Factors affecting intentions to use mobile content services in ho chi minh city

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

HUYNH TRAC SIEU

FACTORS AFFECTING INTENTIONS TO USE
MOBILE CONTENT SERVICES
IN HO CHI MINH CITY

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2014


UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

HUYNH TRAC SIEU

FACTORS AFFECTING INTENTIONS TO USE
MOBILE CONTENT SERVICES
IN HO CHI MINH CITY
ID: 22120137

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)
SUPERVISOR: DINH CONG KHAI, PhD

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2014

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost, I respectfully express my gratefulness to my research instructor,
Dr. Đinh Công Khải for his warmly supports, taking the time from the beginning of
the research to shape my research design and during every step of the thesis process.
To my ISB Research Committee (IRC), I would like to thank for your
recommending and putting me back on track of research. Besides, I would be
grateful to Professor Nguyễn Đình Thọ for his encouragement, insightful
recommendations, and value requirements during my process.
My sincere thanks also come to my teachers at International Business School University of Economic Ho Chi Minh City who provide a lot of knowledge for me
during my MBA course.
I would also like to thank many different individuals who help me in my developing
research, especially the professional mobile development department in UFS
International Inc. Moreover, I owe thanks to my close friend – Hồ Quang Chi Bảo;
your assistances and contributed comments made my research measurement scales
more accurate and fit.
Furthermore, I would like to specially send my thanks to my classmates, my friends
who are working in banks, schools, industrial zones, software development
companies, and mobile application development companies for their support during
my research.
Dad and Mom, I could not go far on my way without your encouragement. Again, I
give my gratefulness to you, regarding to the many sacrifices you made. I am proud
to be your son.
Finally, to my beloved wife, I deeply appreciate the patience and sacrifices, which
you sent to me. Without your hands to take care our small home, I could never have
made my thesis so far.

iii

ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this study is to examine the factors that affect customers’
behavioral intention to use mobile content services, which enhance the
understanding of Vietnamese mobile consumers as client of technology services.
The proposed research model base on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and
the consideration of Yang and Yoo (2004), whereas both affective and cognitive
attitudes as two parts of attitude construct in TAM.
In this study, perceived convenience and perceived mobility are also introduced as
external factors that reflect the behavioral intention to use mobile content services,
in addition, the mediating role of affective attitude between cognitive attitude and
behavior intention is investigated.
The study analyzed a sample of 505 consumer responses in Ho Chi Minh City, the
results showed that all the cognitive and affective attitudes, perceived mobility,
perceived convenience, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use - have
impact on the behavioral to use mobile content services via direct-effect, indirecteffect or both.
The finding of this research most focused on providing a guideline for future
direction of mobile content services, especially most focus on the attitude change
toward using the mobile services.

Keywords: Mobile content services, behavioral intention, cognitive attitude,
affective attitude, perceived mobility, perceived convenience.


iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... iii

LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................. vi
LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................. vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................ viii
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................9
1.1

Research Background ................................................................................. 9

1.2

Research Motivation ................................................................................ 11

1.3

Research Objectives ................................................................................. 12

1.4

Research Scopes....................................................................................... 12

1.5

Significance of the Research .................................................................... 13

1.6

Research Methodology ............................................................................. 13

1.7

Structure of Research ............................................................................... 13

1.8

Summary .................................................................................................. 14

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH MODEL .......... 15
2.1

Mobile Content Services .......................................................................... 15

2.2

Theory of Reasoned Action ...................................................................... 17

2.3

Theory of Planned Behavior ..................................................................... 18

2.4

Technology Acceptance Model ................................................................ 18

2.4.1.

Revised Original TAM with Separate Affective and Cognitive Attitude. 20

2.4.2.

Perceived Convenience – An External Variable of TAM ....................... 22

2.5

Perceived Mobility ................................................................................... 23

2.6

Research Model and Hypothesis Development ......................................... 23

2.6.1.

Theoretical Model .................................................................................. 23

2.6.2.

The Competitive Model ......................................................................... 27

2.7

Summary .................................................................................................. 28

CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .............................................. 29
3.1

Research Process ...................................................................................... 29


v

3.2

Construct Measurement............................................................................ 31

3.3

Measurement Refinement......................................................................... 33

3.3.1.

Qualitative Pilot Study ........................................................................... 33

3.3.2.

Quantitative Pilot Study ......................................................................... 34

3.4

Main Study .............................................................................................. 38

3.5

Data Analysis ........................................................................................... 40

3.5.1.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis ................................................................ 40

3.5.2.

Structural Equation Modeling ................................................................ 40

3.6

Summary .................................................................................................. 41

CHAPTER 4. DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS ......................................... 43
4.1

Sample Specification ................................................................................ 43

4.2

Confirmatory Factor Analysis .................................................................. 44

4.3

SEM Approach for Theoretical Model ..................................................... 48

4.4

Optimized the Theoretical Model ............................................................. 50

4.5

Competitive Model Test ........................................................................... 52

4.6

Applying Bootstrap Procedure ................................................................. 55

4.7

Hypotheses Testing .................................................................................. 57

4.8

Construct Effects ...................................................................................... 59

4.9

Models’ Generalized Squared Multiple Correlation.................................. 60

4.10

Summary .................................................................................................. 61

CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND LIMITATIONS.... 62
5.1

Conclusions.............................................................................................. 62

5.2

Managerial Implications ........................................................................... 64

5.3

Limitation and Further Research .............................................................. 65

REFERENCES ..................................................................................................... 68

Appendix A. ......................................................................................................... 77
Appendix B........................................................................................................... 83
Appendix C........................................................................................................... 86
Appendix D. ......................................................................................................... 89
Appendix E ........................................................................................................... 90
Appendix F ........................................................................................................... 93


vi

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1. The Theory of Reasoned Action model………………………………..17
Figure 2.2. Theory of Planned Behavioral ............................................................. 18
Figure 2.3. First modified version of TAM ........................................................... 19
Figure 2.4. Final version of TAM ......................................................................... 19
Figure 2.5. TAM with Affective and Cognitive Attitude ....................................... 21
Figure 2.6. Revised TAM with Intention, Affective and Cognitive Attitude .......... 21
Figure 2.7. The proposed theoretical model .......................................................... 24
Figure 2.8. The competitive model ........................................................................ 28
Figure 3.1. Research process ................................................................................. 30
Figure 4.1. Saturated model of the theoretical model ............................................ 46
Figure 4.2. Standardized SEM results for theoretical model .................................. 49
Figure 4.3. The optimized theoretical model ......................................................... 51
Figure 4.4. The Standardized SEM results of Competitive Model ......................... 53
Figure 4.5. The final research model ..................................................................... 56


vii

LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1
Table 3.1
Table 3.2
Table 3.3
Table 4.1
Table 4.2
Table 4.3
Table 4.4
Table 4.5
Table 4.6
Table 4.7
Table 4.8
Table 4.9
Table 4.10
Table 4.11
Table 4.12
Table A1
Table A2
Table A3
Table D1
Table E1
Table E2
Table E3
Table F1
Table F2
Table F3
Table F4
Table F5
Table F6

Table F7
Table F8
Table F9
Table F10
Table F11

Summary of Supporting Works for Research Proposition ................ 27
Cronbach’s Alpha ............................................................................ 36
EFA Results.................................................................................... 38
Summary of the Data Collection Process ......................................... 40
Respondent Demographic ................................................................ 44
Correlations between Constructs ...................................................... 47
Measurement Validation .................................................................. 48
Construct Relations.......................................................................... 48
Relations of Constructs (Standardized) ............................................ 52
Competing Measurement Modeling ................................................. 54
Summary of Models ........................................................................ 54
Competitive Model-Relations of Constructs (Standardized) ............. 55
Bootstrap Results (Final Model) ...................................................... 55
Hypotheses Test – Results (Standardized)........................................ 57
The Direct, Indirect and Overall Effects........................................... 59
The Squared Multiple Correlations (R-squared Values) ................... 60
Original Measurement Scales .......................................................... 77
Measurement Scale (Draft Questionnaire) ....................................... 78
Final Measurement Scales (Final Draft Questionnaire) .................... 80
KMO and Bartlett's Test .................................................................. 89
Assessment of Normality ................................................................. 90
Estimates of Saturated Model (Unstandardized)............................... 91
Standardized Regression Weight (Saturated Model) ........................ 92
Covariances – MI for Theoretical Model ......................................... 93

SEM – Estimates Optimized Model (Unstandardized) ..................... 93
SEM – Estimates Optimized Model (Standardized) ......................... 94
SEM – Estimates Competitive Model (Unstandardized) .................. 95
SEM – Estimates Competition Model(Standardized) ....................... 96
Bootstrap – Final Selected Model (Standardized) ............................ 97
SEM – Variances of Residuals, Independent Constructs .................. 98
Bootstrap – Bootstrap Distributions (Final Model)........................... 99
Squared Multiple Correlations ....................................................... 101
Standardized Residuals for Theoretical Model ............................... 102
Standardized Residuals for Optimized Model ................................ 103


viii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AA

Affective Attitude

BI

Behavior Intention

CA

Cognitive Attitude

CFA

Confirmatory Factor Analysis

CFI

Comparative Fit Index

CMIN

Chi-Squared Value

EFA

Exploratory Factor Analysis

IS

Information System

KMO

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Value

MI

Modification Indices

ML

Maximum Likelihood

MCS

Mobile Content Services

P

P-Value

PC

Perceived Convenience

PEU

Perceived Ease Of Use

PM

Perceived Mobility

PU

Perceived Usefulness

RMSEA

Root Mean Square Error Of Approximation

SEM

Structural Equation Modeling

TAM

Technology Acceptance Model

TLI

Tucker & Lewis Index

TPB

Theory Of Planned Behavior

TRA

Theory Of Reasoned Action


9

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
This chapter introduces the background of mobile content services in general and a
basic description of mobile content services in particular. Subsequently, the
research motivation, research objectives, research scopes and methodology are
mentioned.
1.1

Research Background

This research focuses on main factors affecting the behavioral intention to use
mobile content services (MCS) among Vietnamese consumers. The relevance of the
topic relates to important themes: the theme of continuous information technology
(IT) development and the theme of information technology acceptance and use.
These themes are extremely meaningful to the business sector because business
process under information technology revolution is transforming the way we do
business (Mahabir & Geeta, 2013).
Over the last few years, the developments of IT have pushed strong motivation
forces on mobile technology. Therefore, mobile technology has grown up rapidly
and brought a key impact on human life, as the number of mobile devices has
reached 4.6 billion in the world (CBSnews, 2010). Gartner (2011) has reported that
mobile applications would not only generate $15.9 billion in expected end-user
spending in 2012, but also drive other smartphone segments such as advertising
spending, phone device sales and mobile technology innovation. By offering
context-aware features that provide various function services to a user’s mobile
environment, mobile content services have redefined the user experiences and
shaped a highly competitive marketplace, which enchants the interest of a number
of stakeholders including device vendors, merchants, mobile application developers
and marketing firms.
According to IDC’s Vietnam Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, a total 5.8 million
mobile phones have been shipped to Vietnam in the second quarter of 2013. In


10

addition to the huge smartphone devices used, the internet users and mobile
subscriber penetration of Vietnam are rated highly compared to others in Southeast
Asia. The proportion of mobile subscribers sways the sceptre with 174% and
internet usages are just lower than Singapore and Thailand (IMF, 2010). Compared
to other countries in ASEAN, the Vietnamese market is at the maturity state of

laptop product life cycle with the highest demand when it has reached a state of
equilibrium, while smartphones and tablets are potential with low start. Regarding
the data usage, there are 2.1 billion advertisements served to mobile devices in
Vietnam every month; that is more than 805 advertisements every second passing
through mobile devices (ITU, 2012), 62% of Vietnam’s internet users accessed via
mobile devices and mobile internet user in Vietnam reached 19 million – according
to Mobile Day Vietnam (2012). Ernst and Young’s Advisory Services (2013) state
regarding the mobile money, a part of mobile content services, as follows:
We are convinced that the growth of mobile money services will be one of
the most significant trends of the coming years. It promises many new
benefits for users around the world and is undoubtedly going to shape the
telecommunications, technology and financial services industries (p. 5).
The increasing roles of mobile devices and mobile content services in Vietnam
based on the facts presented above have explained the reason why it is significant to
investigate mobile content services.
Technology is one of the important factors profoundly changing the nature of
services and the way in which firms interact with their customers (Bitner, 2001).
Customers with their complex behaviors involve the use and disposal of products
and services. However, “how to know” the consumer behaviors is difficult and
complex to research, especially in technology market segment. Accordingly,
explaining consumer acceptance of new technology such as mobile data content
services has been a longstanding research. Since the financial cost for mobile
technology infrastructure has often been invested at high budget, it is wasted for


11

companies if they do not get enough mobile clients for their profit. Currently, there
are dramatically successful Vietnamese mobile content services providers such as
Mobifone, VinaPhone, Viettel, nhacuatui.com, and Zing. However, many other

companies got failure and withdrew their businesses such as Beeline and Hanoi
Mobile. Over the past two years, the mobile market in Vietnam has taken major
steps forward but mobile content services have not matched potential. Despite the
rapid growth in the mobile content services, research towards consumers’ intention
behavior is scarce.
Hence, this study focuses on the factors affecting the behavioral intention of mobile
content services and tries to clarify the factors influence the consumers’ behavioral
intention in the context of Vietnam mobile market’s development.
1.2

Research Motivation

As numerous mobile devices are used for multi purposes, mobile content services
provide many convenient ways for mobile clients to easily access information by
mobile devices. Huge new mobile services are provided but the acceptance of these
services has always been the big question and needs to be answered. Regarding the
acceptance of mobile technology research, many studies have been conducted
(Suoranta, 2003; Cheong & Park, 2005; Kaasinen, 2005; Lu, Yao & Yu, 2005).
Since a lot of studies focused on mobile banking such as research done by
Sripalawat, Thongmak, and Ngramyarn (2011), Suoranta and Mattila (2004), Yang
(2009) or on mobile internet (Ying & Shieh, 2009), “Mobile Content Services” is
the new concept that covers a set of “mobile communication services”, “mobile
commercial services”, “mobile entertainment services”, and “mobile information
services”. However, there are limited studies pertaining to what are the factors that
affect customers’ behavior intention to use mobile content services, especially in
Vietnam market.


12

According to the reviews above, this study tries to figure out how to pinpoint the
significant factors that affect the behavioral intention to use mobile content services
among Vietnamese consumers. This also provides solutions or implications to
enhance opportunities for mobile services providers so that they can sustainably
develop mobile content services market in Vietnam.
1.3

Research Objectives

The main objective of this study is to examine the factors that affect customers’
behavioral intention to use mobile content services, enhance our understanding of
Vietnamese mobile consumers as clients of technology services. In specific the
objectives are:
(1)

To examine the causal factors that affect consumers’ behavioral intention to
use mobile content services;

(2)

To examine the important effects of cognitive and affective attitude on
behavioral intention to use mobile content services.

1.4

Research Scopes

According to the research objectives, this study focuses on Vietnamese mobile
users. Moreover, this research is conducted in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) – the
biggest city located in the South of Vietnam. Currently, HCMC is the economic,

technology and financial hub of Vietnam, which attracts migrants from other
provinces. As a result of this, the city’s official population was 7,990,100 in 2013
(General Statistics Office, 2013). Therefore, this place has more mobile users than
other places or areas.
Again, customers in this study are limited to individual mobile clients and not
institutions or groups who are also customers of many mobile content services
providers in Vietnam. Finally, the research only focuses on the factors affecting
behavioral intentions to use mobile content services, hence, the other dependent


13

factors such as “use behavior” and “actual use” are out of the contents of this
research.
1.5

Significance of the Research

This study contributes to the application of the attitude change process. It is a
meaningful outcome for researchers in analysis the process of attitude change. It
also embosses the important roles of other factors affect on behavioral intention to
use mobile content services in Vietnam market. Regarding the managerial
implications, these finding help managers to control the attitudes change and next,
improving the user’s acceptance of technology. It brings valuable practical
implications for mobile operators so that they can improve the usage of mobile
content services.
1.6

Research Methodology

This study utilizes two forms of qualitative and quantitative research. The research
includes pilot study and main study. Firstly, the pilot study is undertaken by
qualitative and quantitative methods while the main study is used quantitative
method. Secondly, in the pilot study, a draft of questionnaires is created; after that,
it still needs a refining for the final questionnaire. Next, in the main study, the final
questionnaires are distributed via email, social network and in hardcopy to
respondents. In order to reduce time during sampling process, the convenience
sampling is used. Finally, the analysis tools such as IBM SPSS 22, IBM AMOS 22
and Microsoft Excel 2012 are used for data analysis process. Chapter 3 provides
more details of research methodology.
1.7

Structure of Research

The structure of research consists of five chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction


14

This chapter introduces the readers to the background of mobile content services in
general, as well as, research motivation and research objectives. Subsequently,
research scope, research methodology and research structure are outlined.
Chapter 2: Literature Review and Research Model
In this chapter, the author provides the literature reviews that concern the mobile
content services, theoretical models and competitive model. Finally, the research
model is presented.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
This part presents brief description of the research methodology, which includes the
research process, construct measurements, measurement refinement, main study and

data analysis methods.
Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Results
Chapter 4 presents the sample specification and data analysis. Based on the results,
the author draws conclusions for the proposed hypotheses.
Chapter 5: Conclusions, Implications and Limitations
This chapter presents the main conclusions, implications and limitations. Moreover,
the recommendations for future research are also provided.
1.8

Summary

The research begins with the introduction, which discusses the research background
of mobile content services in general. Then the research motivation explains why
there is a need for this research. It summaries the status and gaps of mobile content
services, since a lot of study focused on mobile application; however, there are
limited studies pertaining to what the factors affect consumer’s behavioral intention
to use mobile content services, especially in Vietnam. Based on the research
objectives and resources, the scope of research is the examination of the individual
mobile clients who use the mobile devices and data content services in Ho Chi
Minh City. Finally, the overviews of research methodology and research structure
are presented. The next chapter presents the literature review, research model and
hypothesis development.


15

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH MODEL
This chapter focuses on five important contents: (1) Mobile content services
definitions; (2) the major theories built from belief, attitude, intention and
technology acceptance model (TAM); (3) Attitude with separated cognitive and

affective constructs; (4) Perceived convenience and (5) Perceived mobility
characteristics reviews. After theoretical reviews, the research model and
hypotheses are proposed accordingly.
2.1

Mobile Content Services

Mobile Content Services are services process in which customers participate with
their mobile devices to get multifarious contents. These contents are provided by the
service providers as an outcome and delivered to the customer’s mobile device or to
the customer in any other forms (Niemela, 2006). Mobile content services are
delivered to or used with mobile phone via public telecommunications network.
Payment for these services may occur immediately by card or other ways such as
post payment through user’s phone bill, deducing mobile prepaid account.
Mobile content services are results of technological innovations as outcome of
information technology revolution. Mobile content services and mobile applications
do not exist separately; they merged and quickly emerged together due to the
convergence of Internet, Media, Social Media, Information technology and
telecommunications technology. Mobile content services consist of digital services
which are added to mobile networks or integrated into mobile devices other than
traditional voice services; hence, it is postulated that the benefit offered by these
services are highly diverse (Bouwman, López-Nicolás, Molina-Castillo & Van
Hattum, 2012).
Because of the convergence of technology as discussed above, the terms Mobile
Content Services, Mobile Data Services and Mobile Applications have often been


16

used interchangeably by various studies. Fang and colleagues (2006) categorize the

type of mobile services based on their objectives into three types:
(1)

General tasks: These tasks do not involve transaction and gamming such as
mobile email, mobile SMS, browse website, map and search location
services.

(2)

Transaction tasks: These tasks include mobile banking, mobile money and
online purchase via internet-store.

(3)

Entertainment tasks: These tasks include gaming and entertainment data
services such as mobile game, vote/contest via value added public number,
polyphonic ring tones, downloading logo, wallpapers, listening music via
mobile network and standby background music.

These three types of tasks differ in their objectives. The objective of general tasks is
to search information or communicate with other parties whereas the goal of
transaction tasks is to commit financial transactions. The purpose of entertainment
tasks is to entertain their performers. All of the three tasks above can be found in
Vietnam.
Besides, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) classifies mobile data
services into four categories: communication services, information content services,
entertainment services and commercial services (ITU, 2002; Sadeh, 2002). Mobile
communication services, which are the most widely used form of mobile content
services, include short message service (SMS), multimedia message service
(MMS), e-mails and mobile chatting (ITU, 2002). Mobile entertainment services

include ring-tones, digital characters, horoscope, mobile gamming, mobile video,
and mobile music. Information content services deliver information contents such as
weather news, maps, sport news, traffic information, location based information and
news headlines. Finally, commercial services enable consumer to purchase financial
transactions, booking online, shopping and payment online. All of four categories
can be found in Vietnam.


17

2.2

Theory of Reasoned Action

Figure 2.1 shows a model of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), which is
proposed by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975).

Figure 2.1. The Theory of Reasoned Action model (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980)
The ultimate objective of TRA is to predict and discover an individual’s behavior
(Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). Ajezen and Fishbein recommend that individual’s actual
behavior can be determined by considering his or her prior intention along with the
beliefs that a person have for the given behavior. According to TRA, individual’s
intention consists of two basic determinants: attitude that a person has toward the
actual behavior and subjective norm associates with the behavior in question.
Suggesting that attitude of a person toward behavior (A) can be measured by
calculating the sum of the product of all salient beliefs ( : consequences of
performing that behavior) and an evaluation ( ) of those consequences, we have the
formula as below:
A=∑

The subjective norm (SN) can be determined by considering the sum of the product
of a person’s normative beliefs (n ) which is the perceived expectation of other
individuals or groups and his or her motivation to comply (

). The formula for

measuring the subjective norm along with an actual behavior:
SN = ∑

Hence, the individual behavior intention (BI) can be determined by one formula as
below:
BI = A + SN


18

TRA provides a useful model that can explains and predicts the actual behavior of
an individual fairy well.
2.3

Theory of Planned Behavior

Ajzen (1985) has extended TRA model by proposing the Theory of Planned
Behavior (TPB). Actually, the TPB model is not different from TRA model. In
addition, it takes into account one new construct: perceived behavioral control
(PBC). PBC refers to the perception of control over performance of a given
behavior. PBC is predicted by the effect of two beliefs: control belief and perceived
facilitation. Control beliefs include perceived availability of skills, resources and
opportunities, whereas perceived facilitation is the personal assessment of available
resources to the achievement of a given set of outcomes (Mathieson, 1991). Figure

2.2 shows the model for the TPB.

Figure 2.2. Theory of Planned Behavioral (Matheison, 1991)
2.4

Technology Acceptance Model

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) applies Fishbein and Ajen’s Theory of
Reasoned Action (TRA) as theoretical basic to explain causal relationship between
the variables in the model (Davis, Bagozzi & Warshaw, 1989). See Figure 2.3 for
the first modified version of TAM.


19

Figure 2.3. First modified version of TAM (Davis et al, 1989)
This version posits that technology acceptance can be explicated by two variables:
“perceived usefulness” and “perceived ease of use”. Perceived usefulness is defined
as “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would
enhance his or her job performance”. Perceived ease of use is defined as “the degree
to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort”.
Although perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are not only variables
affecting acceptance, they seem to hold a central role (Davis, 1989). This model
also shows that there is case when given system, perceived usefulness and one
person may have a strong behavior intention to use the system without pass through
any attitude. That means there is a direct link between perceived usefulness and
behavioral intention bypass the attitude variable.
Davis et al. (1989) use above model to deploy a study with 107 users to measure
their intention to use system after one-hour introduction about the system and repeat
14 weeks later. Their results show that both “perceived usefulness” and “perceived

ease of use” influence directly on behavior intention to use, thus they eliminate the
role of attitude construct from the model. See Figure 2.4 for the final version of
TAM.

Figure 2.4. Final version of TAM (Venkatesh & Davis, 1996)


20

2.4.1. Revised Original TAM with Separate Affective and Cognitive Attitude
As previous review, attitude is one construct of first version of TAM. It uses
Fishbein and Ajen’s Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) as theoretical basic to
explain the causal relationship between the variables in model (Davis et al., 1989).
However, in the last version, Davis and his colleagues eliminate attitude construct
out of model (Figure 2.4). Although Davis and his colleagues omit attitude from
TAM, many other studies have used the original TAM (included attitude), for
instance, Agarwal and Prasad (1999); Lu, Yao, and Yu (2005); Curran and Meuter
(2005). Thus, it is extremely difficult to compare these studies with contradictory
findings about attitude since consistent measures of attitudes are not used across
studies.
Based on TRA, TAM conceptualizes attitude as an affective unidimensional
construct. Contrary to TAM, Cacioppo, Petty, and Crites (1994) have argued: “the
most common classification for the basis of attitude is affect and cognition”. The
affective dimension of attitude focuses on how much the person likes the object of
thought and measures the degree of emotional attraction toward the object. On the
other hand, the cognitive dimension of attitude refers to an individual’s specific
beliefs related to the object and consists of the evaluation, judgment, reception or
perception of the object of thought based on values.
Yang and Yoo (2004) believe that attitude might have important effects on
information system use so that it needs to be reconsidered in the TAM. They also

propose that instead of eliminating the attitude construct as Davis et al. (1989)
worked, two cognitive and affective attitude dimensions are considered (Figure 2.5).
In there, “the cognitive dimension of attitude directly influences individual
information system use, while the affective dimension needs to be treated as an
overcome variable of its own”. Consistent with this perspective, the cognitive
attitude describes the expected performance of the system and the affective attitude
is closely related to the appeal and usability of the system (Zaad & Allouch, 2008).


21

Figure 2.5. TAM with Affective and Cognitive Attitude. (Yang & Yoo, 2004)
Based on the TAM from Davis et al. (1989), Yang and You’s (2004) research, with
the addition of behavioral intention back as mediator between attitude and usage,
Wang and Liu (2009) develop a conceptual model of cognitive and affective
attitude toward behavioral intentions to use Railway’s Internet Ticket System in
Taiwan. The results of their case studies show that both affective and cognitive
attitudes positively influence behavioral intention (Figure 2.6).

Figure 2.6. Revised TAM with Behavioral Intention, Affective and Cognitive
Attitude (Wang & Liu, 2009)
According to Yang and Yoo (2004), the affective dimension of attitude is
influenced by beliefs and the beliefs can be evaluative or non-evaluative (true or
false). The cognitive attitude can be assigned as an evaluative belief and developed
from non-evaluative beliefs and values, whereas, evaluative beliefs in turn develop
into affective attitude (like or hate). Therefore, Yang and Yoo (2004) point out that
“there is a hierarchical relationship among these four constructs: affective attitude is
influence by cognitive attitude, which is affected by non-evaluative beliefs, which is

22

in turn developed by values”. The empirical test of Yang and Yoo (2004) found a
positive influence of cognitive attitude on affective attitude.
Again, “attitude” might also have an effect beyond a direct impact on intention.
Several studies have investigated the positively effect of attitude on behavioral
intention, such as, the original TAM (Davis, 1986), the models of Taylor and Todd
(1995a), Morris and Dillon (1997).
2.4.2. Perceived Convenience – An External Variable of TAM
To consumers who use products or services, convenience depends on effort and
time (Berry, Seiders & Grewal, 2002). Therefore, when a product or service saves
time and effort for a user, it is considered convenient. Some researchers posit that
product or service is convenient when it lowers the emotional, cognitive and
physical burdens for a user (Chang, Yan & Tsen, 2012). Another researcher defines
the convenience of product or service by five elements: time, acquisition, use,
execution and place (Brown, 1990). According to the definition of Brown (1990),
the perceived convenience of the wireless network is measured in set of three
elements: time, place and execution (Yoo & Kim, 2007). Yoo and Kim (2007) have
defined perceived convenience as a level of convenience toward time, place and
execution that user perceives when using the wireless network to complete a task.
Moreover, when examining the extended TAM with perceived convenience, they
found that perceived convenience do not affect intention to use directly while
perceived ease of use positively affects perceived convenience and perceived
convenience positively affects perceived usefulness.
In Cheolho and Sanghoon’s (2007) study, a set of four constructs (perceived
usefulness, perceived ease of use, behavioral intention and perceived convenience)
are used to examine a ubiquitous wireless LAN environment. The results have
showed that perceived ease of use positively affects perceived convenience;
perceived convenience positively affects perceived usefulness.

23

More recent research on investigating English learning through “personal digital
assistant (PDA)” (Chang et al., 2012), which indicates a significantly positive effect
of perceived ease of use on perceived convenience, perceived convenience on
perceived usefulness and perceived convenience on attitude toward using PDAs.
2.5

Perceived Mobility

Since the mobile technology has rapidly grown, mobile content services are unique
because of the mobility. We can access the content services anytime and anywhere
so that we also control our works and entertainments in different ways. Perceived
mobility in this study is the extent to which mobile content services are perceived as
being able to provide pervasive and timely connections. This factor might resist or
facilitate usage of mobile content services. Hong, Thong, Moon, and Tam (2008)
also believe that perceived mobility might have a positive relationship with
consumers’ intention to continue use the mobile content services. Ajzen (1991,
2002) theorizes that mobility such a factor is likely to affect the formulation of
behavior intention. Amberg, Hirschmeier, and Wehrmann (2003) propose that
perceived mobility is a construct specific to mobile services.
Mobility may not be satisfied if there are not enough network signal coverage areas,
the device battery is so weak or there is not enough mobile operators offering the
mobile data services. Hence, Krueger (2001) has predicted a demand for “payment
roaming” and the pressure from users for co-operative solutions. Such payment
roaming includes both the mobile users wanting to process payments while
travelling outside of network coverage or to make payments to other networks.
Buhan, Cheong, and Tan (2002) forecast that the good solutions would be able to
interact with other solutions to create a global payment network.

2.6

Research Model and Hypothesis Development

2.6.1. Theoretical Model


24

Taking into consideration the combined models of revised TAM with separate
cognitive and affective attitudes , perceived convenience and perceived mobility,
the specific relationships among the TAM constructs and identified variables - the
theoretical model for this research are proposed (See Figure 2.7).

Figure 2.7. The proposed theoretical model
TAM explains the relationships between perceived ease of use, perceived
usefulness, attitude toward using technology and behavioral intention as the
followings: (1) perceived ease of use positively affects perceived usefulness; (2)
perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness positively affect attitude toward
using technology; (3) attitude toward using technology positively affects behavioral
intention (Davis, 1986).
Regarding perceived ease of use positively affects perceived usefulness; there are
many empirical tests, such as Davis (1986), Yang and Yoo (2004), Wang and Liu
(2009), which prove that users perform well in tasks when they do not need to pay
much effort. Therefore, hypothesis H1 is proposed as follows:
H1: Perceived ease of use positively affects perceived usefulness.
Back to research of Yang and Yoo (2004), the attitude toward using technology is
developed to affective and cognitive attitude. In there, attitude has both affective
and cognitive components. Zaad and Allouch (2008), Petty et al. (1994) have
argued: “the most common classification for the basic of attitude is affective and

cognitive”. As attitude has already been explained in the literature review of this
chapter, many studies point out the different mediating role of two attitudes between