Date of Award

1-1-2010

Document Type

Campus Access Dissertation

Department

School of Journalism and Mass Communications

First Advisor

Ran Wei

Abstract

This study focuses on U.S. mobile phone users’ intention to utilize mobile TV services. Existing theories and models in the field of information technology and communications were applied to predict users’ intentions to employ mobile TV service. The constructs used in the research model were Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use (from TAM), Perceived Behavioral Control (from TPB), Social Influences (from UTAUT), and Innovativeness (from Diffusion of Innovation).

Most of the constructs in technology acceptance models are based on consumers’ cognitive judgments of the service or the technology. Considering that mobile phones are highly personal devices and that people tend to always carry their mobile phones with them, mobile phone users are likely to possess personal memories related to the phones and to demonstrate attachmentto their mobile phones (Blom & Monk, 2003; Vincent, 2006; Wehmeyer, 2007). Therefore, scales of mobile phone users’ attachment, which focus on the emotional aspects of users, were added to the research model.

Along with cognitive- and emotional-based constructs, individual characteristics such as age, gender, and experiences were hypothesized to moderate the relationships between the previously mentioned constructs and the dependent variable, user intention to adopt mobile TV service.

The hypothesized research model was tested among the student sample using structural equation modeling (SEM). Perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use EOU), perceived behavioral control (PBC), social influences (SI), and personal innovativeness (PIIT) were found to be the significant determinants of intention to use mobile TV service. Furthermore, the results showed that mobile phone users’ gender, age, and experiences moderated the relationship between some of the determinants and behavioral intention. Mobile phone user-device attachment, comprised of four subdimensions – symbolism, fashion, possession, and needs – negatively influenced users’ intention to use mobile TV service.

This study is significant because it extended the technology acceptance models by adding the factor of users’ attachment to mobile phones and incorporated the moderating effects of the individual characteristics of gender, experience, and age. Managerial implications, limitations of the study, and suggestions for future study are discussed in the last chapter.

Rights

© 2010, Seoyoon Choi

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