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Acceptance and Willingness to Pay for Mobile TV

Apps
Chen-Ya Wang
National Open University, ntuimgrace@gmail.com

Hsia-Ching Chang
CrystalWave Analytics, crystalwave.analytics@gmail.com

Seng-Cho T. Chou
National Taiwan University, chou@ntu.edu.tw

Fung-Fei Chen
National Taiwan University, u630792@taipower.com.tw

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Recommended Citation
Wang, Chen-Ya; Chang, Hsia-Ching; Chou, Seng-Cho T.; and Chen, Fung-Fei, "Acceptance and Willingness to Pay for Mobile TV
Apps" (2013). PACIS 2013 Proceedings. 260.
http://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2013/260

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 ACCEPTANCE AND WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR MOBILE TV
APPS

Chen-Ya Wang, Department of Management & Information, National Open University, New
Taipei City, Taiwan, R.O.C., ntuimgrace@gmail.com
Hsia-Ching Chang, CrystalWave Analytics, Taipei City, Taiwan, R.O.C.,
crystalwave.analytics@gmail.com
Seng-cho T. Chou, Department of Information Management, National Taiwan University,
Taipei City, Taiwan, R.O.C., chou@ntu.edu.tw
Fung-Fei Chen, Department of Information Management, National Taiwan University;
Taiwan Power Company Research Institute, Taipei City, Taiwan, R.O.C.,
u630792@taipower.com.tw

Abstract
In recent years, smart phone market has risen and the demands of mobile applications increase
sharply. Daily mobile applications have shown their great potential and influences throughout mobile
commerce. Mobile TV app is one of the most popular mobile applications in the entertainment genre.
Advances in 4G mobile network make high-quality mobile TV and video streaming apps prospective.
With the emergence of mobile TV apps, there is a pressing need to understand the determinants of
users' intention to use and willingness to pay. This study aims to advance our understanding of the
factors that influence the intention to use and willingness to pay for mobile TV apps by triangulating
the social cognitive theory, motivation theory and the notion of perceived value. An empirical survey
of 497 subjects who have used the mobile TV app was conducted to examine our proposed model. The
results reveal that interpersonal/external social influence, personal mobile innovativeness, perceived
usefulness, perceived enjoyment and perceived utilitarian/hedonic value significantly affect an
individual's intention to use mobile TV apps, while mobile-specific self-efficacy does not. On the other
hand, perceived utilitarian value and perceived hedonic value influence a user’s willingness to pay.
Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.
Keywords: Mobile TV app, Intention to use, Willingness to pay, Social cognitive theory, Motivation
theory, Perceived value.
1 INTRODUCTION

The recent widespread adoption and diffusion of smart phones and tablets lead to the increasing
demand of mobile applications. Smart phones owners tend to choose a variety of mobile applications
fulfilling their information and entertainment needs in daily life. TV still holds dominant lead in
traditional media because it provides both current news and various programs across different genres
over multiple channels. While traditional TV programming is confined to the networks and
broadcasting schedules, mobile TV apps enable flexibility of network and channel choice in terms of
time and space. In recent years, the number of free mobile TV apps has proliferated dramatically, and
research on their social integration with social media has garnered a lot of attention. Particular focus
has been directed toward how mobile TV app providers can increase the consumer intention to use
their services and reinforce user stickiness. Since mobile TV app providers receive income mainly
from advertising, they eagerly seek new revenue models that ensure profitability. Accordingly,
finding the factors that influence the intention to use and also the willingness to pay are important
issues for investigation.
A growing trend among researchers is to explain user behavior by applying insights derived from
social and educational psychology. Two widely used theories are social cognitive theory (SCT) and
motivation theory. According to SCT (Bandura 1986), an individual’s behavior is affected by
environmental and personal factors. Recent studies show that these factors have an impact on user
behavior in the Internet environment (Chiu et al. 2006; Lu & Lee 2010). Regarding the influence of
motivation, an early study by Davis et al. (1992) pointed out that both extrinsic and intrinsic
motivations affect an individual’s intention to use information technology (IT); this opinion was
verified in later studies on Internet services (Lee et al. 2005). In this study, we go beyond the previous
research by combining elements of both SCT and motivation theory on the understanding that the
determinants of the intention to use are usually multidimensional. For this reason also, we include a
third explanatory term, perceived value. An individual usually expects to derive some sort of value
while using products or services, and previous studies show that users have a higher intention to use
or willingness to pay for products or services if they obtain the values they desire (Hsiao 2011; Lopes
& Galletta 2006; Lu & Hsiao 2010; Turel et al. 2007). Thus, in our investigation of the factors that
influence users’ willingness to pay for mobile TV apps, we include insights from the perspective of
perceived value.
As far as we are aware, our research is the first to integrate these three perspectives in the study of
user adoption behavior. The adoption of mobile TV services and applications has not been fully
discovered. In despite of research on early adopters’ intention to use of mobile TV (Jung et al. 2009),
different mobile TV diffusion patterns between men and women in terms of their value perceptions
and preferences (Constantiou & Mahnke 2010), and stakeholder analysis of mobile TV services with a
qualitative study (Borges et al. 2011), no study has yet been done on the determinants of users’
willingness to pay for mobile TV apps. Additionally, a couple of studies focus on smartphone
adoption (Chun et al. 2012) and mobile services (Zhou 2013); however, they do not take into account
the use context of mobile Internet adoption (Yang et al. 2012). Smartphone adopters might use the
mobile devices to access the Interent and deal with daily activities via different mobile apps
depending on the use context. Therefore, this study aims to advance the theoretical and practical
understanding of the intention to use and willingness to pay for mobile TV apps from a
multidimensional lens that is able to provide strategic insights and guidelines for mobile TV app
providers. The findings are intended to serve as a reference for mobile TV app providers in planning
their marketing strategies and enhancing the services they offer.

2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESES

Bandura (1986) proposed the social cognitive theory (SCT) that provides a framework depicting the
interactive relationships among behavior, personal factors and the environment. It also explains how
people acquire and maintain certain behavioral patterns. The SCT model has gained wide acceptance
as an explanation of individual behavior (Compeau & Higgins 1995); it has also been used to
investigate user behavior in the context of computer usage (Compeau et al. 1999), knowledge sharing
(Chiu et al. 2006), and blog usage (Lu & Lee 2010), etc. According to SCT, user behavior is affected
by two major factors: personal and environmental. By adopting the perspective of SCT, we will
examine the influence of personal and environmental factors on the intention to use mobile TV apps.
From the personal aspect, the intention to use new mobile apps is mainly based on whether
individuals have the confidence to use these applications and the characteristics of curiosity or
innovativeness that drive this usage. Confidence in the ability to use mobile apps is referred to as
mobile-specific self-efficacy, and previous studies have found that the intention to use new services is
higher when individuals have a high level of this trait (Chiu & Wang 2008; Hsu & Chiu 2004). In
addition, some research has shown that individuals with higher levels of innovativeness have a higher
intention to use new technology and services (Agarwal & Prasad 1998; López-Nicolása et al. 2008).
Therefore, in this study, the personal factors considered include mobile-specific self-efficacy and
personal mobile innovativeness.
From the environmental aspect, prior research indicates that the intention to use Internet services is
strengthen by social influence, especially for services characterized by human interaction and
information sharing (Chen et al. 2009; Hung et al. 2003; Wei et al. 2009). Individuals like to
repeatedly perform one specific behavior when this behavior leads to conformity with important
others or with the social environment. This study applies the same notion to mobile TV apps and
therefore includes social influence as an environmental factor.
In addition to the personal and environmental factors mentioned above, motivational factors have
been recognized as important determinants of general human behavior (Deci & Ryan 1987) and, more
specifically, IT usage behavior (Davis et al. 1992). In the information system (IS) field, Davis et al.
(1992) argued that both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations lie behind the individual usage of IT.
Extrinsic motivation refers to “the performance of an activity because it is perceived to be
instrumental in achieving valued outcomes that are distinct from the activity itself” (Davis et al. 1992).
On the other hand, intrinsic motivation refers to “the performance of an activity for no apparent
reinforcement other than the process of performing the activity per se” (Davis et al. 1992). While
studying users’ behavior regarding IT usage, many scholars have posited that perceived usefulness is
a type of extrinsic motivation and perceived enjoyment is a type of intrinsic motivation (Davis et al.
1992; van der Heijden 2004). Numerous IS studies have explored and validated the critical roles of
perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment across various contexts, for example, the hedonic
information systems (van der Heijden 2004), e-learning (Lee et al. 2005), online retailing (Ahn et al.
2007), etc. Their findings show that individuals use IT because they derive some instrumental benefits
(extrinsic motivation) or obtain enjoyment (intrinsic motivation) from its use. Thus, the current study
includes motivational factors in attempting to understand and predict the user intention to use mobile
TV apps.
Finally, regarding the willingness to pay for products or services, prior studies have shown that
perceived value (or perceived benefits) is an essential factor in predicting IT usage and willingness to
pay (Constantiou & Mahnke 2010; Hsiao 2011; Lopes & Galletta 2006; Lu & Hsiao 2010; Turel et al.
2007). Therefore, we will also include perceived value to investigate users’ willingness to pay for
mobile TV apps. The proposed model is shown in Figure 1. It can be seen from this model that the
study integrates the perspectives of social cognitive theory, motivation theory and perceived value.
 Environmental factors
Interpersonal
social influence
External H2
social influence
H3

Personal factors
Personal mobile H4 Intention to use
innovativeness H5
Mobile-specific
self-efficacy
H6 H1
Motivational factors
H7
Perceived
usefulness H8a
Perceived Willingness to pay
enjoyment H9a

Perceived value H8b

Perceived
H9b
utilitarian value
Perceived
hedonic value
Figure 1. Research model

2.1 Intention to use and willingness to pay

In this study, the user’s intention to use (ITU) is defined as the degree to which an individual would
like to use mobile TV apps either now or in the future, whereas the willingness to pay (WTP) is
defined as the degree to which an individual is willing to pay for mobile TV apps either now or in the
future. Recently, some studies explored the WTP for various services (Hsiao 2011; Lopatovska &
Mokros 2008; Lopes & Galletta 2006; Lu & Hsiao 2010; Srinivasan et al. 2002). The results showed
that users have to be satisfied with related services and intend to use the proposed services before they
are willing to pay for them. Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:
H1: Intention to use has a positive impact on willingness to pay in mobile TV apps.

2.2 Environmental factors

Social influence (SI) is a concept that derives from the term “subjective norm,” and it is recognized as
an important determinant of behavioral intention (Taylor & Todd 1995). In the theory of reasoned
action (TRA), Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) referred to the perceived importance of what others think
about performing or not performing a specific behavior as a subjective norm. Subjective norms have
also been conceptualized as social influence (Taylor & Todd 1995) and as social norms (Thompson et
al. 1991). This study will use the term “social influence” to explore the intention to use mobile TV
apps. Accordingly, social influence in this study refers to the degree to which individuals believe that
others think they should use mobile TV apps.
Some IS studies have suggested that various types of social influence should be considered in the
analysis of this construct. For example, Taylor and Todd (1995) employed only personal influence to
measure social influence. Karahanna et al. (1999) posited two types of social influence: informational
and normative influences. Bhattacherjee (2000) also classified social influence into two types:
interpersonal and external. External social influence (ESI) refers to “mass media reports, expert
opinions, and other non-personal information considered by individuals in performing a behavior,”
while interpersonal social influence (ISI) refers to “influence by friends, family members, colleagues,
superiors, and experienced individuals known to the potential adopter” (Bhattacherjee 2000). Hung et
al. (2003) noted that informational influence in Karahanna et al.’s classification is similar to external
influence in the classification of Bhattacherjee, whereas normative influence is similar to
interpersonal influence. While studying the intention to shop online, Hwang (2010) used the term
“social influence” to refer to the influence of friends, family and the media. This tripartition of social
influence can be narrowed down to interpersonal (i.e., friend and family) and external (i.e., media)
influences. Some studies have directly posited that social influence includes both external and
interpersonal influences (Hsu & Chiu 2004; Hung et al. 2003; López-Nicolása et al. 2008). Thus, the
current study will divide social influence into external and interpersonal influences.
Many studies have explored the impact of social influence across various services, such as WAP
services (Hung et al. 2003), self-service technologies (Chen et al. 2009), e-commerce (Hwang 2010),
etc. According to TRA, an individual may change his/her behavioral intention because of the pressure
exerted by social influence. At the same time, social influence may lead an individual to repeatedly
perform a specific behavior to comply with important others (Olsen 2007). Previous studies have
verified that social influence is a significant predictor of intention (Hung et al. 2003; Hwang 2010;
Karahanna et al. 1999; Wei et al. 2009). Accordingly, the following hypotheses are proposed:
H2: Interpersonal social influence has a positive impact on a user’s intention to use mobile TV apps.
H3: External social influence has a positive impact on a user’s intention to use mobile TV apps.

2.3 Personal factors

2.3.1 Personal mobile innovativeness

The innovation diffusion theory proposed by Rogers (1962) originally stated only that individual
differences cause people to respond differently to a new idea, practice, or object. Rogers (1995) later
defined personal innovativeness as “the degree to which an individual adopts new ideas earlier than
other members of a system.” Innovativeness is a persistently individual trait that reflects the inherent
nature of a person when confronted by something new. Previous consumer research has shown that
individuals can be differentiated on the basis of their personal innovativeness (Goldsmith 1990;
Midgley & Dowling 1978). Re-conceptualizing personal innovativeness, Goldsmith and Hofacker
(1991) argued that its measure should be domain specific rather than global in nature. Domain
specific innovativeness is more predictive of individual behavior than is general innovativeness
(Goldsmith & Hofacker 1991; Goldsmith et al., 1995). In the context of IT applications, Agarwal and
Prasad (1998) created the term, personal innovativeness in the domain of information technology
(PIIT), and pointed out that PIIT plays an important role in understanding the diffusion of new
information technology and an individual’s intention to use it. Fang et al. (2009) adapted the concept
of PITT to explore personal web innovativeness (PWI) in the context of web survey participation.
They defined the term as “a person’s predisposed willingness to try out any new web service.” In this
study, we will use the term personal mobile innovativeness (PMI) to explore users’ intention to use
mobile TV apps and define it as “a person’s predisposed willingness to try out any new mobile app.”
The substantial role of personal innovativeness in new technological applications has been examined
in various contexts, such as world-wide-web information services (Agarwal & Prasad 1998), online
shopping (Im et al. 2003), wireless mobile services (López-Nicolása et al. 2008), and self-service
technologies (Chen et al. 2009). Fang et al. (2009) also validated the influence of PWI on users’
intention. According to the above mentioned observations, it is likely that users with higher PMI may
have a higher intention to use mobile TV apps than those who have lower PMI. Therefore, the
following hypothesis is proposed:
H4: Personal mobile innovativeness has a positive impact on a user’s intention to use mobile TV apps.
2.3.2 Mobile-specific self-efficacy

Self-efficacy refers to an individual’s confidence in his/her capability to perform a given behavior. It

plays an important role in influencing individual behavior (Bandura 1982). Individuals with higher
self-efficacy are more likely to form positive perceptions and perform related behavior in the future
(Bandura 1982; Compeau et al. 1999). Adapting the concept from Bandura (1982), Compeau and
Higgins (1995) posited that computer self-efficacy (CSE) is the self-assessment of an individual’s
ability to use computers to accomplish a task. Some researchers have proposed that the judgment of
self-efficacy should correspond to the targeted domain of interest. For instance, Marakas et al. (1998)
distinguished CSE into general CSE and task-specific CSE. Agarwal et al. (2000) also drew a
distinction between general CSE and software-specific self-efficacy (SSE). Studies have shown that
domain specific measures are more reliable and accurate than are general measures (Agarwal et al.
2000; Marakas et al. 1998). Applying this concept to the web context, Eastin and LaRose (2000)
proposed Internet self-efficacy while Hsu and Chiu (2004) posited web-specific self-efficacy (WSE)
to examine the effects of WSE on an individual’s acceptance of online applications or services. This
study will use mobile-specific self-efficacy (MSE) to explore its influence on users’ behavior in
mobile TV apps and define MSE as “an individual’s perception of efficacy in using a specific mobile
application”.
In the context of IS, researchers suggested that the higher the self-efficacy an individual perceived, the
higher was the intention of the individual to use the applications or services. The relationship between
an individual’s self-efficacy and his/her intention towards one particular application or service has
been supported by previous research into e-service (Hsu & Chiu 2004), WWW (Hsu et al. 2004),
smartphone (Park & Chen 2007), web-based learning (Chiu & Wang 2008), and so on. Consequently,
the following hypothesis is inferred:
H5: Mobile-specific self-efficacy has a positive impact on a user’s intention to use mobile TV apps.

2.4 Motivational factors

According to the IS motivation theory (Davis et al. 1992), a user’s behavior is affected by two kinds
of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic. In the IS discipline, extrinsic motivation is captured by
perceived usefulness, and intrinsic motivation by perceived enjoyment (Davis et al. 1992). Using the
factors of perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment, this study will examine the impact of
motivational factors on an individual’s intention to use mobile TV apps.

2.4.1 Perceived usefulness

In terms of motivation theory, perceived usefulness as an extrinsic motivation concerns positive

outcomes of using IT (Chiu et al. 2009; Hsu & Chiu 2004). In this study, perceived usefulness (PU)
refers to an evaluative belief about the degree to which a person believes that using mobile TV apps is
advantageous to attaining certain goals. Davis et al. (1992) pointed out that perceived usefulness is a
major determinant of a user’s behavioral intention. Individuals are more likely to accept and use a
new service when they perceive this service to be beneficial in reaching valued outcomes (Chiu et al.
2009). In last decade, numerous empirical investigations have demonstrated the substantial role of
perceived usefulness in IS users’ behavior (Ahn et al. 2007; Jung et al. 2009; Lee et al. 2005; Park &
Chen 2007; van der Heijden 2004; Wei et al. 2009). Based on the relevant research, this study
hypothesizes:
H6: Perceived usefulness has a positive impact on a user’s intention to use mobile TV apps.

2.4.2 Perceived enjoyment

Perceived enjoyment (PE) is an affective response and a hedonic and intrinsic motivation that has
been found to have a significant impact on users’ acceptance and use of technology (Chiu et al. 2009;
Davis et al. 1992), especially hedonic systems (van der Heijden 2004). To capture intrinsic motivation
in the mobile TV apps context, this study incorporates perceived enjoyment and defines it as the
degree to which a person views the use of mobile TV apps as enjoyable. An individual will be
intrinsically motivated to adopt a specific application or service when its use is enjoyable. Prior
research proposed that perceived enjoyment serves as a determinant of behavioral intention (Davis et
al. 1992; Lee et al. 2005; van der Heijden 2004). The hypothesis is:
H7: Perceived enjoyment has a positive impact on a user’s intention to use mobile TV apps.

2.5 Perceived value factors

The concept of perceived value derives from marketing studies on consumer behavior. Atkin (1973)
deemed that there are two purposes of consumer information-seeking: one is utilitarian and the other
is non-instrumental. In the marketing field, various products and services are classified according to
utilitarian or hedonic dimensions (Dhar & Wertenbroch 2000). Consumer behavior studies show that
the utilitarian or hedonic nature of products determines the intention to consume (Babin et al. 1994).
Following this thought, some scholars have separated consumer shopping behavior into two types,
utilitarian and hedonic or entertainment-oriented, since these reflect the underlying purposes of
consumption (Babin et al. 1994; Batra & Ahtola 1990).
In the IS Field, users adopt IT applications, such as mobile application services, web applications, and
so on, not only for their utilitarian value but also for the enjoyment that accompanies computer usage.
Here, the benefits are both utilitarian and hedonic (Hoffman & Novak 1996). There are a lot of studies
discussing online shopping behavior from the perspectives of hedonic and utilitarian purposes
(Childers et al. 2001; Hartman et al. 2006; Hartman & Samra 2008). In addition, Koivumäki et al.
(2008) examined users’ acceptance of mobile information services in both utilitarian and hedonic
usage contexts. In general, it is clear that mobile TV apps may serve both utilitarian and hedonic
purposes; consequently, it is suitable to measure these two types of user perception values. This study
will divide perceived value into perceived utilitarian value (PUV) and perceived hedonic value (PHV).
Following the assumption that perceived value impacts intention to use and willingness to pay—an
assumption that has been validated in the IT usage context (Hsiao 2011; Lopes & Galletta 2006; Lu &
Hsiao 2010; Turel et al. 2007) —we hypothesize the following:
H8a: Perceived utilitarian value has a positive impact on a user’s intention to use mobile TV apps.
H8b: Perceived utilitarian value has a positive impact on a user’s willingness to pay for mobile TV
apps.
H9a: Perceived hedonic value has a positive impact on a user’s intention to use mobile TV apps.
H9b: Perceived hedonic value has a positive impact on a user’s willingness to pay for mobile TV apps.

3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Instrument development

To ensure content validity, items used to measure constructs were adapted mainly from prior research,
and slightly modified to suit the mobile TV environment. WTP was measured by three items derived
from the studies of Lu and Hsiao (2010). Four items for ITU were derived from previous studies (Ahn
et al. 2007). For ISI and ESI, four and three items were based on the works of Hsu and Lin (2008) and
Hung et al. (2003). PMI was measured using three items that Agarwal and Prasad (1998) rigorously
developed and validated. Four items of MSE were adapted from previous studies (Chiu & Wang 2008;
Hung et al. 2003) to fit into the context of mobile TV apps. Four items for measuring PU were based
on the studies of Davis et al. (1992) and Hsu and Lin (2008). Four items to measure PE were extended
from prior studies that were validated in the web context (Ahn et al. 2007; Davis et al. 1992). Four
and four items of PUV and PHV were adapted from the scale of Babin et al. (1994) and Hartman et al.
(2006). A seven-point Likert scale (1-7), with anchors ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly
agree (7), was used to measure each item in the questionnaire.

3.2 Data collection

In the study, we chose the mobile TV app, named PPS for mobile, to conduct the survey. PPS is
characterized by its peer-to-peer steaming technology. Originally, PPS was an online TV service
(http://www.pps.tv) founded in January 2006 and has been one of the most popular online TV services
for Chinese netizens. As smart phone sales grow, PPS has provided mobile apps in support of
multiple mobile devices including iOS, Android and Windows phones and tablets. As of the
beginning of 2013, the number of downloads has reached over 5,000,000.
An online questionnaire was used to collect data for two weeks. Members with the experiences of
using PPS for mobile were invited to participate in this survey. Messages with the questionnaire URL
were posted to: (1) PPS-related forums, and (2) PTT (telnet://ptt.cc), which is the most famous
bulletin board system (BBS) in Taiwan. To avoid repeated responses, the participants’ email and IP
addresses were recorded and checked.
Of the 535 questionnaires collected, 497 completed and valid surveys were received after the
refinement process. 50.3% of the usable respondents were male. The participants were aged from 18-
45 years old and the majority of participants (48.1%) were aged 18-25. On average, 60% of the
participants connected to the Internet for more than three hours each day, and 70.3% had more than
six years of Internet experience.

4 DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

To analyze the data, a structural equation modeling analysis was performed using partial least squares
(PLS). We used PLS, since it can assess the measurement and structural models of the proposed
model, and do so with a minimal demand on measurement scales, sample size and residual
distributions (Chin & Newsted 1999). The model testing was performed with SmartPLS 2.0.
Following the two-step analytical procedure suggested by Anderson and Gerbing (1988), this study
first assessed the measurement model. Then, the structural model was evaluated to examine the
proposed hypotheses.

4.1 Measurement model

We evaluate the internal consistency reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the
measurement model. Table 1 and Table 2 display the analysis results. The internal consistency of the
scales was tested using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and composite reliability (CR). Ranging from
0.792 to 0.929, all Cronbach’s alpha scores in this study were above the recommended value of 0.7
for scale robustness (Nunnally 1978). CR in the proposed model ranged from 0.866 to 0.955, which
exceeds the threshold of 0.7 recommended by Nunnally (1978). Both results of reliability indicated
that each construct in this study presented strong internal consistency.
This study assessed convergent validity on the basis of two criteria suggested by Fornell and Larcker
(1981): First, all item loadings must exceed 0.70 and be statistically significant on their corresponding
construct. Second, all average variance extracted (AVE) must be greater than the acceptable level of
0.5. The analysis results show that all item loadings exceeded 0.7 and were significant at p < 0.001 on
their associated factors. In addition, all AVE in Table 1, ranging from 0.625 to 0.876, were well above
the suggested threshold. Therefore, the results demonstrated that the measurement items were
reasonably convergent on their respective constructs. In addition, this research adopted Fornell and
Larcker's (1981) criteria of discriminant validity to examine whether the square root of the AVE for
each construct exceeds the correlation shared between the construct and other constructs in the model.
As shown in Table 2, all diagonal values exceeded the inter-construct correlations, thereby
demonstrating adequate discriminant validity. Based on the abovementioned criteria, all the construct
measures in this study had adequate levels of reliability and validity.

Construct Items Alpha CR AVE

ISI 4 0.919 0.942 0.804
ESI 3 0.806 0.882 0.714
PMI 3 0.858 0.913 0.778
MSE 4 0.912 0.932 0.774
PU 4 0.912 0.938 0.792
PE 4 0.845 0.896 0.682
PUV 4 0.792 0.866 0.625
PHV 4 0.874 0.913 0.725
ITU 4 0.867 0.909 0.716
WTP 3 0.929 0.955 0.876

Table 1. Reliability and Validity

Notes: ISI is “interpersonal social influence”, ESI is “external social influence”, PMI is “personal
mobile innovativeness”, MSE is “mobile-specific self-efficacy”, PU is “perceived usefulness”, PE is
“perceived enjoyment”, PUV is “perceived utilitarian value”, PHV is “perceived hedonic value”,
ITU is “intention to use”, WTP is “willingness to pay”.

Mean S.D. ISI ESI PMI MSE PU PE PUV PHV ITU WTP

ISI 4.94 1.06 0.896

ESI 5.10 0.92 0.634 0.845

PMI 4.71 0.99 0.498 0.532 0.882

MSE 5.99 0.98 0.392 0.449 0.231 0.880

PU 4.78 1.06 0.220 0.180 0.144 0.208 0.890

PE 4.81 1.01 0.182 0.108 0.191 0.065 0.548 0.826

PUV 4.88 0.84 0.235 0.246 0.143 0.195 0.385 0.399 0.791

PHV 4.92 1.05 0.338 0.247 0.284 0.199 0.270 0.443 0.559 0.852

ITU 4.82 1.18 0.276 0.156 0.275 0.101 0.619 0.573 0.429 0.407 0.846
WTP 2.88 1.41 0.047 0.030 0.021 0.001 0.219 0.163 0.214 0.086 0.291 0.936

Table 2. Correlations of constructs

Notes: Diagonal elements are the square root of the average variance extracted (AVE).
4.2 Structural model

To test the hypotheses, the bootstrapping technique was used to produce the t-value for examining the
significance of the path coefficients. Table 3 summarizes the results. The explanatory power of the
structural model can be evaluated by the R2 value, which appears at the bottom of the table.
The results show that ten out of the eleven hypothesized paths were validated at the p < 0.05
significance level or better. Consistent with expectations, ISI, ESI, PMI, PU, PE, PUV and PHV
significantly influenced the ITU. Therefore, H2, H3, H4, H6, H7, H8a and H9a were supported. The
abovementioned constructs explained 52.1% of the variance in the ITU. MSE, however, had no effect
on ITU, meaning that H5 was rejected. With regard to WTP, the ITU, PUV and PHV all had a
positive impact, supporting H1, H8b and H9b. Collectively, these three constructs explained 10.3% of
the variance in WTP.

Hypothesized path Path coefficient Support (H1~ H9)

ITU → WTP 0.267*** Yes
ISI → ITU 0.109* Yes
ESI → ITU 0.114* Yes
PMI → ITU 0.151*** Yes
MSE→ ITU -0.068 No
PU → ITU 0.411*** Yes
PE → ITU 0.226*** Yes
PUV → ITU 0.126** Yes
PUV → WTP 0.163*** Yes
PHV → ITU 0.087* Yes
PHV → WTP 0.114* Yes
R2 value
ITU 0.521
WTP 0.103
Table 3. Results of Hypotheses Testing
Notes1: * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.
Notes2: We used bootstrapping with a 500 re-sampling procedure to determine the t-values of our path
coefficients.

5 CONCLUSION

5.1 Discussion

The results showed that ITU is the strongest predictor of WTP for mobile TV apps. Apparently, there
has to be some degree of intention to use the apps before consumers will deliberate whether or not
they are willing to pay for them. The higher the intention to use the mobile TV apps is, the higher the
willingness to pay for the apps is. On the other hand, PUV and PHV are also essential determinants of
WTP. Smart phone and tablet owners might be more likely to pay for mobile TV apps if they are
provided with higher utilitarian or hedonic values. This finding is in line with previous studies that
show perceived value plays an important role in willingness to pay for new services (Hsiao 2011;
Lopes & Galletta 2006; Lu & Hsiao 2010). The results of our study show that PUV is a stronger
predictor than PHV. The reason might be because mobile TV app adopters can watch TV programs on
their mobile phones anytime and anywhere they want. It is very often the adopters are either
multitasking or waiting in the line for something and therefore portability is a more utilitarian function
to them rather than hedonic one. This indicates that users make rational judgments about whether to
pay for a mobile TV app and are more willing to pay if the app provides them with more utilitarian
value.
Regarding the antecedents of ITU, both ISI and ESI positively impact the ITU. People have a higher
tendency to use mobile TV apps when they perceive that important referents expect the use of this app,
or there is a change in the social environment that prompts their use. Therefore, it is a good marketing
strategy for app providers to strengthen the consumer impression of the universality and popularity of
their apps via the mass media. This may involve recruiting well-known personages to promote these
apps. Regarding the influence of personal factors, PMI was found to have a significant impact on ITU,
indicating that this factor plays an important role in shaping individual behavior. However, MSE did
not influence the ITU. A conceivable explanation is that users of mobile TV apps are experienced
mobile users who are mostly familiar with operating mobile apps; their self-efficacy is taken for
granted and has no influence on their intention to use a specific mobile app. Additionally,
motivational factors (i.e., PU and PE) had the strongest direct effect on ITU and the strongest indirect
effect on WTP. This reveals that people will be more likely to intend to use the mobile TV apps, and
therefore more willing to pay, if these apps meet their extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. The results
suggest that a crucial issue for mobile TV app providers, and one that requires further exploration, is
how to raise the consumer motivation to use mobile TV apps. Finally, in our study, perceived value
(i.e., PUV and PHV) factors also positively impacted the ITU. Individuals will have a greater
intention to use the mobile TV apps when they perceive that these apps have a high level of both
utilitarian and hedonic value. Thus, when designing mobile TV apps, providers should try to create
practical and perceivable values accounting for different situations where users may watch TV
programs via the mobile apps.

5.2 Implications

This study proposes a theoretically integrated framework for academic researchers and practitioners
that combines social cognitive theory, motivation theory and perceived value to investigate the factors
contributing to the intention to use and willingness to pay for mobile TV apps. The results indicate
that the proposed research model is appropriate, and that it provides a new direction for academia to
take in future research.
For practitioners, particularly mobile TV app providers, understanding what factors impact adopters’
intention to use and willingness to pay is critical to the effective service planning, design, marketing,
and implementation. The results show that motivational factors are the strongest determinants of
intention to use, especially extrinsic motivation (i.e., perceived usefulness). Therefore, mobile TV app
providers should seek to incorporate and develop useful functions and enjoyable multimedia content
that attract users. In particular, providers should pay more attention to external social influence,
personal mobile innovativeness, motivational factors and perceived utilitarian value. They should also
put more effort into promoting their apps through mass media, social media, or opinion leaders rather
than only relying on interpersonal social influence inside potential adopters’ network. In addition,
providers might try to find individuals or groups with high levels of personal innovativeness to
promote their apps. These people may already have a higher intention to use mobile TV apps in an
innovative way.

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for future research

This study aims at drawing out important factors that influence an individual’s intention to use and
willingness to pay for mobile TV apps. While the study reveals some interesting findings that
contribute to the theoretical evolution and practical application of mobile TV apps, it has several
limitations that provide opportunities for future research. First, it would be worthwhile to investigate
the influence of other factors that may contribute to intention to use and, especially, willingness to pay.
Secondly, further research might include more mobile TV apps to compare user behavior among those
apps with different features and media content. Thirdly, this study was conducted in a Chinese society.
Further research is needed to examine the universality of our findings, since cultural backgrounds and
lifestyle may differ in other countries. Finally, although most participants in this study had weekday
jobs, around 37% of the sample was made up of full-time university students. Any data collected, for
future research, should recruit participants from various backgrounds to avoid sampling bias.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the National Science Council of the Republic of China, Taiwan for
financially supporting this research under Contract No. NSC 101-2410-H-180-002.

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