The role of utilitarian and hedonic values and their antecedents in a mobile data service environment

Abstract

Attracting new users is critical for the success of new information and communication technologies (ICT) such as mobile data services (MDS). Given the rapid growth and large investments in ICT, it is important to understand the formation processes of user behaviors in the ICT environment. This study develops a theoretical framework to examine the role of utilitarian and hedonic values in an MDS adoption phenomenon. This study also presents an investigation of the key antecedents of utilitarian and hedonic values to understand the mechanism of enhancing these values. This study posits information quality, system quality, and perceived fee as the key antecedents of utilitarian and hedonic values. The proposed research model is empirically evaluated by using survey data collected from 120 potential adopters. The results of this study show that the adoption intention is solely determined by utilitarian value. The findings also indicate that the information quality and perceived fee play a significant role in the formation of adoption intention of MDS. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.