influencing consumers to continue using traditional retail smartphone branded apps even when they are not satisfied with the app user experience. Furthermore, this research finds that satisfaction with the app user experience mediates escapism negatively, while escapism also has a significant negative relationship with the continuous intention to use the smartphone branded app. Also, the escapism finding in this study contradicts the previous literature on the usual role of escapism in e-services generally. Furthermore, the subjective norm (e.g. social influence) does not influence the continuous intention to use the smartphone branded app directly or indirectly through satisfaction with the app user experience. Also, this research highlights that consumers’ satisfaction with app user experience significantly increases consumers’ continuous intention to use the smartphone branded app. The findings of this research also highlight that the retailer’s long-term brand reputation and loyalty intention toward the traditional retailer’s brand, which are variables that are not related to the technical characteristics of smartphone branded apps, play an important role in influencing consumers’ intention to continue using traditional retail smartphone branded apps. Furthermore, this research finds that loyalty intention toward the traditional retailer mediates the relationship of satisfaction with the branded app user experience to consumers’ continuous intention to use traditional retail smartphone branded apps. Also, loyalty intention toward the traditional retailer influences the consumers’ continuous intention to use the branded app directly. Interestingly, consumers’ perceptions of long-term reputation of the traditional retail brand do not influence the continuous intention directly as hypothesised. However, long-term brand reputation influences consumers’ continuous intention to use the branded app through the mediated relationship of loyalty intention toward the traditional retailer brand. This research contributes by enhancing our understanding of the variables that influence consumers’ intentions to continue to use traditional retail smartphone branded applications. Furthermore, this research presents a theoretical model that provides theoretical implications and offers managerial implications for understanding the continuous usage of smartphone branded apps in a multi-channel retail context.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Wilson, Alan
- Resource Type
- DOI
- Date Created
- 2019
- Former identifier
- 9912990091802996
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