Essays on the user behaviour in the context of emerging devices for mobile computing

Abstract

The appearance of emerging devices for mobile computing has brought users to become more active, and has offered the environment of real-time information exchange at anytime and anywhere to the users of emerging devices. In line with these changes, firms are challenged to strengthen their competitive positions in the environment of emerging devices. They can choose both defensive and offensive activities to cope with the emerging devices’ environment. This dissertation carried out studies on the user behaviour corresponds with firms’ defensive and offensive activities in the context of emerging devices; one is about customer loyalty regarding a defensive activity, the other is about advertising effectiveness regarding an offensive activity. The first study investigated the relevant predictors of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, and explores the group difference by innovativeness or device type, based on equity theory for emerging devices in the initial market of Korea. The results from an online survey of users of emerging devices and structural equation modelling, indicated that utilitarian benefit, hedonic benefit, non-monetary cost and alternative attractiveness are significant predictors of customer satisfaction, which in turn affects customer loyalty. Hedonic benefit has a stronger relationship with customer satisfaction for more innovative group and non-monetary cost has a stronger relationship with customer satisfaction for less innovative group. Non-monetary cost has a negative relationship with customer satisfaction for netbooks; an additional exploratory analysis produced no such evidence for smartphones. These findings suggest managerial implications for customer loyalty regarding emerging devices. The second study investigated the relationships among the attributes, sub-values, and effectiveness of mobile social network service (SNS) advertising. The study set the value, attitude toward advertising, and behavioural intention as the key v...