Harry Bouwman

An assessment of advanced mobile services acceptance: Contributions from TAM and diffusion theory models

Today, in addition to traditional mobile services, there are new ones already being used, thanks to the advances in 3G-related technologies. Our work contributed to the emerging body of research by integrating TAM and Diffusion Theory. Based on a sample of 542 Dutch consumers, we found that traditional antecedents of behavioral intention, ease of use and perceived usefulness, can be linked to diffusion-related variables, such as social influence and perceived benefits (flexibility and status).

Analysis of users and non-users of smartphone applications

Purpose: Smartphones facilitate the potential adoption of new mobile applications. The purpose of this research is to study users and non-users of three selected mobile applications, and find out what really drives the intention to use these applications across users and non-users. Design/methodology/approach: The authors measured actual usage of mobile applications in a panel study of 579 Finnish smartphone users, using in-device measurements as an objective way to identify users and non-users. A web-based survey was used in collecting data to test an extended TAM model in explaining intention to use. Findings: Perceived technological barriers negatively affect behavioural control, reflecting peoples assessment of themselves being capable of using the services without trouble. Behavioural control is directly linked to perceived usefulness (except for games) and perceived enjoyment, as hypothesized. Perceived enjoyment and usefulness were generically found to explain intention to use applications for both users and for non-users. Research limitations/implications: With regards to the impact of social norms, the study finds that further research needs to be done in exploring its impact more thoroughly. The dataset of the research, consisting purely of male-dominated, young smartphone users, make the generalization of results difficult. Practical implications: There are differences regarding what drives the usage of different kinds of mobile applications. In this study, map applications and mobile Internet, are driven by more utilitarian motivations, whereas games are more hedonic. It is also clear that not everybody are using applications facilitated by smartphones, and therefore the presented approach of studying users and non-users separately provides a new approach to analyze adoption on a practical level. Originality/value: This research proves that models like TAM should not treat mobile services as a generic concept, but instead to specifically address individual mobile services. The research also demonstrates the unique value of combining objective usage measurements (reflecting actual behaviour) with traditional survey data in more comprehensively modelling service adoption.

Barriers and drivers in the adoption of current and future mobile services in Finland

Finland has long been seen as the most successful country in Europe in terms of the adoption and use of advanced mobile services. In this paper we discuss the importance of understanding the role of (physical, cognitive, security and economic) barriers and benefits (perceived entertainment value and perceived flexibility) of mobile services as well as the role that functional differences of mobile service bundles play in the process of actual and future use of these bundles. Based on a survey we test six models for mobile travel service bundle, GPRS bundle, mobile surveillance bundle, traditional and more advanced entertainment bundles and m-commerce service bundles. Our analysis shows that understanding the actual and future use is only possible when the subtleties of the specific bundles, i.e. the characteristics of the involved services, are taken into account. Differences in technology or service attributes based on technology cannot be treated as neutral.

Balancing customer and network value in business models for mobile services

Designing business models for mobile services is complex. A business model can be seen as a blueprint of four interrelated components: service offering, technical architecture, and organisational and financial arrangements. In this paper the connections among these components are explored by analysing the critical design issues in business models for mobile services, e.g., targeting and branding in the service domain, security and quality of service in the technology domain, network governance in the organisation domain, and revenue sharing in the finance domain. A causal framework is developed linking these critical design issues to expected customer value and expected network value, and hence, to business model viability.

Adoption of 3G+ services in Finland

Cost-related issues and limitations of the current technology are important thresholds of 3G+ services. Privacy and security are not critical. Benefits are enhanced communication features, flexibility with respect to the users location and the time of day, and convenience and handiness of small, wireless mobile devices.

Coppers context, and conjoints: a reassessment of TAM

This study examines the role and explanatory value of context-, task- and information-related characteristics vis-a-vis individual characteristics in relation with respect to the adoption of mobile technologies and applications. We combine insights from adoption and acceptance literature with media choice and task-technology fit theories. These insights are applied to a case in which police officers use mobile communication tools and information technologies. Officers were asked which mobile applications they preferred to use in specific situations (contexts) and for specific tasks. In a structural equation model focusing exclusively on individual TAM-related characteristics, such as perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, as well as on a generic media fit concept, the explanatory value of these concepts turns out to be high. We extend our study, based on Ajzen and Madden (1986) by arguing that, in addition to personal characteristics, contextual characteristics, in combination with task-related characteristics, play an important role in peoples preferences for specific technologies. Conjoint analysis focusing on contextual and task-related characteristics yields relevant insights. When context-related and individual characteristics are combined into a single hierarchical linear model, the significance of the concepts used in TAM turns out to be low, while context-related issues stand out. On the basis of our research, we conclude that TAM models are too generic to fully explain peoples intention to use mobile technologies. Future research should aim at developing models that take contextual and task-related factors into account when studying mobile applications.

Content and context: an exploration of the basic characteristics of information needs

In this article we describe research that overcomes some of the flaws of Uses and Gratifications research by combining information need concepts with concepts from Media Choice models, and by making use of the Policy Capturing method. Using this method, we obtained in-depth knowledge about the basic characteristics of information needs that can be used to explain a choice for specific media, i.e. traditional mass media and Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-based media. In two studies regarding users’ information needs in an academic context, and employees within an organizational setting, we found that the same characteristics of information need, such as topicality and context, are important predictors of media choice. The results show that more refined analyses with regard to dimensions underlying information need can contribute to insight into when and how media, including new technologies, can be successful in the emerging information society, for example, by taking context issues into account.

Dynamic Business Model Framework for Value Webs

This paper develops a new framework for explaining the dynamic aspects of business models in value webs. As companies move from research to roll-out and maturity three forces cause changes in business models. The technological forces are most important in the first phase, regulation in the second phase, and markets in the third. The forces cause change through influence on the technology, services, finances, and organizational network of the firm. As a result, partners in value webs will differ across these phases. A case study of NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode illustrates the framework.

Mobile services put in context: A Q-sort analysis

Purpose: Objective of this paper to evaluate mobile services on a limited set of characteristics, e.g. usage context, the Innovativeness of the service, efforts required of users for using the service, the usefulness of the service and the likelihood with which it will be used, in order to show that distinction between services is highly relevant for adoption and acceptance research. Design/method/approach: In this research the mobile services are object of study and therefore an exploratory approach making use of Q-sort methodology is used. Findings: The characteristics of the 48 services under study play an important role when judged on the five dimensions. Advanced services, explicitly exploiting the mobile nature of the services like navigation and localization, embedded in all kind of task and process related activities, stood out as the most innovative services, however these are the least likely to be used because they are expected to fit day-to-day routines and usage context the least. Easy to use services and services that fit most contexts are most likely to be used. Practical implications: Designers of mobile services and applications have to be aware of the subtle interplay between usage context, the service or application to be designed, the ease of use. Only when all these factors are taken into account the services may have value to users. Original value: This is one of the very few studies focused on mobile services, instead of user perception and behavior. In most research on mobile service adoption and acceptance the characteristics of services are threatened as a black box. This paper shows how relevant it is to look into characteristics of mobile services themselves.

Collective action for mobile payment platforms

Graphical abstractDisplay Omitted Mobile payment requires collective action between banks and telecom operators.A case study on cooperation between all major Dutch banks and operators is analyzed.Differing strategic objectives between banks and operators hinder collective action.Lack of leadership, authority and commitment hindered collective action.Realizing joint m-payment platforms for banks and operators is highly challenging. Mobile payment has long been discussed but has still not reached mass market in Western societies. Banks and telecom operators often struggle to develop platforms for authorization and authentication of mobile payment services. This paper analyses an in-depth case on collaboration between three major Dutch banks and three Dutch telecom operators who jointly developed a trusted service manager for mobile payment. Collective action theory and platform theory is combined to study the issues of collaboration and competition between banks and operators. We find that differing strategic objectives and interests, conflicts, lack of dependencies and governance issues led to dissolution of the mobile payment platform. These problems partly result from platform characteristics of openness to third parties, governance of relations with third parties and platform competition.