An examination of factors influencing consumer adoption of short message service (SMS)

Abstract

Factors related to consumer adoption of short message service (SMS) are analyzed in this article. Our structural equation model identifies perceived enjoyment (PENJ), perceived monetary value (PMV), perceived usefulness (PU), and perceived ease of use (PEU) as four major factors that directly affect Korean mobile phone users' SMS adoption. We also find that network factor (NET), interface convenience (IC), and context controllability (CC) have significant indirect impacts on consumer adoption of SMS through their respective paths on perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU). Our findings demonstrate that SMS must be perceived as enjoyable and pleasant, because consumers' motivation to use enjoyable and pleasant services like SMS enhances their value perceptions of SMS such as perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU). The findings also suggest that more convenient and easier-to-use system interfaces, greater context controllability across various SMS usage contexts, and greater network externalities can facilitate SMS adoption in the future. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.