Antecedents of Smartphone user Satisfaction, Trust and Loyalty Towards Mobile Applications

Transcription

1 Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 9(32), DOI: /ijst/2016/v9i32/98651, August 2016 ISSN (Print) : ISSN (Online) : Antecedents of Smartphone user Satisfaction, Trust and Loyalty Towards Mobile Applications R. Deepika * and V. Karpagam School of Management Studies, Vels University, Pallavaram, Chennai , Tamil Nadu, India; shineeverywhere.deepi@gmail.com, karpagam.sms@velsuniv.ac.in Abstract Background/Objectives: In this research, the author has made an attempt, to find out the factors that influence smartphone user satisfaction, trust and loyalty towards Business to customer (B2C) mobile applications. Method/Statistical Analysis: An empirical research was conducted to gather the primary data using a questionnaire as an instrument in order to test the hypotheses. An assessment based on five point linker scale questionnaire to the Smartphone users in Chennai city, India. The questionnaire was distributed to (250) respondents who were randomly chosen from the population. A multiple linear regression analysis is used to find out the significant influence between independent and dependent factors. A correlation test is used to find out the relationship between smartphone user satisfaction, user trust and user loyalty towards mobile applications. Findings: The result from this study highlights that user interface quality, Information quality, perceived privacy act as an antecedents that driven to smartphone user satisfaction, trust and user loyalty towards B2C mobile applications. The factor Information quality hasn t having a significant influence towards smartphone user satisfaction and user trust. And there is positive relationship between the smartphone user satisfaction, user trust towards user loyalty. Applications/Improvements: Mobile applications are becoming increasingly popular. Managing smartphone user satisfaction, trust and loyalty towards mobile applications services are very essential for the enduring development of a business. The result from this study will be a significant orientation for the Organizations in formulating and managing the users for their business strategies. Keywords: Loyalty, Mobile Applications, Mobile Commerce, Smartphone user Satisfaction, Smartphone user Trust 1. Introduction Recently Smartphone s are developing rapidly. Smartphone have become ubiquitous and increasingly expanded plays a prominent role in our society. Among the variety of phones, smartphone in particular established unbelievable adoption. This fashion is additional propelled with the wide accessibility of applications that can be downloaded and run on smartphone. For example Google provides Android market that contains huge collection of android applications (apps) 1. Given the enlarged ease, features and handiness of these smartphone, users are all the time more relying on them and doing all their activities like shopping, banking, trading, etc also through the in-built native apps or third party applications. Any transactions with a monetary value that can be made through the applications that are downloaded from the smartphone are referred to as Mobile applications 2,3. Since being many researches on mobile commerce paying attention on adoption and continuance usage of m-commerce system 4. Online retailers try a number of campaign and strategy to improve mobile commerce adaptation rates. The annual Mobile applications investment activity is raised in the last few years. Mobile commerce is the rapid growing commercial activity based on mobile technologies 5. Now days, Smartphone s and * Author for correspondence

2 Antecedents of Smartphone user Satisfaction, Trust and Loyalty Towards Mobile Applications Tablets become the potential growth for M-commerce 6. The users are using their Smartphone for purchasing, transactions and entertaining, getting the information s immediately anytime and anywhere 7. For the continuing growth and effectiveness of the firm is strongly related to smartphone user loyalty all over the world 8. Small increases in smartphone user loyalty can significantly develop the profit rates 9. Most of the earlier research discovered that e-retailers faced difficulties in maintaining smartphone user loyalty in spite of the current fast development in B2C M-commerce 10. Therefore, maintaining a consumer such as retaining is not an easy task in Mobile applications. To keep the users, e-retailers may find difficult in retaining and to stay stable in the e-market. Though there should be a maximum smartphone user satisfaction and trust is needed to maintain the smartphone user loyalty. This study generally focuses on the empirical examination of smartphone user loyalty, satisfaction, and trust in Mobile applications that are downloaded in smartphone. This paper begins with an outline of Mobile commerce, Smart phone, Mobile applications and significant definitions of variables. Hereby the study will follow through methods, data, and analyses. This will be followed by a discussion of the results. And this can be concluding with the implications and limitations of this research and the recommendations for future work. The Objective of this paper is to identify the antecedents that influence smartphone user satisfaction, user trust and user loyalty towards B2C mobile applications. And the relationship between the smartphone user satisfaction, trust and user loyalty towards mobile applications. A survey based on 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was administered to 250 respondents using Smartphone and B2C mobile applications. 1.1 Mobile commerce (M-commerce) The Mobile commerce is a superior technology of the E-commerce. In this time and location limitations are removed and the user can access anytime and anywhere. The rapid growth of modern wireless communication technology, together with the internet, is promoting mobile commerce as a significant application for both enterprises and consumers 11. Following the advancement of 3G and 4G wireless communication technologies, modern internet-enabled mobile phones have gained major user acceptance. There are several major advantages of m-commerce such as particular inbuilt characteristics such as Personalization, greater efficiency, ubiquity, flexibility. The instant connectivity plays the major role in m-commerce, through the 3G/4G networks will be beneficial and faster access to the internet. Next the personalization factor plays an important role in m-commerce will take the form of customized information s and reducing the user work to enter their card numbers, passwords again and again. The localization factor is used in m-commerce will permit user to collect appropriate information s on which to act. Previous researches concentrated on success factors of mobile commerce such as service organization, It infrastructure, law government policy, user education perspectives plays a significant role in the success 12. The time sensitivity factor in m-commerce acts as a real time information to the user immediately. 1.2 Smart Phone Smartphone s replaced the PC and wire-based technologies. The smartphone become the huge success of m-commerce. With the introduction of the Smartphone in 2007, the smart phone significantly differs from the traditional definition. With redefined networking, hardware and software capacities, smart phones are internet-enabled, location-aware, with a finger-friendly multi-touch interface, large screen size supporting a huge range of colors, multi-gigabytes storage, and much more. Previous mobile commerce studies based on primitive WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) technology are no longer relevant to the new configuration of smart phones. 1.3 B2C Mobile Applications With the introduction of the App Store/Play Store in the year of 2008, users are able to browse, download and install applications for games, personal applications and mobile commerce applications 13. However, the utilization rate of mobile commerce has been below the smart phone adoption rate, despite significant progress. The current literature is not sufficient to explain the new paradigm of mobile commerce using applications through smart phones. New research and analysis are required. Over the last few decades, applications have been evolving, with a wide variety now in use. Now days, there are n number of applications in the market. In that vendor provides in-built applications for the consumer such as 2 Vol 9 (32) August Indian Journal of Science and Technology

3 R. Deepika and V. Karpagam call log, calendar, calculator, , etc. But there is an option for the consumers that they can download the desirable and needed applications from the Google play store or Apps store from the Android market. Now, most of the M-commerce activities are running through those applications such as banking, shopping, trading, ticketing, etc. Smartphone are handheld devices they can access anytime and anywhere. More over than applications (apps) giving a personalized experience than the browser. Because it provides the facilities like they can access them instantly and can consumers will get real time product information. The vendors also able to track the consumers needs and preference and they can also provide according to their needs. For example: Notifications about sale and their expected product price reduction. 1.4 Factors influencing Smartphone user satisfaction, Trust and Loyalty The user interface quality defined as the usefulness and user-friendliness of mobile applications and it affects the smartphone user satisfaction directly and it provides the facilitating effortless to the service provider. From the importance of smartphone user satisfaction 14 developed the business to customer m-commerce activities. More over the value of user interface is also predictable to affect the smartphone user trust. It implies that simplicity of navigation and the interface plan control affect the smartphone user trust. User perception about the quality of information s about the product and service that is provided by the mobile applications is said to be information quality 15. They defined that information quality affect the customer satisfaction in the way available information should be reliable for the payments and purchases. The perceived privacy reflects that perceptions relating to the reliability of the payments and individual information such as credit card numbers, passwords. The privacy is the major aspects for the users to have an intention to use the applications 16. The perceived privacy has effect on smartphone user satisfaction towards mobile applications. Smartphone user trust can be defined as set of values that user having towards mobile applications. This can lead the user to the loyalty of the particular applications 17. In the study, it s proven that smartphone user trust is powerfully related to smartphone user loyalty. Smartphone user satisfaction is can be defined as how users are satisfied with the particular product or service with the mobile applications. Smartphone user trust is also related to the interpersonal trust. User s satisfaction is important to determine the greater loyalty towards mobile applications why people change the product or service providers. In recent study, smartphone user loyalty is found to be mobile application satisfaction and trust. Smartphone user loyalty is defined to be repeat purchasing or usage of the same particular applications. Loyal users are not only requiring more information themselves, but they provide as an in order source for other users. Developing smartphone user loyalty is the greatest challenge in the usage of mobile applications 18. The study implies that smartphone user satisfaction and smartphone user trust builds the smartphone user loyalty towards mobile applications. 2. Materials and Methods To test the study model and to accomplish the objectives, a survey questionnaire was conducted among Smartphone users in Chennai. The survey adopted a prearranged selfadministered questionnaire instrument for data collection which reflected the theoretical framework depict in Figure 1. User experiences with mobile applications in the smartphone were measured using a set of 36 scale items in the questionnaire. All of the scale items were measured using a five-point Likert-type category-scaling format. For example, a five-point Likert-type scale (1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Partially Agree, 4 = Agree, and 5 = Strongly Agree) was used to measure the constructs; User interface quality, information quality, perceived privacy, smartphone user satisfaction, smartphone user trust and loyalty. 2.1 Research Model of the Study This section discusses the theoretical research outline and interconnected hypotheses based on the objectives. The research model hypotheses are listed below and in Figure 1. USER INTERFACE QUALITY INFORMATION QUALITY PRIVACY USER SATISFACTION USER TRUST USER LOYALTY Vol 9 (32) August Indian Journal of Science and Technology 3

4 Antecedents of Smartphone user Satisfaction, Trust and Loyalty Towards Mobile Applications Operational Definition of Variables This section identifies several determine variables, which put together the factors regarding as the Smartphone user loyalty towards Mobile application in the m-commerce system User Interface Quality The User interface quality is distinct as the user perception towards usage of mobile applications that is supposed ease of use and the usefulness of the applications. The TAM 19 theory can be applied to drive in the model of User interface quality having an influence between smartphone user satisfaction and trust towards Mobile applications. The user perceived usefulness of the mobile applications and simplicity of use is the determinants can be drive to accepting and satisfying intention that power smartphone user satisfaction behavior towards Mobile applications. Thus it also leads to the smartphone user trust intentions towards mobile applications. Hence, it can be hypotheses as H1a: There is a significant influence between user interface quality and smartphone user satisfaction. H1b: There is a significant influence between user interface quality and smartphone user trust Perceived Information Quality The perceived information quality construct is defined as the user opinion towards quality of information about products or services that are provided by the mobile applications. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) 20 can provide the conjectural view for modeling the influences among information quality and both smartphone user satisfaction and trust. Thus the information provided by the application is consistent and precise, and then this will enlarge smartphone user satisfaction and trust which will guide the user to make the initial purchase. Hence, it can be hypotheses as H2a: There is a significant influence between information quality and smartphone user satisfaction. H2b: There is a significant influence between information quality and smartphone user trust Perceived Privacy The perceived privacy of the mobile applications is defined as user feels space for themselves and capacity to manage the occurrence of additional people in the surroundings. The privacy is the most important factor measured by the mobile application users. Here the TRA model can be useful to maintain the influence between smartphone perceived privacy and both smartphone user satisfaction and trust towards mobile applications. The greater level of privacy and the features provided by the mobile applications can show the way to smartphone user satisfaction and trust intention. Hence, it can be hypotheses as H3a: There is a significant influence between perceived privacy and smartphone user satisfaction. H3b: There is a significant influence between perceived privacy and smartphone user trust Smartphone user Satisfaction, Trust and Loyalty The smartphone user satisfaction is definite as the user satisfied with the available mobile applications while performing B2C m-commerce process. However users willingness to relay on trade partner in whom one has self-belief and fulfillment with their services or products. The smartphone user loyalty is defined as the user motivation to stay on mobile applications further habitually and continue purchasing. The Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT) is used here to drive in the model of the associations among both smartphone user satisfaction, trust and smartphone user loyalty. Smartphone user satisfaction in mobile applications can influence consumer retention or smartphone user loyalty definitely. Hence, it can be hypotheses as H4a: If there is a positive relationship between smartphone user satisfaction and smartphone user loyalty. H4b: If there is a positive relationship between smartphone user trust and smartphone user loyalty. The research model Figure 1 explains an input mediating variable smartphone user satisfaction influence smartphone user loyalty towards Mobile applications. Additionally, with the purpose to expand approaching into the factors influencing smartphone user loyalty, discriminate among four special antecedents. The study design depicts the hypothesized associations. In the projected study model, smartphone user loyalty is hypothesize and personalized to be subjective by user experiences with mobile application services. The environment of these experiences sequentially is 4 Vol 9 (32) August Indian Journal of Science and Technology

5 R. Deepika and V. Karpagam exaggerated by the perceived user interface quality, information quality, and privacy. The User interface quality, information quality, privacy, smartphone user satisfaction and the smartphone user loyalty are explained in the data analysis section as concealed variables with multiple-scale measures. 3. Results and Discussion The researcher used Cronbach s a coefficient test to measure the reliability of the items in the questionnaire. The cronbach s alpha value as per Table 1 is which is highly significant and highly reliable coefficients. From the study, there are lots of services offering in B2C mobile applications through smartphone. Among the 250 respondents, the mobile applications that are most frequently used and downloaded are taken up survey to make the study clear. The author analyzed from the results of the study, 80% of the consumers are using shopping applications in their smartphone such as Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and more on. 62% consumers using banking applications in their smartphone and to book tickets 47% are using mobile applications among the total respondents. For education and trading applications usage level was low comparing to the other kind of applications. Table 1. Reliability Analysis Test Cronbach s Alpha Number of Items Multiple Linear Regression In this study, multiple linear regression analysis is used to test the influence of independent variables on the dependent variables. In the study user interface quality, information quality, perceived privacy was the independent variables where as smartphone user satisfaction and trust are the dependent variables Multiple regression test: Influence of user Interface Quality, Information Quality and Perceived Privacy on Smartphone user Satisfaction Table 2. An analysis of Multiple Linear Regression for Smartphone user satisfaction as a dependent variable with independent variables such as user interface quality, information quality, and perceived privacy R value R Square Adjusted R square Std. Error of the Estimate Table 3. Coefficients table for dependent variable smartphone user satisfaction Unstandardized Standardized Coefficients Coefficients B Std. Error Beta T Value Sig. (constant) User interface quality Information quality Perceived privacy Dependent variable : Smartphone user satisfaction Table 2 shows the R value as.840 which is found to be good and indicates a strong level of fit. The value here is which shows 70.5% proportion of variance in the dependent variable explained by the independent variable. According to Table 2 it is clear that value that the independent variable explains 70.5 % of the dependent variable which shows that user interface quality, information quality and perceived privacy highly influences smartphone user satisfaction towards mobile application. Table 3 represents the statistical significance of all the other independent variables. Here in the coefficient table, we see that the p value for user interface quality is <0.05 hence H1a is accepted and the null hypothesis is rejected. The p value for information quality is > 0.05 hence H2a is rejected and the null hypothesis is accepted. The p value for perceived privacy is <0.05 hence the H3a is accepted and null hypothesis is rejected. The author here concludes that there is a significant influence between user interface and perceived privacy with Smartphone user satisfaction Vol 9 (32) August Indian Journal of Science and Technology 5

6 Antecedents of Smartphone user Satisfaction, Trust and Loyalty Towards Mobile Applications where as there is no significant influence between information quality and smartphone user satisfaction of mobile application users Multiple Regression Test: Influence of user Interface Quality, Information Quality and Perceived Privacy on Smartphone user Trust Table 4. An analysis of Multiple Linear Regression for dependent variable Smartphone user trust with the independent variables such as User interface quality, Information quality, and Perceived Privacy R value R square Adjusted R square Std. Error of the Estimate Table 5. Coefficients table for the dependent variable Smartphone user trust Unstandardized Standardized Coefficients Coefficients B Std.Error Beta T value Sig. (Constant) User interface quality Information quality Perceived privacy Dependent Variable : Smartphone user trust Table 4 shows the R value as.661 which is found to be good and indicates a good level of fit. The value here is which shows 43.7% proportion of variance in the dependent variable explained by the independent variable. According to Table 4 it is clear that value that the independent variable explains 43.7 % of the independent variable which shows that user interface quality, information quality and perceived privacy influences smartphone user trust of mobile application users. Table 5 represents the statistical significance of all the other independent variables. Here in the coefficient table, we see that the p value for user interface quality is <0.05 hence H1b is accepted and the null hypothesis is rejected. The p value for information quality is > 0.05 hence H2b is rejected and the null hypothesis is accepted. The p value for perceived privacy is <0.05 hence the H3b is accepted and null hypothesis is rejected. The author here concludes that there is a significant influence between user interface quality and perceived privacy with Smartphone user trust where as there is no significant influence between information quality and smartphone user trust towards mobile application users Correlation Test In this study, the Pearson Correlation test is used to find the relationship between Smartphone user satisfaction and user trust towards the Smartphone user loyalty among the B2C mobile applications. Table 6 gives the result of Pearson Correlation test for Smartphone user satisfaction and smartphone user loyalty. The analysis of this test clearly reveals that the user satisfaction is recorded as significant and positive relationship between user loyalty. And their P values were at 10% significant level. It is to be noted that the analysis of Pearson correlation shows that H0 hypothesis is rejected and the H4a alternative hypothesis is accepted. There is positive relationship between smartphone user satisfaction and smartphone user loyalty. Thus if the user satisfaction level is increased means there will be an increase in user loyalty towards mobile applications. Table 7 gives the result of Pearson Correlation test for Smartphone user trust and smartphone user loyalty. The analysis of this test clearly reveals that the user trust is recorded as highly significant and has a positive relationship between user loyalty. And their P values were at 5% significant level. It is to be noted that the analysis of pearson correlation shows that H0 hypothesis is rejected and the H4b alternative hypothesis is accepted. There is positive relationship between smartphone user trust and smartphone user loyalty. Thus if the user trust level is increased means there will be an increase in user loyalty towards mobile applications. Table 6. An analysis of Pearson correlation test for Smartphone User Satisfaction and User Loyalty User Satisfaction User Loyalty User Satisfaction Pearson Correlation 1 Sig. (2-tailed) User Loyalty Pearson Correlation.385** 1 Sig. (2-tailed).000 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). 6 Vol 9 (32) August Indian Journal of Science and Technology

7 R. Deepika and V. Karpagam Table 7. An analysis of Pearson Correlation test for Smartphone User Trust and User Loyalty User Trust User Trust Pearson Correlation 1 Sig. (2-tailed) User Loyalty User Loyalty Pearson Correlation 0.657** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). 4. Conclusions This research attempted to study the antecedents that influence smartphone user satisfaction, trust and loyalty towards mobile applications. A conjectural study model which hypothesizes the input factors user interface quality, information quality and perceived privacy powered the three variables user satisfaction, trust and loyalty is developed and statistically validated. The identified input factors such as User interface quality and perceived privacy towards mobile applications among the smartphone users were found to have a strong influence on user satisfaction and user trust. It was found that user interface quality and perceived privacy is significantly related to smartphone user satisfaction and smartphone user trust where as it was found that there was no significant influence between information quality and smartphone user satisfaction as well as smartphone user trust. To Smartphone users, the level of perceived privacy is essential for the smartphone user satisfaction and trust towards mobile applications. Also perceived privacy influence user trust ultimately and since the user satisfaction was originate to play an absolute mediator responsibility between the perceived privacy and user trust. The user interface quality in mobile applications was establishing that major influence in user satisfaction. The users are satisfied with the usage of mobile applications by its usefulness and convenience of usage. The smartphone user satisfaction plays a mediating role in between the smartphone user privacy and user interface quality towards the B2C mobile applications. The result from the study implies that B2C mobile applications are upright if they provide higher level of reliability, credibility and honesty in the user interface quality. This consequently limits the problems in perceived privacy and it enhances the user trust towards mobile applications. Thus the increase in user satisfaction and user trust will lead to maintain the user in mobile applications. This study will give a present and future reference for the customer retention strategy in B2C mobile applications. This study can also convey significant strong implications to equally academics and researchers. The researcher can use this study for their reference and they can develop the research methodology for their enhanced outcome. In this practice, the consequence of this research could be carrying great weight references for the adoption and to maintain the user loyalty towards B2C mobile applications. 5. References 1. Zhou Y. Taming information stealing Mobile applications on Android. Springer verlag Berlin Heidelberg. 2011; 6740: Clarke C. Emerging value propositions for m-commerce. Business Strategies. 2011; 18(2): Ngai EWT, Gunasekaran A. A review for mobile commerce research and applications. Decision Support Systems. 2007; 43(1): Zhou T. Examining the critical success factor of mobile website adoption. Online Inform Rev. 2011; 35(4): Feng H, Hoegler T, Stucky W. Exploring the critical success factors for mobile commerce. Proceedings of the International Conference on Mobile Business. ICMB 06 Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society Press p Maity M. Critical factors of consumer decision making on m-commerce: a qualitative study in the United States. International Journal of Mobile Marketing. 2010; 5(2): Wei TT, Marthadan G, Chong AYL, Ooi KB, Arumugam S. What drives Malaysian m-commerce adoption? An empirical analysis. Ind Manag Data Syst. 2009; 109(3): Reichheld F. Loyalty and the Renaissance of Marketing. Marketing Management. 1995; 2(4): Huffmire D. Improving Smartphone user satisfaction, Loyalty, and Profit. An Integrated Measurement and Management System. 2001; 38(5): Hoffman D, Novak T. How to Acquire Users on the Web. Harvard Business Review. 2000; 7893: Wu JH, Wang SC. What Drives Mobile Commerce? An Empirical Evaluation of Revised Technology Acceptance Model. Information and Management. 2005; 42(5): Hong HG. Success factor of Mobile-commerce system. Indian Journal of Science and Technology Apr; 8(7): Fai LC. Extended UTAUT Model of Mobile Commerce: An Empirical Study of Negative User Acceptance Behaviors of Mobile Commerce in Hong Kong. International Journal Vol 9 (32) August Indian Journal of Science and Technology 7

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