The Impacts of Self-Construal and Perceived Risk on Technology Readiness

Abstract

This paper explores how different self-construals interact with perceived risk and influence tourism consumers’ technology readiness toward tourism mobile apps. The study used 284 tourist participants to show that tourism consumers, regardless of self-construal type, have a negative perception of technology readiness when they perceive a high level of risk. Furthermore, those with independent self-construal have a more positive perception of technology readiness than those with an interdependent self-construal when they perceive a low level of risk. The results also show that technology readiness mediates the relationship between self-construal and use intention toward mobile apps. Based on these results, we proposed the following practical implications. First, companies need to find and lower potential risks that can be perceived in tourism mobile apps. They must also deliver different messages according to consumers’ self-construal. Companies should provide independents with information related to the positive benefits obtained through the mobile app, and interdependents should be provided with information that reduces perceived losses.

The Impact of Social Media Use on Consumers’ Restaurant Consumption Experiences: A Qualitative Study

“…Along with characteristics of restaurant choices (e.g., more flexible task and less complex decision), consumers have relatively high levels of uncertainty in their choices regarding restaurants compared to purchasing products. Therefore, consumers are more likely to be involved in searching for information to reduce the perceived risk of their decisions; they keep open the option to change their decisions according to the context they face, such as information obtained from external sources, rather than adhering to the initial planned decision [34,35]. In addition, current consumers can freely share and upload their restaurant consuming experiences with others, utilising developed mobile tools [36][37][38].…”

“…(Respondent 22, male, aged [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] Many of the interviewees stated that utilising social media on smartphones is convenient because of portability while they were en route and when they needed to decide on a restaurant. In addition, some respondents utilised social media for their restaurant selection process, as they regarded that social media use based on smartphones did not interrupt their media use activities, regardless of time and place.…”

“…(Respondent 18, female, aged [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] Content gratification is derived from the utilisation of messages that are more related to intrinsic value, as compared to process gratification, which focuses more on extrinsic value. According to the results of this study, four themes were identified that could help consumers to be motivated to adopt social media for their restaurant selection process: specific information, popular dish/place, trustworthiness and amount of information.…”

“…(Respondent 20, female, aged [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] Lastly, in addition to process and content gratification, social gratification was identified to help consumers adopt social media on smartphones for consumers' restaurant selection process. According to Stafford and Stafford (2001), social gratification more concerns users' mutual communication with other people through the medium [97].…”

“I” Am Willing to Disclose, but “We” are Unwilling: The Impact of Self-Construal on Individuals’ Willingness to Disclose

“…Second, the current findings extend the emerging research stream that advocates for the significance of self-construal in individual behavior by linking self-construal to privacy-related decision-making. [17][18][19] Furthermore, showing the mediating effect of regulatory focus open up a myriad of potential implications of regulatory focus theory to the privacy literature. Third, prior research suggested that people are reluctant to share their private data when they are exposed to information framed as a threat or danger.…”