Smartphone Dependency and Its Impact on Purchase Behavior

Abstract

People nowadays seem to become dependent towards smartphone due to its convenience, great camera features, easy applications' installations, and more importantly, it can do most of the computer functions on the go. Significantly, smartphone usage in Malaysia is growing enormously and has become a significant and lucrative industry. This study aims to understand the antecedents and the outcome of the smartphone dependency among smartphone consumers. Two theories -the theory of uses and gratification and the media dependency theorywere used as the theoretical basis for this study, in order to determine the motivations to use a smartphone and to define dependency and its outcome. The antecedent variables were convenience, social need and social influence; and all of these dimensions are conceptualized as one-dimensional. The outcome of dependency on smartphones was expected to be the purchase behavior. Data analyses were based on 226 valid questionnaires that were collected among smartphone users. The result from the Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Partial Least Square (PLS) shows that only social needs and social influence significantly influenced the smartphone dependency among consumers, therefore indicating that these two factors are important to influence dependency on the smartphone. In addition, the analysis also verifies that the purchase behavior is the outcome of the dependency on the smartphone. Based on these results, marketers could focus on creating dependency among consumers on smartphone usage based on the consumers' social need, which eventually will promote future purchase behavior in the long run. More importantly, understanding social influences as antecedents Keywords: dependency on smartphone, purchase behavior, theory of uses and gratification, theory of media dependency

A Study of Purchase Intention on Smartphones of Post 90s in Hong Kong

“…This study shows that social influence is significant and positively related to purchase intention of smartphone. It is consistent with the results of other studies (Harun, Sulong and Bin;2015;Lim, Han and Chan;2013). As most of the respondents' age is around 18-25 (80%) as proposed in this research.…”

The Relationship between Social Factor, Dependency, Addiction, and Behavioral Intentions of Smartphones

“…Harun et. al., [10] argued that the purchase behavior is the outcome of the dependency on the smartphone. Based on these results, marketers could focus on creating dependency among consumers on smartphone usage based on the consumers' social need, which eventually will promote future purchase behavior in the long run.…”

“…People nowadays seem to become dependent towards smartphone due to its convenience, great camera features, easy applications' installations, and more importantly, it can do most of the computer functions on the go [10]. A smartphone can provide its users some benefits such as social networking apps, gaming, and work or information apps.…”

“…A smartphone can provide its users some benefits such as social networking apps, gaming, and work or information apps. Consequently, it is crucial for researchers and managers to grasp the cause and effect behind smartphone dependency to understand user behavior and to sustain sales of smartphone and its market share [10].…”

“…There are a few studies on smartphone dependency [10][11][12][13] but little is done to analyze the effects of smartphone dependency and addiction on behavioral intentions in the perspective of the bright side. These studies indicate that dependency and addiction of smartphones can have positive effects on behavioral intentions.…”