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Consumer acceptance of the mobile Internet

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Abstract

Technological innovations are often designed to help consumers save time. However, some consumers refuse to use innovations and downgrade their usability with increasing usage time. The purpose of this research is to find out how consumers’ personality in younger (vs. older) men (vs. women) affects behavioral choices of the mobile Internet, as an example of new technology, and how usage time affects perceived ease of use of innovative (vs. established) media. The study shows that innovativeness, low desire for social contact, and technology optimism, in interaction with demographics, determine whether consumers choose mobile Internet services over substitutes. Job-related dependency on technology and gender directly affect choice behavior. The study reveals that ease of use is downgraded as more time is spent using the mobile Internet, whereas there is no such relation for established media. The results help explain overoptimistic forecasts that were made in the field of technology acceptance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Smeal College of Business, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Joerg Koenigstorfer

  2. Institute for Consumer and Behavioural Research, Saarland University, Campus A5.4, 66123, Saarbruecken, Germany

    Andrea Groeppel-Klein

Authors
  1. Joerg Koenigstorfer
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  2. Andrea Groeppel-Klein
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Correspondence to Joerg Koenigstorfer.

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Koenigstorfer, J., Groeppel-Klein, A. Consumer acceptance of the mobile Internet. Mark Lett 23, 917–928 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-012-9206-1

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