A multi-analytical approach to understand and predict the mobile commerce adoption

Modelling the intention and adoption of cashless payment methods among the young adults in Malaysia

Purpose

Cashless payment is gradually replacing physical currency in almost every financial transaction across the world. Even though cashless payment methods have been available in Malaysia since a decade ago, their usage has remained relatively low in comparison to other countries. This study aims to analyse the elements that affect the Malaysian youth’s adoption intention and actual use of cashless payment by extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model with two key factors (perceived security [PS] and lifestyle compatibility [LC]).

Design/methodology/approach

Data were gathered online from 364 Malaysian youths and processed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

Findings

The findings revealed that performance expectancy (PE), LC and PS had a positive and substantial effect on the intention to use cashless payment (ICP). In contrast, effort expectancy (EE) and social influence did not have any considerable influence on ICP. Furthermore, ICP had substantial mediating effects between the adoption of cashless payment (ACP) and PE, LC and PS. In the analysis of the moderating effect of age, gender, experience and voluntariness, only experience had moderating effects on the associations between PE and ICP and between FC and ACP.

Research limitations/implications

This study’s findings will be highly useful for marketers and the management as they plan their promotional and marketing tactics, with a focus on the factors that inspire customers to adopt cashless payments. Besides, architects and designers can benefit from the study results while designing and updating their services by consolidating consumers’ lifestyle standards as well as enhancing security features. Finally, governments may support service providers with security building through legislative measures and policy campaigns to strengthen the trustworthiness and mass adoption of contactless payment.

Originality/value

This study extended the UTAUT model with two new variables, i.e. PS and LC.

A Task-Technology-Identity Fit Model of Smartwatch Utilisation and User Satisfaction: A Hybrid SEM-Neural Network Approach

Smartwatches are wearable devices intended to be smartphone companions that capture health data and ease access to notifications. They have also become personalisable standing as a fashion statement. This combination resulted in staggering adoption rates recently leading to question whether smartwatch users' choice and use satisfaction emerge from utility features or from its fashion characteristics. This paper proposes and validates a fit theory to investigate the antecedents of adopters' satisfaction. Besides evaluating fit with identity, the model assesses both perceived and actual task-technology fit of smartwatches. A questionnaire-based quantitative approach is used to collect data from about 300 smartwatch users in Qatar. To test the proposed model, data is analysed using structural equation modeling (SEM) and artificial neural networks (ANN). Furthermore, ANN sensitivity analysis ranks the importance of the fit factors affecting users' choice during pre- and post-adoption stages. Both task-technology and technology-identity fit factors are quasi-equally important in explaining 62% of satisfaction variance. ANN analysis revealed that post-adoption satisfaction is primarily attributed to smartwatches' ability to fit with users' identity and secondarily to its perceived fit with tasks. Nevertheless, pre-adoption choice of smartwatches is mainly guided by their functionality. This paper is the first to propose and validate an integrated task-technology-identity fit model to explain smartwatch utilization and users' satisfaction. The originality also lies in assessing actual task-technology fit and as perceived by users. Employing two modes of analysis revealed extra insights too.

My video game console is so cool! A coolness theory-based model for intention to use video game consoles

With the outbreak of COVID-19, the video game console market is thriving again. In this study, we attempted to explore users' intention to use video game consoles by developing a causal model mainly based on coolness theory and the technology acceptance model. To better illustrate user experience for video game consoles, we added several concepts to the causal model, including hedonic motivation, system and service quality, perceived cost, and game variety. Through examining survey-based data from 360 Koreans, we discovered that the model had a high explanatory power for users' intention to use video game consoles. The key findings were as follows: First, among the components of coolness theory, individuals' attitude toward consoles was significantly related to subcultural appeal and originality, but not to attractiveness. Second, originality positively influenced subcultural appeal significantly. Overall, this study implied that the novel coolness theory is effective for exploring user experience regarding of specific devices and services.

The moderating role of social distancing in mobile commerce adoption

The Covid-19 pandemic has pressured marketers and consumers adapt their purchasing habits. Known literature on mobile commerce (MC) highlights its advantage on convenience, which now is accompanied by health safety. Although MC has been outgrowing other online sectors, the early stages of the pandemic provided a new scenario. We study the relationship between consumer's attitudes about Covid-19 public health restrictions and the behavioral intention for MC adoption. Previous research on technology acceptance of online and mobile shopping have focused on aspects like safety and behavioral intention as key factors. Thus, we examine how attitude towards social distancing practices during the pandemic has affected consumers intentions to adopt of mobile commerce. We aim to study the degree on which this attitude affects previous intentions on purchasing or subscribing to services via mobile devices. For this, we present a Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model of consumer MC adoption using social distance as a moderator. An empirical analysis using a survey of attitude and beliefs over mobile commerce and social distancing is presented, confirming the factors underlying using structural equation modeling. Results show that the attitudes toward social distancing are a significant moderator of purchasing through mobile devices; indicating that an individual's adherence to recommended practices during the pandemic does positively influence the adoption. MC is known for being a potential advantage to facilitate customer experience. According to our results, we believe marketers should reconsider or further develop MC infrastructure, highlighting its convenience and health safety role.

The Impact of Self-Efficacy on Feelings and Task Performance of Academic and Teaching Staff in Bahrain during COVID-19: Analysis by SEM and ANN

COVID-19 has changed the way we live, communicate and work, as well as altering our feelings. The higher education sector, alongside other sectors, has been severely affected by the pandemic and its serious repercussions. Academic and teaching staff have had to work from home and convert to online teaching, a change which has been met with both negative and positive feelings. The need for new competencies and upskilling, among other challenges, has been encountered. Therefore, the objectives of this study are aligned with exploring the impact of three constructs—self-efficacy, positive feelings and negative feelings—on the performance of academic and teaching staff at public and private universities in Bahrain during the COVID-19 lockdown. Additionally, the impact of self-efficacy on these feelings was explored. A cross-sectional quantitative survey instrument was developed, validated and distributed using 83 valid responses. A two-way approach was followed to evaluate the model using the partial least squares (PLS-SEM) and multi-layer perceptron-artificial neural network (MLP-ANN) techniques. Tests support the validity, reliability and consistency of the measurement scale, as well as the validity of the postulated model. The results revealed a statistically significant relationship between the three constructs and performance. Interestingly, attention is drawn to the impact of self-efficacy on increasing positive feelings and task performance. The impact of self-efficacy on reducing negative feelings is also evident. Analyses of PLS-SEM augmented by MLP-ANN enhanced our understanding of the relationships and gave more support to the use of dual approach analyses in future research. This research adds to COVID-19 global research and the findings increase the knowledge within the literature. The implications of the study’s outcomes should be given attention from higher education authorities and management to raise staff morale and offer training to help sustain performance and mental wellbeing. Lasty, limitations and future directions are discussed.

Antecedents and outcomes of ICTs adoption by mompreneurs: Empirical evidence from Brazil

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been an ally of women wishing to engage in entrepreneurial activity, especially of the mompreneurs. Within this context, this study aims to investigate the antecedents and outcomes of the use of ICTs by mompreneurs. The data were collected in Brazil through an online questionnaire and were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that perceived usefulness, social influence, and trust are antecedent factors of the use of ICTs by these women. Moreover, the use of ICTs has a positive impact on the perception of mompreneurs regarding the financial performance of their ventures in relation to competitors. The results also show that more than 97% of the mompreneurs use smartphones and WhatsApp to manage their business, suggesting that social media and mobile devices have assumed a predominant role in female ventures, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, period in which the data were collected.

Understanding Mobile Showrooming Based on a Technology Acceptance and Use Model

Showrooming is an increasingly popular behaviour in the omnichannel era. The purpose of this paper is to understand the consumer intention to showroom through a technology acceptance and use model based on UTAUT2 that includes value consciousness and purchase involvement as drivers of showrooming intention and mobile dependency as a moderator. Data collected via a survey answered by 659 showroomers were analysed using Partial Least Squares (PLS). Results show that value consciousness, purchase involvement, hedonic motivation and social influence explain mobile showrooming intention and mobile dependency moderates the impact of value consciousness on mobile showrooming intention. Our results offer suggestions for multichannel retailers to deal with showroomers visiting their stores to try to turn them into buyers.

Evolving factors influencing consumers' attitudes towards the use of eHealth applications: implications on the future of Neom

Background

Factors affecting the adoption and use of eHealth applications have been extensively researched from different perspectives in different regions. However, with the changing circumstances (e.g. the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic), new influencing factors might evolve and can influence the attitudes of consumers towards using eHealth applications. The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate the evolving factors affecting consumer attitudes towards the use of eHealth applications and provide implications for the future of Neom.

Methods

An online survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 976 eHealth consumers in Saudi Arabia, which included 527 male and 449 female participants. Findings were analysed using the statistical means and standard deviations for each item in the questionnaire to analyse the role of each factor in depth. Statistical t-tests were used to identify significant differences between the groups categorised by age and gender.

Results

‘Necessity but not interest’ (mean 4.5 [standard deviation {SD} 1.12]) and fear (mean 4.5 [SD 1.13]) and psychological factors including depression (mean 4.4 [SD 1.54]), stress (mean 4.2 [SD 1.09]) and anxiety (mean 4.3 [SD 1.61]) were identified to be major evolving influencing factors, while other factors including performance expectancy, ease of use, enjoyment and incentives were identified to be comparatively less influential.

Conclusions

Increasing adoption of eHealth mainly due to necessity but not out of interest can have serious implications for patients and the adoption of eHealth technologies in the future.

A multi-attribute model to optimize the price and composition of prepaid mobile Internet plans

Purpose

Prepaid mobile Internet is one of the most profitable services that are composed of multiple attributes. The overall utility of Internet service can be broken down into the sum of the utility of individual attribute levels. Based on the multi-attribute theory, rational consumers choose the service that yields the highest utility from a number of possible alternatives. Determining the optimal attribute levels that satisfy consumers' preferences and maximize the total revenue of the firm is a challenging multi-attribute decision problem for any mobile operator. When designing mobile Internet services, adopting a robust composition of services against different realizations of competitors' strategies can bring advantages for network operators. The purpose of this study is to determine the optimal attribute levels of prepaid mobile Internet packages with the aim of maximizing the total revenue of the firm by considering the paradigms of multi-attribute utility theory about consumer choices and the issue of uncertainty in counterpart services offered by the competitors.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper formulates the problem of multi-attribute pricing and design of mobile Internet plans in a competitive environment by developing deterministic and robust scenario-based mathematical models and considering the paradigms of multi-attribute utility theory about consumer choices. The proposed robust scenario-based models are based on three different paradigms, including maximizing expected revenue, minimizing the negative deviation from expected revenue and minimizing the maximum regret. A comprehensive numerical analysis is conducted to evaluate and compare the efficiency of the proposed models.

Findings

The evaluations reveal that deploying recourse policy can result in higher revenue for the firm when facing uncertainty. By doing sensitivity analysis, this paper shows that consumer preferences for brand attribute and consumers' purchase frequency can influence the revenue of network operators.

Originality/value

This paper develops a novel deterministic multi-attribute product line design (PLD) model to address the problem of determining the price and composition of prepaid mobile Internet plans. Furthermore, the issue of uncertainty in counterpart services offered by the competitors is studied for the first time in the PLD literature.

Understanding Restaurant Clients' Intention to Use Mobile Applications

Smartphones have changed consumer behavior by providing new mobile technology applications. In order to understand the intention to use mobile applications, this study highlights the factors of usability, loyalty, and trust based on technology acceptance models and relationship marketing by using mobile restaurant guides. This research fills a gap regarding the comparison of mobile application users' behavior in France and Russia. The authors tested the model by a total sample of 244 respondents (123 from Paris and 121 from Moscow) and analysed it with SmartPLS. The comparison of subgroups indicates that Russian users are sensitive toward the variable of trust, while French users are more impacted by mobile application usability. This study can be relevant for practitioners who work internationally, developers of mobile applications, and restaurant managers.

Intention to Use Mobile Commerce

With mobile technologies' rapid development involving wireless networks and internet infrastructure, e-commerce has been evolving into a new, more significant phase: mobile commerce. Businesses throughout the world are highly motivated to invest in mobile commerce infrastructure and deploy their mobile commerce strategies as a source of sustainable competitive advantage to maintain existing and attract new customers. As probably the first systematic and comprehensive effort to date, this study analyzes the factors affecting customers' intention to use mobile commerce in Vietnam. The results show that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, variety of services, and trialability have both direct and indirect positive (via perceived usefulness) impacts on intention to use mobile commerce, while trust and social influence have indirect positive impacts on intention to use mobile commerce in Vietnam. Cost does not have any impact on intention to use mobile commerce in Vietnam. The results of this study are also compared with that of studies on mobile commerce conducted in China and Malaixia by Chong et al. Theoretical and practical implications, especially for helping businesses understand how to capture more customers in a rapidly developing country, Vietnam, are discussed.

What drives customer satisfaction and word of mouth in mobile commerce services? A UTAUT2-based analytical approach

Purpose

The purpose of this paper, which is based on the UTAUT2 model, is to develop and evaluate a predictive model of customer satisfaction related to mobile commerce (m-commerce) and the willingness to recommend this service to others.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was conducted based on a sample of 402 respondents. Confirmative factor analysis was used to evaluate the validity of the model, while structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. Finally, artificial neural networks were used to rank the influence of the significant predictors obtained by SEM.

Findings

Trust was found to be the most significant driver of customer satisfaction, followed by performance expectancy and perceived value. In addition, affective commitment and satisfaction were identified as the strongest predictors of word of mouth (WOM).

Originality/value

The originality/value of the paper lies in the establishment of the connection between the independent variables of the UTAUT 2 model – trust, satisfaction, affective and continence commitment and WOM. Additionally, it is one of a small number of studies investigating customer commitments and their influence on WOM in m-commerce.

The interests of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) actor in using mobile commerce in effort to expand business network

Purpose

This paper aims to know the interest of leading small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of Y generation in Surabaya City using mobile commerce, identify the effort that has been done by the leading SMEs actors of Y generation in Surabaya City to expand its business network by using mobile commerce, and analyze the success rate of the use of mobile commerce to expand the business network of leading SMEs of Y generation in Surabaya City.

Design/methodology/approach

This research is designed using qualitative method. The research is directed more toward a research with phenomenological approach because the research also gives the description related to the phenomena in the field to the actor of SMEs and Disperdagin of Surabaya City. The researcher picks Surabaya City as the location by considering the following: the number of SMEs in the Surabaya city is greater than any other cities in East Java considering that Surabaya is the capital of East Java. The number of SMEs is 37,906 units; it means that Surabaya is a city with high economic activity and this place is also the largest trading city after Jakarta. Based on the number of SMEs mentioned above, in this research, only leading SMEs are taken amounted to 161 leading SMEs in the Surabaya City. Information or technological exchange and development are faster compared to other cities because most of the community living in this city uses information technology in running their business.

Findings

SME actors in Surabaya city have high interest in using m-commerce. In expanding the network, the SME actors use online media. The SME actors in Surabaya have successfully expanded the business network through online marketing by using m-commerce to overseas including Germany, France, South Korea and the UK. Effective model is needed for the policy in Surabaya city is Disperdagin has its own website to overshadow all SMEs in Surabaya City, and identify the role of Disperdagin to SME or vice versa, and clustering SMEs in Surabaya such as cluster of handicraft and Food and Beverage (MAMIN). Factors that are the advantages of using m-commerce are wider business network; increasing sales; adding resellers and buyers; smooth business transaction; development of product innovation, process and marketing; the facilities provided by the government; and easy to use m-commerce application.

Originality/value

This is one of few papers that study the interest of SMEs actor in using mobile commerce in effort to expand business network. The use of m-commerce will grow the business capability of SMEs, thus increasing the role of SMEs as the counterweight to the structure of the national economy. Therefore, the government policy related to the use of e-commerce and m-commerce is very important to be socialized to business actors, especially the SMEs.

Extended Technology Acceptance Model to Predict Mobile-Based Money Acceptance and Sustainability: A Multi-Analytical Structural Equation Modeling and Neural Network Approach

This research is a pioneering study into the adoption of mobile-based money services for financial inclusion and sustainability in developing countries like Togo. Owing to their differences from more usual mobile-based banking and payment services, such technology is being aggressively promoted by providers of network telecommunication companies. However, the factors influencing its sustainable acceptance remain largely unknown. This paper extends the original Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), by integrating self-efficacy (SEMM), technology anxiety (TAMM), and personal innovativeness (PIMM). The research model is assessed with survey data of 539 actual and prospective mobile money users employing structural equation modeling–artificial neural networks (SEM–ANN) approach. A feed-forward-back-propagation (FFBP) multi-layer perceptron (MLP) ANN with significant predictors obtained from SEM as the input units and the root mean square of errors (RMSE) indicated that the ANN method achieves high prediction accuracy. The results present conclusive evidence that perceived ease-of-use (PEMM) is the most significant factor affecting consumers’ attitudes to mobile-based money. While perceived usefulness (PUMM) and PIMM affect adoption decisions, their impact is much lower. Consumer attitudes and intentions were found to have a significant relationship with TAM. SEMM and TAMM; however, they showed mixed results. These findings will be useful to retain prevailing users and attract new ones.

Determinants of Continuous Intention on Food Delivery Apps: Extending UTAUT2 with Information Quality

This study empirically analyzes an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) model that augments information quality to identify the determinants of continuous use intention for food delivery software applications. A sample survey of 340 respondents who had ordered or purchased food through delivery apps was used for the analysis. The results indicate that habit had the strongest influence on continuous use intention, followed by performance expectancy and social influence. Furthermore, information quality had an indirect effect on continuous use intention via performance expectancy. Consequently, this study confirms the importance of information quality, performance expectancy, habit, and social influence as factors in inducing users’ continuous use intention for food delivery apps. These findings expand previous research in online-to-offline business in the field of food services and suggest practical implications. Ultimately, the model proposed and validated in this study may be employed as a basis for future research on consumer behavior in the field of food e-commerce services.

Mobile commerce adoption among the bottom of the pyramid: a case of street vendors in Thailand

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the applicability of technology acceptance model in explaining technology adoption among street vendors in Thailand as a representation of emerging economies.

Design/methodology/approach

A pen-and-pencil survey was administered to 370 street vendors in Bangkok; 356 usable surveys were analyzed for a completed rate of 96.2 per cent. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

Findings

This study contributes to the existing technology acceptance literature as follows: First, the predictive power of the technology acceptance model is strong and holds true for street vendors. Second, it revealed that the relationship of entrepreneurial orientation and technology adoption is completely connected through the decision-making process (i.e. trust and system characteristics, otherwise known as usefulness and ease of use). Finally, the degree of product differentiation strengthens the positive relationship between perceived usefulness and the intention to use mobile commerce.

Originality/value

This study advances the previous research on e-commerce adoption in settings outside the formal sector. More specifically, this study developed and validated the extended technology acceptance model in the smallest-scale of entrepreneurs, street vendors, to increase the understanding of the adoption of m-commerce.

Engaging consumers in multichannel online retail environment

Purpose

With India becoming world’s second largest user of smartphones (Ming, 2017) and with more users adopting mobile devices for online shopping, Indian online retailers now have to manage mobile channel in addition to existing traditional channel (of computers). Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the mapping of product characteristics with individual channel capabilities and its effect on online consumer behaviour, so that e-tailers can create enhanced online shopping experience for consumers.

Design/methodology/approach

A comprehensive research model is developed on the basis of the knowledge gained from multichannel retailing and e-commerce literature. Then, the model is empirically tested, with primary data collected from 344 customers, using structural equation modelling. The data are collected from customers across two product categories: electronics and fashion.

Findings

The results reveal that perceived usefulness, perceived risk and perceived self-efficacy are important drivers of online consumer behaviour for continued usage. The multi-group analysis confirms the moderation influence of platform type for some relationships across electronics and fashion.

Practical implications

The findings underline the importance of multichannel complementarity across electronics and fashion. The preference of mobile devices for fashion and traditional devices such as computers for electronics provides valuable insights for online retailers towards management of multichannel e-commerce ecosystem.

Originality/value

In Indian context, this is the first empirical research on online multichannel retail setting, studying the impact of diverse channel formats on different product categories. The study’s findings give empirical basis to online retailers to look out for right product–channel fit strategy for engaging consumers in the long run.

Information self-disclosure on mobile instant messaging applications

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework, which identifies intrinsic, social and extrinsic gratification factors as essential individual factors influencing users’ disclosure of personal information via mobile instant messaging (MIM) applications (apps). In addition, the author has examined whether gender affects those different factors of gratification.

Design/methodology/approach

Data are collected via paper-based survey from university students who use MIM in the United Arab Emirates. Structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses that are presented in the model.

Findings

The findings show that intrinsic gratifications (entertainment and escapism) and social gratifications (social interaction) have positive effects on the depth and breadth of self-disclosure via MIM apps. Additionally, women’s self-disclosure of personal information is positively affected by social influence, while men are not influenced by this type of gratification.

Originality/value

The study aims to enhance the current understanding of the limited research on the uses and gratifications approach within the context of MIM apps to identify the gratifications that motivate MIM apps users to disclose personal information.

Engaging m-commerce adopters in India

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the impact of factors derived from the unified theory of user acceptance of technology (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, age, gender) and of those drawn from literature (perceived risk, perceived enjoyment and innovativeness) on the adoption of m-commerce in India. It also suggests implications of these for the consumer behavior theory practitioners and marketers.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected using an online survey from 321 respondents, split into two groups (high and low adoption level users) based on the usage scores of the four categories of m-commerce- location-based, transaction-based, entertainment and content delivery. Logistic regression technique was used to identify the prominent factors among the nine identified influencers to understand the differences between the two groups.

Findings

The findings of this paper are sample biasness, self-reported m-commerce adoption level, limited m-commerce categories and specific context.

Research limitations/implications

Except the two factors of performance expectancy and facilitating conditions, all other variables discriminate between low and high adoption levels of m-commerce services in India. Social influence, perceived enjoyment and innovativeness were the three main factors that were found to have the most significant impact on the discrimination levels of m-commerce service users in India. Further, it was found that women and the younger generation users of m-commerce showed a greater propensity for adopting m-commerce practices.

Practical implications

Marketers need to focus on key factors like social influence, perceived enjoyment, perceived risk and effort expectancy to persuade the young and innovative consumer target groups increase their adoption of m-commerce services.

Originality/value

This is the first study of its kind to explore factors that distinguish users with low and high levels of m-commerce adoption, by taking into consideration all four categories of m-commerce (transaction-based, content delivery, location-based and entertainment). In doing so, it highlights the need for marketers to focus on factors beyond facilitating conditions and performance expectancy, to enhance the adoption of m-commerce practices.

The associations among market orientation, technology orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and organizational performance

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between three variables of strategic orientation (market orientation, technology orientation entrepreneurial orientation) and organizational performance in the Jordanian pharmaceutical sector.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employed a quantitative research design where 252 questionnaires were collected form respondents operating in various pharmaceutical companies in Jordan to obtain necessary data to test the hypotheses developed for the study. Multiple regressions were used to analyze the research data.

Findings

The results of the analysis revealed that strategic orientations were positively and significantly related to organizational performance. The findings also showed that market orientation contributed the most to the enhancement of organizational development followed by technology orientation and finally entrepreneurship orientation.

Practical implications

These findings contribute to the understanding of the importance of employing multiple strategic orientations in order to enhance organizational performance, particularly in pharmaceutical companies

Originality/value

This is the first study which adequately covers the relationship between three variables of strategic orientation (market orientation, technology orientation, entrepreneurial orientation) and organizational performance in the Jordanian pharmaceutical sector.

Moderating effects of age, income and internet usage on Online Brand Community (OBC)-induced purchase intention

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the customer attitude and perception towards the online brand communities (OBCs) and purchase intention (PI). The paper also analyses the moderating effects of age, income and internet usage on the relationship among the proposed variables.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employed a multi-analytical approach through the use of structural equation modelling and neural networks to test the proposed framework. The information was obtained from 236 respondents using a web-based questionnaire survey. Further, moderation analysis, with age, annual family income and weekly internet usage as moderating variables, was conducted on the structural model.

Findings

The results of the analysis demonstrate that the multi-group moderating effect for different groups within age, income and internet usage have significant differences for the relationships between the independent variables content perception, perceived usefulness, critical mass, brand attachment and attitude towards brand and the dependent variable, PI.

Originality/value

The study is one of its kind to understand and analyse the role of moderating variables (age, income and internet usage) on OBC-induced PI.

A Comparative Study of Factors’ Influences Affecting Tourists’ Intention to Use Mobile Food Information: Independent Tourists and Package Tourists

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a comprehensive model of international tourists’ intentions to use mobile food information (MFI). The study compares the intentions of independent tourists and package tourists focusing on the influences of mobile design qualities and tourists’ perceptions. The model is based on the technology acceptance model. The results revealed that the proposed model more efficiently predicted intention in groups of independent tourists than in groups of package tour. Furthermore, there are some differences between these groups. The proposed model could contribute to future collaboration between tourist agents and mobile-based developers to achieve the implementation of MFI.