Research On User Adoption Of 3G Mobile Services

With the involvment and application of 3G mobile services in the government, the prospects of 3G industry attract great attention and investment enthusiasm. Although the whole industry has expressed great expectation in 3G development, the terminal customers in the industrial chain haven’t show much interest. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information industry, by 2010, China’s 3G users is 47.05 million, accounting for 5.4% of all mobile users, far behind the international average of 16%. One of key determinants of 3G industry’s success is that 3G mobile service should be accepted and used by mobile users. In China, user’s low adoption of 3G mobile service hampers the development of 3G industry. Large groups of potential users provide a huge potential for the development of 3G industry. How to make potential users to accept and use the 3G mobile service? What are the key factors that affect the users’ adoption behavior? What services should mobile operators provide for different user groups? Understanding of these issues is conducive to urgently detect and modify shortcomings of 3G industry.we propose a 3G mobile service adoption model from environmental, technical, task and individual factors in the context of China.Then we verify the theoretical model by empirical methods in order to identify key factors that impact 3G mobile users’ adoption behavior. The study also analyzes difference of key factors that affect adoption of 3G mobile services among different experience, age, gender users.The major procedures of this study are as follows:First, through the review of mobile service adoption, this study lays a foundation for theoretical framework and conceptual model.Second, On the basis of literature reiveiw, this study proposes a conceptual model.of 3G mobile service adoption in the context of China. To measure the constructs, validated items used by other researcher is adapted. The intial changes to the questionnaire are conducted based on the context of China.Third, a large-scale survey is conducted based on refined scales. Confirmatory factor analysis is used to test the convergent validity, discriminant validity and reliability of the study constructs. The hypotheses is tested by structural equation model. The moderator effect of direct experience, indirect experience, gender and age is tested by multi-group structural equation model.Fourth, the preference behavior of 3G users is analyzed based on conjoint analysis. The preference behavior difference between two sub-group users is compared in this study. This study also discusses preference behavior’s impact on adoption behavior.Finally, to sum up, the theoretical and practical contributions, limitations and future research directions of this study are pointed out.The major conclusions of this study are as follows:First, TAM model is still applicable and has some explanatory powers in the context of China 3G mobile service, but the impact strength has decreased.Second, In three external factors, subjective norm positive influences of subjective norms on adoption intention is significant, but its impact on the perceived usefulness is not significant. Individual innovation has two effects on adoption intention. Individual innovation has direct positive impact on adoption intention and indirectly affects adoption intention through perceived usefulness. Perceived price has a two-way effect on adoption intention. On the one hand, higher perceived price will decrease users’ adoption intention. On the other hand higher perceived price will increase perceived usefulness and then indirectly enhance adoption intention.Third, in this study, experience is divided into direct experience and indirect experience. Two different experiences’moderator effects are respectively tested. Results of the study show the moderator effects of two experiences are not the same.Fourth, the moderator effects of gender and age are tested in this study. The results show that perceived ease of use has more significant influence on perceived usefulness in female users.But the moderator effects of age hasn’t support by data.Fifth, price and brand are the two important factors that affect users’ choice. In four 3G services, mobile internet and mobile video call are two favorite services. In the "price preference" users, price is the most import factor but four 3G moblie service’s affect is low. but in the "service preference" users, mobile internet and mobile video call are import factors as brand and price.There are three innovations in this thesis.First, the study proposes a 3G mobile service adoption model and tests by empirical research to reveal the key factors that affect users’ adoption behavior. The special nature of 3G mobile services implies the difference in the decision process of user adoption. The 3G mobile service adoption model proposed in this study riches the mobile service adoption literatures, and will be conducive to promote further study on 3G mobile service.Second, the study also finds that the perceived price has a two-way effect on behavioral intention. Mobile service is an innovation of non-enterprise environment. Scholars have studied perceived price’s influence in decision process of user adoption. But most scholars focuses on perceived price’s negative effect on behavioral intention. This study not only confirms the existence of this relationship, but also find that the perceived price has indirect positive effect on behavioral intention through perceived usefulness. This not only reveals the mechanism of perceived price on the behavior intention, but also has provided a theoretical guidance for practical operation of mobile operators.Third, experience is an important individual factor in IS adoption, but scholars haven’t further divided difference experiences. In this study experience is divided into direct experience and indirect experience. Two difference experiences’moderator effect are respectively tested. Results of the study showed the moderator effects of two experiences are not same. The moderator effect of direct experience exists in the formation path of perceived usefulness, but the moderator effect of indirect experience exists in the formation path of adoption intention. These research results help scholars better understand the different dimensions of experience, reveal the mechanism of different experiences on users’adoption behavior, and give guidance for practical operation of mobile operators.