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Fengkun Dissertation Final 20141008.pdf (5.11 MB)

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A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF REVIEW, SOCIAL, AND ADOPTER CHARACTERISTICS IN MOBILE APP ADOPTION

Liu, Fengkun
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1412737178

Abstract Details

2014, PHD, Kent State University, College of Business and Entrepreneurship, Ambassador Crawford / Department of Management and Information Systems.
The widespread use of e-commerce and mobile technology has transformed how people conduct business. The rapid development of mobile technology has further diversified digital products available to consumers. The mobile economy based on smart devices is growing rapidly. As a result, a consumer who tries to adopt a mobile app typically faces many choices of competing products and many sources of related product information. Among those sources, online reviews play a major role in users' information seeking procedure prior to their adoption behavior. Due to the cognitive limitation of adopters, they often face the issue of information overload. In order to cope with such issue, adopters typically utilize both online reviews and the overall star rating of a mobile app to reduce their uncertainty before adoption. In individual's adoption decision-making process, adopter characteristics, product characteristics, and social characteristics also influence adoption behavior. Previous research on technology adoption has focused primarily on user acceptance of a single technology. However, in mobile app adoption, the adoption procedure is not monolithic, but rather, is a more complex procedure of acquiring product information and purchasing. During the procedure, a number of factors influence users' adoption behavior. This dissertation presents a new approach to investigate adoption behavior on mobile apps. I conduct my study in three dimensions: review characteristics, social characteristics, and adopter characteristics. Specifically, I ground my research in the theory of reasoned action, the theory of planned behavior, and the innovation diffusion theory. In addition, I adapt informational cascades theory and information overload theory to my research context. The three dimensions are presented in three essays. Each essay focuses on one of the three dimensions that influence a user's mobile app adoption process. Findings from this dissertation provide significant insights for developers and management in the mobile app economy.
Alan Brandyberry (Committee Chair)
Mary Hogue (Committee Member)
Greta Polites (Committee Member)
Tuo Wang (Committee Member)
225 p.
Information Systems; Management
technology adoption; mobile app; informational cascades; information overload; search effort; uncertainty; online review; overall rating; review valence

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Liu, F. (2014). A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF REVIEW, SOCIAL, AND ADOPTER CHARACTERISTICS IN MOBILE APP ADOPTION [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1412737178

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Liu, Fengkun. A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF REVIEW, SOCIAL, AND ADOPTER CHARACTERISTICS IN MOBILE APP ADOPTION. 2014. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1412737178.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Liu, Fengkun. "A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF REVIEW, SOCIAL, AND ADOPTER CHARACTERISTICS IN MOBILE APP ADOPTION." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1412737178

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1412737178
985
© 2014, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.