JID: AMJ

ARTICLE IN PRESS [m5G;February 6, 2020;14:37]

Australasian Marketing Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Australasian Marketing Journal

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ausmj

Would you like to shop via mobile app technology? The technology
acceptance model, social factors and purchase intention
Arash Vahdat a, Ali Alizadeh a, Sara Quach b,∗, Nicolas Hamelin c
a
Department of Economics and Management, Tabriz University, Iran
b
Department of Marketing, Griffith Business School, Australia
c
S P Jain School of Global Management, Sydney campus, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study investigates how technology acceptance model (TAM) factors and social factors determine cus-
Received 15 July 2019 tomer purchase intention. Although previous studies on mobile apps have investigated TAM, critical so-
Revised 16 December 2019
cial factors have been neglected, thus, reinforcing the need to study the latter’s contribution to consumer
Accepted 1 January 2020
purchase intention. Accordingly, this study examines social influence and peer influence in the TAM and
Available online xxx
collects 777 questionnaires from Digikala app users. Data were then analysed using structural equation
Keywords: modelling by AMOS. The findings indicate that perceived usefulness does not have a significant effect on
Perceived usefulness attitude towards mobile app use. However, perceived ease of use, social and peer influence, and intention
Perceived ease of use to purchase were shown to exhibit positive effects on attitude in this regard. The results also demonstrate
Social influence that attitude towards mobile app use is a full mediator on three paths of the model. Finally, moderation
Peer influence analysis showed that only age has a mediating effect on the path from perceived usefulness to attitude
Attitude towards mobile app use
towards mobile app use.
Purchase intention
© 2020 Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Developments in mobile technology are changing the dynam-

In this digital age, online technology has a significant effect
on customer shopping processes and behaviours (Thaichon, 2017).
Consequently, many large and small businesses desire to move into
the online sphere (Jensen and Wagner, 2018). Customer interac-
tion management (Nambisan and Baron, 2007; Sharma et al., 2014)
and relationship marketing (Barnes and Cumby, 2002; Walker and
Francis, 2003; Yoganathan et al., 2015) have evolved rapidly over
the last two decades, spurred in part by the emergence and prolif-
eration of modern technologies, which serve as platforms for facil-
itating interactions with and among customers (Viswanathan et al.,
2017). Although increasingly research has investigated customer
interaction management in relation to new technologies (Sharma
et al., 2014), their effects on relationship marketing have been in-
sufficiently studied (Bilgihan and Bujisic, 2015). New technologies
emerge each year, with recent examples including automation so-
lutions and IT management (Kumar and Reinartz, 2018). Thus, un-
derstanding the connection between new technologies and rela-
tionship marketing is increasingly important.
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: Avahdat2013@ms.tabrizu.ac.ir (A. Vahdat), alizadeh.a@hotmail.
com (A. Alizadeh), s.quach@griffith.edu.au (S. Quach), nicolas.hamelin@spjain.edu.au
(N. Hamelin).
ics of customer–firm relationships (Payne and Frow, 2017). Mobile
apps (used on artefacts such as smartphones and tablets) have en-
tered the business world primarily as a marketing tool (San-Martín
et al., 2016) because they are changing customer–company interac-
tion patterns (Viswanathan et al., 2017). Consumers can now access
product information and make in-app purchases while away from
their (desktop) computer or laptop (Verma et al., 2016). In turn,
these patterns of access and use have caused profound changes in
customer behaviour (Juaneda-Ayensa et al., 2016).
The literature on mobile apps and customer-related outcomes
propose several concepts and frameworks. Theories such as ‘rea-
soned action’ (Fishbein, 1979) and ‘planned behaviour’ (Ajzen,
1991) and models such as the technology acceptance model (TAM)
(Davis, 1989) have formed the basis for investigating outcomes
such as customer satisfaction (Shin, 2015), customer engagement
(Tarute et al., 2017) and intention to continue use (Lee, 2018).
This study implements TAM because it can predict customer in-
tention and offers greater justification and validity. It also explains
a large number of variances in customer behaviour within the con-
text of technology (Kim et al., 2016a). Moreover, TAM is one of the
most successful models for examining technology acceptance and
customer adaptation in technology-related behaviour (Hernández
et al., 2010). Therefore, this study integrates and extends TAM
relative to purchase intention to investigate the consequences of

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.01.002
1441-3582/© 2020 Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al., Would you like to shop via mobile app technology? The technology
acceptance model, social factors and purchase intention, Australasian Marketing Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.01.002
JID: AMJ
ARTICLE IN PRESS
2 A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
mobile app use. Prior research using the model has not examined
whether apps affect consumers’ purchasing behaviours, but instead
studies the extent to which it assists in predicting the intention to
adopt app usage (Alnawas and Aburub, 2016).
This study constructs a mobile app model by positioning per-
ceived usefulness and perceived ease of use as the central compo-
nents of TAM. It also includes social influence and peer influence
to investigate the attitudinal effect of app use on the intention to
purchase. The research aims to supplement two gaps in the liter-
ature. First, regarding the effects of TAM factors on intention to
purchase, scholars have called for further research into the role of
mobile apps in relation to customer behaviour (Lee, 2018). Second,
the study regards as a significant area for research examination of
the essential roles of social factors in consumer attitudes towards
mobile app use (Kim et al., 2015b).
This study makes a significant contribution to mobile app schol-
arship by providing practitioners with guidelines of critical im-
portance. This is particularly relevant, as developers now face the
challenge of acquiring knowledge about consumer behaviour (Hew
et al., 2015). Moreover, the increasing prevalence of mobile apps in
marketing and retail necessitates consideration of social conduct.
Therefore, superior understanding of customer purchase behaviour
will allow companies to improve consumer practices and provide
opportunities to increase revenue. For researchers, this study of-
fers empirical support for the relations between social influence
and attitude towards mobile app use, between peer influence and
user attitude, and between attitude and purchase intention. This
study also enriches TAM by incorporating a relation-related factor
and applying the model and social factors to mobile app contexts.
The next section provides theoretical background for the funda-
mental constructs of this study and develops the research hypothe-
ses. Thereafter, we analyse and test their validity and conclude
by providing both managerial implications and direction for future
research.
2. Technology acceptance model
Several theoretical models have been applied to user accep-
tance of and usage behaviour regarding emerging information
technologies. However, TAM—a model that assists in understanding
customer attitudes towards mobile technology use (Rivera et al.,
2015)—remains the most widely accepted paradigm (Venkatesh,
20 0 0). Adapted from the theory of reasoned action, the key dif-
ference here is that attitudinal determinants, derived separately
for each behaviour, are replaced with a set of two variables: per-
ceived ease of use and perceived usefulness (McFarland and Hamil-
ton, 2006). TAM suggests that each factor collectedly represents
the central factors that affect attitude towards mobile app use (Kim
et al., 2016b). The model consistently finds that perceived ease of
use and perceived usefulness contribute most to the success of
mobile apps (Pentina et al., 2014).
TAM, as the primary component of a broader evolutionary
structure, has four major categories of modifications: prior fac-
tors (factors anticipating perceived usefulness and perceived ease
of use), factors suggested from other theories, contextual factors
and consequent factors (King and He, 2006). In this regard, there
are three types of studies across TAM scholarship. The first focuses
on other concepts such as knowledge-sharing factors, demographic
factors, personal innovation, perceived risk and perceived task-
technology fit—each of which permits precise explanations for in-
dividual attitudes and behaviours. Much of this research introduces
factors from other theories, which act in a similar way to both per-
ceived ease of use or perceived usefulness, aimed at enriching TAM
(Kim et al., 2016a; Rivera et al., 2015). The second group concen-
trates on factors as intermediaries (such as satisfaction and sticki-
ness between TAM factors and the dependant variable), while the
Please cite this article as: A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al., Would you like to shop via mobile app technology? The technology
acceptance model, social factors and purchase intention, Australasian Marketing Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.01.002
[m5G;February 6, 2020;14:37]
third group encompasses studies like TAM2 (Venkatesh and Davis,
20 0 0) and TAM3 (Venkatesh and Bala, 2008), which propose fac-
tors anticipating perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use
(Hernández et al., 2010; Lee, 2018); these are known as prior fac-
tors. This study is in line with the first approach and extends TAM
by adding social and peer influence adopted from social influence
theory. Social influence has been incorporated in TAM2 and TAM3
as a direct determinant of perceived usefulness and behavioural
intention. However, our study considers how social and peer in-
fluence (factors taken from social influence theory) affect intention
to purchase as a consequence. Hence, the model applied in this
study encompasses social influence and peer influence as two indi-
rect determinant factors of intention to purchase according to user
attitude.
3. Hypotheses development
3.1. Perceived usefulness and attitude towards mobile app use
Perceived usefulness is defined as the extent to which target
customers believe that using a specific technology will generate
significant value for them (Olaleye et al., 2018). TAM posits that
behavioural intention to initially adopt a mobile app is determined
by one’s attitude towards using that system and its perceived use-
fulness, where attitude is a direct function of usefulness (Gupta
and Arora, 2017). TAM2 also theorises that people employ a men-
tal representation for assessing the match between important task
goals and the resultant consequences as a basis for forming judge-
ments about the user-performance contingency (i.e., perceived use-
fulness) (Venkatesh and Davis, 20 0 0). If users understand that us-
ing an app will be beneficial and satisfies their needs, they assume
a positive attitude towards doing so (Lee, 2018; Morosan and De-
Franco, 2016; Olaleye et al., 2018). To this, Rivera et al. (2015) found
that usefulness (as a traditional technology-adoption antecedent)
explained timeshare owners’ intentions to use a mobile app. There-
fore, the first hypothesis is proposed as follows:
H1. Perceived usefulness has a positive effect on attitude towards mo-
bile app use.
3.2. Perceived ease of use and attitude towards mobile app use
Attitudes are cognitive reactions to an action and are indica-
tions of how hard people are willing to try and of how much ef-
fort they are planning to exert (Baek, 2013). Therefore, less effort
going into using mobile apps results in greater inclination to use
the technology because it is supposedly easier and more service-
oriented (Laforet and Li, 2005). That said, perceived ease of use
refers (in this sense) to the degree to which a person believes that
technology is easy to use (Veríssimo, 2016). It has been argued that
individuals use new technologies due to both perceived extrinsic
benefits (e.g., usefulness and ease of use) and intrinsic benefits
(e.g., playfulness and hedonic benefits) (Kim et al., 2016b). Across
the literature, many studies have depicted the positive attitudinal
effect of digital convenience (Gill et al., 2017; Hew et al., 2015; Hsu
and Lin, 2016; Lu, 2015; Veríssimo, 2016). For example, an exten-
sion of TAM in the mobile banking and information system context
has shown that practicality has a significant positive effect on at-
titude towards mobile app use (Kim et al., 2015a). One reason for
this is that perceived accessibility correlates with and heightens
the extent to which an app is viewed as trustworthy (Morosan and
DeFranco, 2016). Therefore, the second hypothesis is proposed as
follows:
H2. Perceived ease of use positively affects attitude towards mobile
app use.
JID: AMJ
ARTICLE IN PRESS
A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
3.3. Social influence and attitude towards mobile app use
Social influence is defined as the extent to which users change
their behaviour under the influence of others (Hew et al., 2015;
Peng et al., 2017). This consists of two aspects. The first, known
as the subjective norm, is an individual’s perception of others’ ex-
pectations (compliance); the second, referred to as the descrip-
tive norm, is the perception of attitudes possessed by significant
others’ behaviours (internalisation) (Wang and Chuan-Chuan Lin,
2011). Besides, Elek et al. (2006) suggested that the demonstrabil-
ity of most people’s actions is influential to a single individual’s
behaviour. That is, people tend to believe that certain behaviour
is sensible when they observe many others doing it. This clari-
fies the meaning of such terms as ‘many people’ and ‘subjective
norm’, which differentiate social influence from peer influence be-
cause ‘many people’ cannot be formed by peer groups and ‘subjec-
tive norm’ is determined by larger groups rather than one’s own
peers.
It has been suggested that when individuals decide whether to
adopt or reject an app, they also consider the effects of this de-
cision on their relationships with others. As a result, people tend
to conform to the majority opinion (Qin et al., 2011). Conformity,
in this sense, may take the form of private acceptance resulting
in private attitudinal change (Book et al., 2018). Normative con-
formity might also be prompted by an awareness of social norms,
which sees people make decisions based on expected or accept-
able behaviour in social interactions (Knoll et al., 2015). Individual
compliance with expectations or social norms, thus, causes them
to perform an action if they perceive greater social influence (from
salient referents) will be gained in return (Talukder and Quazi,
2011). Previous research suggests that public opinion influences
personal attitude towards a given technology (Kang, 2014). Sim-
ilarly, with increasing diffusion, potential adopters are also more
likely to observe the technology in use, which may encourage them
to believe it is useful (Graf-Vlachy et al., 2018). Therefore, it is ex-
pected that individual attitudes towards an app may be affected
when they perceive many others using it, especially in their social
groups (Carter and Yeo, 2016). Consequently, we hypothesise the
following:
H3. Social influence positively affects attitude towards mobile app
use.
3.4. Peer influence and attitude towards mobile app use
The term ‘peer group’ includes (but is not limited to) an in-
timate group of people who interact with each other regularly,
current friends and acquaintances, five closest friends and a best
friend (Opoku, 2012). In this study, one’s social circle comprises
their friends (Gillani, 2012).
Research on peer-to-peer interactions in an environment finds
that referent power has the greatest influence on peer compliance
(Walumbwa et al., 2017). The interactions and information-sharing
mechanisms between friends may consequently translate into peer
influence on one another (Bapna and Umyarov, 2015). During tech-
nology use, peers may feel perceived pressure and influence ex-
erted through messages and signals that help to form favourable
perceptions of an activity’s value (Talukder and Quazi, 2011). The
underlying logic is that if close friends adopt a certain technol-
ogy, peer pressure to do the same will increase (Graf-Vlachy et al.,
2018).
In social media contexts, such as Instagram, Sherman et al.
(2016) showed that people were more likely to ‘like’ photographs
that had been ‘liked’ many times by their friends than those with
few ‘likes’. This finding reveals the crucial effect of peer influence
on behaviour. Another study on social media shopping behaviour
Please cite this article as: A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al., Would you like to shop via mobile app technology? The technology
acceptance model, social factors and purchase intention, Australasian Marketing Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.01.002
[m5G;February 6, 2020;14:37]
3
(Muralidharan and Men, 2015) demonstrated that users were af-
fected by peers in China and the United States, despite cultural
differences between the two groups. Scully and Moital (2016) and
Sherman et al. (2018) also suggested that peer influence is par-
ticularly intense among university students due to the proxim-
ity of friends within that environment. These findings lead us to
Hypothesis 4:
H4. Peer influence positively affects an individual’s attitude towards
mobile app use.
3.5. Attitude towards mobile app use and intention to purchase
Individual intention to perform an activity in a mobile app con-
text is determined by their attitude towards apps in general (Carter
and Yeo, 2016). This, in turn, influences the intention to purchase
for two key reasons. First, users do not typically view mobile apps
as interruptive of their mobile experience, and second, mobile apps
are expected to offer users highly targetable experiences that are
close to purchasing and further provide consumption at a consid-
erably lower price (Alnawas and Aburub, 2016).
The persuasive effects of apps, which result from their distinct
feature(s) to develop customer relationship-management practices,
are supported and influence users’ attitudes towards usage and
purchase intention. By logging into an app, customers engage in
multiple touchpoints with the product, such as sharing informa-
tion and making purchases (Lee, 2018). A positive attitude towards
app use increases both the number of times users are likely to
visit an app and the duration of each visit. This leads to enhanced
‘stickiness’ and increases potential purchase intention (Hsu and Lin,
2016). Kim et al. (2015b) described ‘stickiness’ as an essential fac-
tor in the relationship between attitude towards app use and the
intention to purchase. They showed that downloading and using
a well-designed app improves customers’ attitudes, therefore, in-
creasing the intention to purchase additional products or services.
Bellman et al. (2011) similarly concluded that successful apps can
enhance positive attitudes and resultant purchasing intent. Thus,
we propose the following:
H5. Attitude towards mobile app use influences intention to purchase.
3.6. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude towards
mobile app use and intention to purchase
Attitude towards mobile app use has been considered one me-
diating factor in replications of TAM. For example, Amoroso and
Ackaradejruangsri (2017) concluded that customer attitude in part
moderates the link between perceived ease of use and satisfac-
tion, while Rivera et al. (2015) noted the effect of technology
experience on usage intention, as mediated by attitude. Further,
attitudinal effects in this sense were confirmed using Hsu and
Lin’s (2016) affect–behaviour–cognition model. Essentially, they
suggested that user attitude mediates how beliefs about perceived
value (i.e., hedonic and utilitarian values) affect stickiness.
Attitude towards mobile app use clearly links TAM’s prior fac-
tors (i.e., perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) to conse-
quent factor (i.e., intention to purchase) in this study. Therefore,
we propose that attitude plays a mediating role in multiple re-
lationships, including perceived usefulness and intention to pur-
chase, and perceived ease of use and intention to purchase. Thus,
consider the following hypotheses:
H6. Attitude towards mobile app use mediates the relationships be-
tween (a) perceived usefulness and intention to purchase, and (b) per-
ceived ease of use and intention to purchase.
JID: AMJ
ARTICLE IN PRESS
4 A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
Fig. 1. The conceptual model.
3.7. Social influence, peer influence, attitude towards mobile app use
and intention to purchase
The first type of research on TAM (which examines the simul-
taneous effects of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and
other factors with similar function) did not focus on social fac-
tors but were later added (and referred to as ‘TAM2’) by Venkatesh
and Davis (20 0 0). However, social psychologists have demonstrated
that social factors affect purchase intention through attitude to-
wards mobile app use (Schepers and Wetzels, 2007). The logic is
that when customers feel that their communities and peers view
an app favourably, there is less perceived risk and improved atti-
tude on its resultant use. In turn, general positivity increases con-
sumer confidence as well as one’s certainty to buy a product or
service. Therefore, we suggest Hypothesis 7:
H7. Attitude towards mobile app use mediates the relationship be-
tween (a) social influence and (b) peer influence and purchase
intention.
3.8. Moderation role of gender
Gender has been considered as a moderator in marketing re-
search in general and TAM research in particular. For example,
Yuan et al. (2014) in a mobile banking study showed that gen-
der moderates the effect of perceived risk on continuance inten-
tion and that this relationship is stronger for males than females.
Joshua and Koshy (2011) also observed that men have a positive
attitude towards mobile banking apps and are more likely to use
electronic banking services than women. Further, Yu (2012) char-
acterised gender’s moderation in the links between performance
expectancy and perceived financial cost towards behavioural inten-
tion. Again, this effect was stronger for men than women in a mo-
bile banking context. Meanwhile, Karjaluoto et al. (2010) by sam-
pling 681 respondents in Singapore concluded that gender moder-
ates perceived ease of use in terms of convenience more in female
rather than male cohorts. Evident from the literature, gender has
not yet been investigated in moderating perceived usefulness and
perceived practicality relative to attitude and app use, except for in
Ha et al. (2007). Thus, we propose the following hypotheses:
H8a. Gender moderates the effect of perceived usefulness on attitude
towards mobile app use.
H8b. Gender moderates the effect of perceived ease of use on attitude
towards mobile app use.
Please cite this article as: A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al., Would you like to shop via mobile app technology? The technology
acceptance model, social factors and purchase intention, Australasian Marketing Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.01.002
[m5G;February 6, 2020;14:37]
3.9. Moderation role of age
Conflicting upshots in the tech literature exploring the media-
tion role of age has resulted in little discursive consensus. Some
studies advocate that only young people are inclined to use apps
and that their older counterparts are both negative and resistant
to mobile technology (Joshua and Koshy, 2011; Laukkanen et al.,
2007), while others endorse the inverse (Dasgupta et al., 2011;
Laforet and Li, 2005). Notably, Venkatesh et al. (2003) found that
the effect of effort expectancy on behavioural intention was more
important to older people than young people. Yu (2012) revealed,
in equal regard, that the effect was more salient in older rather
than young respondents. However, Ha et al. (2007) extended TAM
into game acceptance and found that age does not moderate the
relationships between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use
and attitude. These inconsistent results led us to test the follow-
ing hypotheses and realise (in visual terms) a conceptual model
(shown in Fig. 1):
H9a. Age moderates the effect of perceived usefulness on attitude to-
wards mobile app use.
H9b. Age moderates the effect of perceived ease of use on attitude
towards mobile app use.
4. Methodology
4.1. Sample and data collection
The target population of this study is Digikala mobile app users
in Iran. Selection of Digikala acknowledges its popularity as the
most well-known shopping app in the region and its presence in
Iran’s online sales market for the past 13 years. With more than
70% of the country’s online sales business, the app has high buying
demand and covers a wide range of products and services, includ-
ing aesthetic products, electronic devices and accessories, house-
hold appliances, cars, toys and books, among other merchandise.
The number of visitors to Digikala in 2019 increased to more than
two million people each day. In research terms, Iran was selected
for this study because its customers are currently in the develop-
ment and adoption stages of online and mobile shopping. As such,
777 questionnaires distributed among randomly selected Digikala
users were completed and usable. Respondents were asked to rate
their agreement using a five-point Likert scale, where 1 corre-
sponds to ‘strongly disagree’ and 5 corresponds to ‘strongly agree’.
JID: AMJ
ARTICLE IN PRESS [m5G;February 6, 2020;14:37]

A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx 5

Table 1
Instrument items and reliability indices.

Items FL α CR AVE

PU Using this app to shop online would make the shopping easier .870 .868 .889 .667
Using this app to shop online would be useful for my shopping .776
Using this app to shop online would help me to shop more quickly .825
Using this app to shop online would help me to shop more efficiently .793

PEOU Using this app to shop online would be easy for me to learn .723 .839 .842 .572
Using this app to shop online would not require much mental effort .764
Using this app to shop online would be simple to do .776
Using this app to shop online would be easy following the instructions of the app .761

SI I think the number of members of this app is large .789 .847 .849 .529
I think there are many people using this app .707
Many people around me use this app .736
People of the same interests as I have a positive attitude towards this app .722
People who are important to me have a positive attitude towards this app .678

PI I have learned a lot about this app from my friends .699 .844 .846 .524
My friends often discuss this app with me .799
My friends often recommend this app to me .761
My friends often do shopping with this app .686
My friends often share their experiences and knowledge about this app with me .665

ATMAU I am happy to download and use this App. .757 .850 .853 .538
Using this App is beneficial; allow me to increase the seller company’s favour .691
Using this App is valuable; let me affirm seller company’s services. .808
I feel good positive effects for understanding products from participating in this App service. .754
Overall, my attitude toward seller app service is favourable .647

PIN It is very likely that I will buy the product .817 .868 .872 .695
I will purchase the product next time I need a product .869
I will definitely try the product .814

Note: all values are represented at significance level of p < 0.05, PU = perceived usefulness, PEOU = perceived ease of use, SI = social influence, PI = peer influence,
ATMAU = attitude toward mobile app use, and PIN = purchase intention.

4.2. Measurement 5. Results

This study modified the measurement items whose reliability
and validity had already been tested in relevant previous stud-
ies. All scales in the present study showed high validity in prior
research attempts (see Table 1). The authors then collected and
studied three sets of items for each variable based on the great-
est Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The items shown in Table 1 were
used to measure the variables.
The four scale items denoting perceived usefulness and per-
ceived ease of use were taken from Kucukusta et al. (2015), and
the five social influence items were derived from Wang and Chuan-
Chuan Lin (2011). Peer influence items were adopted from Khare
and Pandey (2017), attitude towards mobile app use items from
Lee et al. (2015), and purchase intention items derived from Erkan
and Evans (2016).
4.3. Common method variance
This study applied two solutions to assess common method
variance: Harman’s single-factor test and a common latent factor.
The former was applied by loading all the study variables into one
factor and examining the unrotated factor solution to determine
the number of factors that are required to account for variable dis-
sonance (Aulakh and Genturk, 20 0 0). As concluded, the emergence
of one factor explained a total variance of 22.75%, which was lower
than the recommended cut-off value of 50%. For assessing common
method variance using a common latent factor, an unmeasured la-
tent factor was added to the measurement model and connected to
every observed item. Inspection of the path coefficients in the re-
sulting model revealed that the common variance was 15%, which
is lower than the 50% threshold (Eichhorn, 2014).
5.1. Demographic characteristics
Descriptive statistical analysis, including both frequency and
percentage, indicates participant demographics. The relevant fac-
tors include gender, age, marital status, level of education, mo-
bile device operating system, the purpose of app use, the purpose
of app purchase, willingness to pay a maximum price online, fre-
quency of online shopping and preference for paying the purchase
price. The outcomes are presented in Table 2.
5.2. Reliability and validity tests
Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed using AMOS
22 to determine the reliability and validity of the scales. Model
fit indices indicated an acceptable fit for the measurement model,
as such: χ 2 = 4.260 (p = 0.0 0 0), IFI = 0.906, GFI = 0.885,
CFI = 0.906, RMR = 0.059 and RMSEA = 0.065. Based on these
measurements, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient values exceeded
the minimum cut-off value of 0.70 (Nunnally, 1978) for every con-
struct. Meanwhile, the composite reliability and average variance
extracted (AVE) values reached the minimum cut-off values of 0.70
and 0.50, respectively (Hair et al., 2012). The square roots of each
AVE were greater than the respective correlations between the
two constructs, indicating discriminant validity among constructs
(Fornell and Larcker, 1981). These values are reported in Table 3.
5.3. Hypothesis testing
Results of the structural model analysis (see Table 4) demon-
strate that perceived usefulness does not have a significant effect
(β = 0.028, p = 0.400) on attitude towards mobile app use. Thus,

Please cite this article as: A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al., Would you like to shop via mobile app technology? The technology
acceptance model, social factors and purchase intention, Australasian Marketing Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.01.002
JID: AMJ
ARTICLE IN PRESS [m5G;February 6, 2020;14:37]

6 A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 2
Sample structure.

Composition Number %

Gender Male 563 72.5

Female 214 27.5
Age 18–39 606 78
40 and above 171 22
Marital status Single 306 39.4
Married 471 60.6
Education Bachelor and below 337 43.4
Master and above 440 56.6
The operating system of the mobile device iOS 76 9.8
Windows phone 293 37.7
Android 358 46.1
Blackberry 50 6.4
The purpose of using the mobile app Online shopping 63 8.1
Getting information for In-store shopping 103 13.3
Comparing the same products sold by different sellers 391 50.3
I am a developer trying to get inspiration to develop a mobile app 125 16.1
Using mobile apps are just interesting for me 95 12.2
The purpose of buying on the mobile app Type of product Fashion 49 6.3
Luxury 46 5.9
Mass merchants 173 22.3
Sport goods 306 39.4
Health and beauty 117 15.1
Home books 47 6
Entertainment 39 5
The maximum amount of money willing to spend online (US $) 0–10 43 5.5
10–20 97 12.5
20–30 140 18
30–40 305 39.2
40–50 61 7.9
Above 50 131 16.8
The frequency of shopping online At least once a week 47 6
At least once a month 92 11.8
At least once in 3 months 247 31.8
At least once in 6 months 276 35.5
At least once a year 115 14.8
Preference for paying the price of purchase Online payment systems 184 23.7
Cash on delivery 593 76.3

Table 3 Table 5
Results of convergent and discriminant validity. Indirect effect using the bootstrapping method.

ATMAU PU PEOU SI PI PIN Mediator Regression Lower Upper P

weight
ATMAU .734
PU .176 .817 PU –> PIN ATMAU .004 −.003 .014 .414
PEOU .251 .371 .756 PEOU –> PIN ATMAU .020 .008 .044 .001
SI .185 .212 .249 .727 SI –> PIN ATMAU .013 .003 .032 .006
PI .388 .207 .180 .131 .724 PI –> PIN ATMAU .041 .022 .082 .001
PIN .157 .446 .205 .190 .145 .834
Note: PU = perceived usefulness, PEOU = perceived ease of use, SI = social influ-
Note: Bold numbers are square roots of AVEs. The rest is correlations. All correla- ence, PI = peer influence, ATMAU = attitude toward mobile app use, and PIN = pur-
tions are significance at 0.05 level, PU = perceived usefulness, PEOU = perceived chase intention.
ease of use, SI = social influence, PI = peer influence, ATMAU = attitude toward
mobile app use, and PIN = purchase intention.
effect of peer influence showing further significance (β = 0.293, p
Table 4 < 0.001) (confirming H4). Finally, H5 was validated by the positive
Results for structural equation analyses.
and significant results regarding attitudinal effect and purchase in-
Path Estimate S.E. C.R. P tention (β = 0.140, p < 0.001).
PU –> ATMAU .028 .017 .841 .400
∗∗∗
PEOU –> ATMAU .144 .026 4.261 5.4. Mediating effect
SI –> ATMAU .096 .025 2.849 .004
∗∗∗
PI –> ATMAU .293 .027 8.670
ATMAU –> PIN .140 .052 3.947 ∗∗∗ To confirm the mediating effects (see Table 5), we used the
bias-corrected bootstrapping method (using 20 0 0 bootstrap sam-
Note: ∗ p < 0.05; ∗ ∗ p< 0.01, ∗ ∗ ∗ p < 0.001, PU = perceived usefulness, PEOU = per-
ceived ease of use, SI = social influence, PI = peer influence, ATMAU = attitude
ples) to generate bootstrap confidence intervals of indirect effects
toward mobile app use, and PIN = purchase intention. for the mediated relationships. The indirect effect of attitude to-
wards mobile app use between perceived usefulness and intention
to purchase was insignificant (β = 0.004, p = 0.414), thus, rejecting
H1 is rejected. However, the findings indicate that perceived ease H6a. However, the indirect effect of perceived ease of use on pur-
of use positively and significantly influences attitude towards app chasing intent, mediated by attitude, proved significant (β = 0.020,
use (β = 0.144, p < 0.001), thus, confirming H2. A significant and p < 0.01). Likewise, the indirect attitudinal effect of social influ-
positive relationship was also revealed between social influence ence on purchasing was significant (β = 0.013, p < 0.01), while
and user attitude (β = 0.096, p < 0.01) (supporting H3), with the attitude was also found to play an important mediating role in the

Please cite this article as: A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al., Would you like to shop via mobile app technology? The technology
acceptance model, social factors and purchase intention, Australasian Marketing Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.01.002
JID: AMJ
ARTICLE IN PRESS
A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
Table 6
Moderating effects.
Hypotheses χ 2/Df
PU –> ATMAU moderated by gender 3.516
PEOU –> ATMAU moderated by gender .518
PU –> ATMAU moderated by age 4.681
PEOU –> ATMAU moderated by age 1.101
Note: PU = perceived usefulness, PEOU = perceived ease of use, and ATMAU = attitude toward mobile app use.
link between peer influence and purchase intention (β = 0.041,
p < 0.01). Therefore, H6b, H7a and H7b are all confirmed, and at-
titude towards mobile app use is identified as a valid moderator
on the paths through which perceived ease of use, social influence
and peer influence flow.
5.5. Moderating effect
Multigroup moderation analysis using the Chi-square difference
method was performed to determine gender and age as modera-
tors of attitude towards mobile app use. The results depicted in
Table 6 show that gender does not significantly moderate the ef-
fects of perceived usefulness (p = 0.061) and perceived ease of use
(p = 0.472) regarding attitude in this context. Consequently, H8a
and H8b are rejected. Age as a mediator is also insignificant rel-
ative to app convenience and attitudinal factors (p = 0.294), thus,
invalidating H9b. However, age does significantly moderate the link
between perceived usefulness and users’ perception of app use,
which is more salient to younger people (p = 0.030, β = 0.070)
and, therefore, supports H9a.
6. Discussion
6.1. Perceived usefulness and attitude towards mobile app use
The results showed that perceived usefulness does not have a
positive effect on attitude towards mobile app use (H1). This does
not confirm the findings in Veríssimo (2016). Difference instead
arises from the distinctive purposes of mobile banking apps ver-
sus Digikala (which is, by comparison, multipurpose), where the
former technology is used solely for conducting bank transactions
online. The result of this hypothesis also contradicts the findings
in Rivera et al. (2015), whose sample population consisted of time-
share company customers, who, according to them, tend to have
lifetime loyalty. This study differs from that research because such
committed customers may use an app regardless of its perceived
usefulness. Moreover, supposed value seems to hold more value in
Western cultures, while perceived ease of use has greater relevance
in non-Western spheres (Schepers and Wetzels, 2007). Hence, the
results for H1 and H2 are justifiable for Iran as a non-Western
country.
6.2. Perceived ease of use and attitude towards mobile app use
In contrast to the findings in Hernández et al. (2010), this study
demonstrates that perceived ease of use has greater effect on at-
titude towards mobile app use than perceived practicality. This is
due to its widespread appeal for Iranian customers using apps in
a non-Western country. Hsu and Lin (2008) instead confirmed this
hypothesis by arguing that perceived usefulness applies to work
environments only, which is beyond the scope of this study. As
such, their argument supports our result for this hypothesis.
Regarding H2, the current study supports Veríssimo’s
(2016) conclusions, which showed that perceived ease of use
Please cite this article as: A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al., Would you like to shop via mobile app technology? The technology
acceptance model, social factors and purchase intention, Australasian Marketing Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.01.002
[m5G;February 6, 2020;14:37]
7
Path coefficient Path coefficient P-value Hypotheses testing
Male Female young old
.070 −.080 – .061 Not supported
.160 .110 – .472 Not supported
– .070 −.120 .030 Supported
– .120 .210 .294 Not supported
is a significant enabling condition for mobile banking. This re-
sult is also consistent with the IT context in Hernández et al.
(2010). Much like those findings, this study shows that, although
accepted, the effect of perceived ease of use on attitude towards
mobile app use is weak. This is because, as Davis (1989) showed,
supposed practicality loses its significance after users employ IT
for 14 weeks. Here, Hsu and Lin (2008) further verified the second
hypothesis after finding that perceived ease of use significantly
affects attitude towards IT habits. Correspondingly, difficulties in
use can create resistance to IT altogether.
6.3. Social influence, peer influence and attitude towards mobile app
use
The positive effect of H3 mirrors the result in Qin et al. (2011),
which demonstrated that social influence affects IT use through
the mediating role of perceived usefulness. This finding is also
consistent with Hui and Buchegger (2009), who found that so-
cial influence has significant influence on attitude towards mobile
apps. They argue that, in an online social network, people who
have close relationships with other users are approximately 100
times more likely to influence them to join an app than a set
of strangers. Moreover, in terms of community identification, this
finding echoes Hsu and Lin’s (2008), but differs in terms of social
norms—which form another component of social influence in their
study.
Contrary to our results, Hew et al. (2015) suggested that so-
cial influence has no positive effect on behavioural intention—that
being the intent to implement, in practice, the specific act of us-
ing an app. The difference instead lies in the dependant variable.
Specifically, Hew et al. (2015) study assessed behavioural intention,
which is one step ahead of attitude towards mobile app use and,
as such, takes time to translate into actual conduct. Indeed, social
influence has been shown to affect individual attitudes; however,
one may not change their behaviour, in turn. In this study, peer
influence was noted as a significant factor in determining usage
attitude (H4), echoing the findings in Carter and Yeo (2016) for
undergraduate students. Upon segmenting the sample groups by
undergraduates and postgraduates, the study showed that the for-
mer’s stance on app use were swayed by peer influence, while the
latter’s were less dependent on external support. Thus, their per-
ception towards mobile apps was not affected by social influence.
6.4. Attitude towards mobile app use and purchase intention
The positive relationship between user attitude and purchase
intention differs from that in Hsu and Lin (2016), who noted an in-
significant relationship between the two for both potential and ac-
tual users (H5). These distinct results reveal the significance of the
purchase platform. In this study, there was no obligation to make
an in-app purchase. Instead, Digikala may provide information for
customers, allowing them to decide whether to purchase online or
instore. Our finding for this hypothesis is consistent with the re-
sults in Doub et al. (2015), which found that people who perceive
an app favourably are more inclined to make in-app purchases.
JID: AMJ
ARTICLE IN PRESS
8 A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
Further, Carter and Yeo (2016) confirmed the positive effect of at-
titude towards mobile app use, finding undergraduate students in
their study were likely to buckle under peer influence. In turn, this
shapes attitude towards mobile app use and, therefore, increases
the probability of intention to purchase.
Elsewhere, a study by Thaichon et al. (2016) on internet ser-
vice providers showed similar findings. Upon investigating the ef-
fects of service quality—such as internet network quality and cus-
tomer service on customer satisfaction, commitment and loyalty—
they confirmed that satisfaction mediated the relationship between
network quality and customer service and customer commitment.
They also study revealed that the influence of satisfaction and
commitment on behavioural and attitudinal loyalty varied by age
across different groups of customers. Earlier, Thaichon and Quach
(2015) found that satisfaction and commitment were determinants
of both attitudinal and behavioural loyalty in the emerging internet
service provider context. Therefore, it can be concluded that when
a consumer recognises the benefits of using app services, they ex-
hibit a positive attitude towards mobile app use, and both their
personal satisfaction and intention to purchase increase (Lee et al.,
2015).
6.5. The mediating effect of attitude towards mobile app use
Verma et al. (2016) have demonstrated trust, commitment and
satisfaction as mediators in relationship marketing. A few stud-
ies have also investigated how attitude mediates relationships in
TAM research using different variables. For example, Amoroso and
Ackaradejruangsri (2017), who took into account the moderating
effect of customer attitude, validated its role as a partial mediator
on the link between perceived ease of use and satisfaction. This
is similar to our finding with different dependant variables. More-
over, Tseng and Lee (2013) proved that attitude plays a mediating
role between brand image and purchase intention. Undoubtedly,
cultural similarities between Iran and Thailand as two Asian coun-
tries certainly explain cohesion between the two studies. Further,
in Rivera et al. (2015), app attitude mediated technology experi-
ence and intention to use, while in Hsu and Lin (2015, 2016) atti-
tude and satisfaction were noted as two key mediators. The first
variable determines the effect that belief about perceived value
(i.e., hedonic and utilitarian values) has on stickiness, and the sec-
ond is a mediator between perceived value and confirmation.
6.6. Moderating effects of gender and age
The finding in this study regarding gender and the link between
perceived usefulness and attitudinal factors, and further between
perceived ease of use and attitude, was insignificant (H8a and
H8b). As such, this outcome is similar to that in Hew et al. (2015),
Wong et al. (2014), Yuan et al. (2014) and Ha et al. (2007). Most
of the respondents in these studies and our paper were born in
1980 and became known as the technologically savvy ‘generation
Y’ (Valentine and Powers, 2013). Also, analogous to what Faqih and
Jaradat (2015) mentioned, respondents of both genders in the cur-
rent study were already heavy users of mobile phones with ubiq-
uitous access to the Digikala app. Therefore, both men and women
are decidedly comfortable using applications, indicating a narrow-
ing of the gender gap in Iran on various mobile computing apps.
Conversely, this finding contradicts Yuan et al. (2014),
Karjaluoto et al. (2010), Yu (2012), and Joshua and Koshy (2011).
Differences arise from the task orientation of respondents in these
studies. For example, Yu (2012) believed that men appear more
task-oriented than women and that electronic banking services are
typically motivated by goal achievement.
In relation to the mediating role of age between perceived
usefulness and attitude towards mobile app use (H9a), our re-
Please cite this article as: A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al., Would you like to shop via mobile app technology? The technology
acceptance model, social factors and purchase intention, Australasian Marketing Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.01.002
[m5G;February 6, 2020;14:37]
sult aligns with Laukkanen et al. (2007). Their study found that
only young people were interested in using Digikala, whereas older
respondents had generally negative attitudes. Three key reasons
might explain these harmonious outcomes. First, older people are
more cautious about the potential risk of using mobile apps. Sec-
ond, they tend to perceive apps as being difficult to use compared
to younger people. Third, young consumers tend to value the con-
venience and/or timesaving nature of mobile apps more than older
consumers. Nevertheless, this result is contrary to Venkatesh et al.
(2003) and Yu (2012), who each found that the effect of effort ex-
pectancy on behavioural intention was more important to older re-
spondents than their young counterparts. As mentioned, less re-
quired effort leads to inclined app usage, increasing by age. The
result for H9b mirrors the findings in Ha et al. (2007) and Lee
(2009) in a TAM context, in that the perception of risk, tradition
and image barriers may collectively explain the similarity between
these studies.
7. Implications
7.1. Enhancing TAM factors
Research has shown that both perceived ease of use and per-
ceived usefulness influence individual attitude towards mobile app
use. However, our results showed that only practicality signifi-
cantly affected users’ stance on apps. Therefore, we suggest that
app developers should continue to improve user-friendliness in
terms of mobile app design and navigation, and in providing users
with clear and easy-to-follow instructions and tutorials (Qin et al.,
2011). With regard to TAM factors and attitude towards mobile app
use, our findings showed that only age plays a moderating role
in the relationship between usefulness and user attitude. Conse-
quently, marketers should continue their plans for improving per-
ceived usefulness by targeting young people and designing apps
according to the expectations of this group. Importantly, the find-
ings are relevant for both males and females.
7.2. Promoting social factors
As social influence was shown in part to determine attitudinal
use, mobile app developers should encourage users to share their
opinions and experiences on social networks. Here, a reward sys-
tems may form a positive motivator for participants (Hsu and Lin,
2008). Moreover, marketers are encouraged to use social media so
that users can share their insight online or instore and, therefore,
increase sales (Seitz and Aldebasi, 2016). Managers should also en-
deavour to draw the attention of opinion leaders or community
builders to affect others’ attitudes towards mobile app use. They
should consider implementing word-of-mouth communication and
mass advertising, as these forms of media accelerate network ef-
fects to achieve a perception of critical mass (Hsu and Lu, 2004).
Viral marketing, in which a message is voluntarily rewritten and
transmitted by audiences themselves, provides another means to
influence social factors. With the popularisation of social networks,
people often communicate on digital platforms; therefore, viral
marketing techniques have become an effective strategy to arouse
and maintain attention.
Managers could also employ e-coupons or e-paper with social
network site members, encouraging them to distribute information
about the mobile apps they use (Tseng and Lee, 2013). Thus, mar-
keters must establish hedonic perceptions, as this will encourage
emotional value, establish positive peer word of mouth and cre-
ate social value for app use. For example, service providers can ap-
ply peer-to-peer pressure (e.g., recommender’s benefit) to influence
others’ loyalty towards using mobile applications (Chang, 2015).
JID: AMJ
ARTICLE IN PRESS
A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
7.3. Improving attitude towards mobile app use
The ultimate goal of any marketer is to achieve a high number
of sales, generated by customer purchase intention. This paper con-
tributes to business scholarship and real-world application through
identifying users’ attitude towards mobile app use as a significant
determinant of purchase intention. Consequently, managers should
promote apps through instore promotions, point-of-purchase dis-
plays and loyalty or frequent shopper programs for members. Thus,
this paper suggests that marketers should increase the likelihood
that app users make a purchase or share information by incentivis-
ing them to visit the store (Taylor and Levin, 2014). Adding engag-
ing attributes (e.g., games and trivia) to mobile apps is an effective
way to increase knowledge and build positive attitudes (Seitz and
Aldebasi, 2016); evidently, this is because interesting and enter-
taining components incite users to use apps for longer and increase
the frequency of return (Kim et al., 2016a). Moreover, marketers
should be aware that perceived ease of use plays a significant role
in achieving greater purchase intention by improving general user
attitudes. This leads one to conclude that uncomplicated use en-
courages customers to make in-app purchases (Amoroso and Acka-
radejruangsri, 2017).
The current research also found that attitude towards mobile
app use accounts for the relationship between technology factors,
social factors and purchase intention because it acts as a full medi-
ator. Therefore, it should be considered as a facilitator in any mar-
keting plan aimed at technology development to reach a high vol-
ume of purchases.
Finally, this study highlights that marketers should be conscious
of the difference between older and young peoples’ attitude to-
wards mobile app use. Thus, improvement in this regard demands
due consideration of age.
8. Conclusion, limitations and future research directions
This study focuses on how TAM factors and social factors de-
termine customer purchase behaviour. The findings show that per-
ceived usefulness does not have a significant effect on attitude to-
wards mobile app use, but that perceived ease of use, social influ-
ence and peer influence positively affect attitude in this regard. In-
tention to purchase was also swayed positively by individual stance
on app use. In terms of mediating effect, the results demonstrate
that attitude is a full moderator between three indirect paths of
the model, while gender is not. Differently, age moderates the re-
lationship between perceived usefulness and attitude towards mo-
bile apps.
There are several limitations to this study. First, generalisabil-
ity always presents an issue for customer behaviour studies—with
the present study being no exception. Future research could aim
to determine the extent to which the findings can be extended
to include other populations, contexts and time periods. In the
interest of generalisation, future research could be conducted to
test this model in other service contexts in other countries. Sec-
ond, this study did not examine every relationship between the
affective evaluation constructs—that is, between customer satis-
faction, value, trust and commitment. Future research could in-
vestigate these links to better understand the effects of service
quality in a more challenging customer environment. Finally, a
longitudinal study of customer behaviour in relation to a partic-
ular mobile app could be conducted to elicit the changing patterns
of customers’ needs and desires.
References
Ajzen, I., 1991. The theory of planned behavior. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process.
50 (2), 179–211.
Please cite this article as: A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al., Would you like to shop via mobile app technology? The technology
acceptance model, social factors and purchase intention, Australasian Marketing Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.01.002
[m5G;February 6, 2020;14:37]
9
Alnawas, I., Aburub, F., 2016. The effect of benefits generated from interacting with
branded mobile apps on consumer satisfaction and purchase intentions. J. Re-
tail. Consum. Serv. 31, 313–322.
Amoroso, D., Ackaradejruangsri, P., 2017. How consumer attitudes improve repur-
chase intention. Int. J. E-Serv. Mobile Appl. (IJESMA) 9 (3), 38–61.
Aulakh, P.S., Gencturk, E.F., 20 0 0. International principal–agent relationships: con-
trol, governance and performance. Ind. Mark. Manag. 29 (6), 521–538. doi:10.
1016/S0019-8501(00)00126-7.
Baek, Y., 2013. Analysis of user’s attitude toward apps, intention to use and con-
tinual consuming intention-Focused on mobile commerce. Int. J. Contents 9 (4),
35–44.
Bapna, R., Umyarov, A., 2015. Do your online friends make you pay? A randomized
field experiment on peer influence in online social networks. Manag. Sci. 61 (8),
1902–1920.
Barnes, J.G., Cumby, J.A., 2002. Establishing customer relationships on the internet
requires more than technology. Austral. Mark. J. (AMJ) 10 (1), 36–46.
Bellman, S., Potter, R.F., Treleaven-Hassard, S., Robinson, J.A., Varan, D., 2011. The
effectiveness of branded mobile phone apps. J. Interact. Mark. 25 (4), 191–
200.
Bilgihan, A., Bujisic, M., 2015. The effect of website features in online relationship
marketing: a case of online hotel booking. Electron. Commer. Res. Appl. 14 (4),
222–232.
Book, L.A., Tanford, S., Montgomery, R., Love, C., 2018. Online traveler reviews as
social influence: price is no longer king. J. Hosp. Tourism Res. 42 (3), 445–
475.
Carter, S., Yeo, A.C.-M., 2016. Mobile apps usage by Malaysian business undergrad-
uates and postgraduates: implications for consumer behaviour theory and mar-
keting practice. Internet Res. 26 (3), 733–757.
Chang, C.-C., 2015. Exploring mobile application customer loyalty: the moderating
effect of use contexts. Telecomm Policy 39 (8), 678–690.
Dasgupta, S., Paul, R., Fuloria, S., 2011. Factors affecting behavioral intentions to-
wards mobile banking usage: empirical evidence from India. Romanian J. Mark.
6 (1).
Davis, F.D., 1989. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance
of information technology. MIS Q. 319–340.
Doub, A.E., Levin, A., Heath, C.E., LeVangie, K., 2015. Mobile app-etite: consumer
attitudes towards and use of mobile technology in the context of eating be-
haviour. J. Direct Data Dig. Mark. Pract. 17 (2), 114–129.
Eichhorn, B.R., 2014. Common Method Variance techniques. Cleveland State Univer-
sity, Department of Operations & Supply Chain Management. SAS Institute Inc,
Cleveland, OH.
Elek, E., Miller-Day, M., Hecht, M.L., 2006. Influences of personal, injunctive, and
descriptive norms on early adolescent substance use. J. Drug Issues.
Erkan, I., Evans, C., 2016. The influence of eWOM in social media on consumers’
purchase intentions: an extended approach to information adoption. Comput.
Hum. Behav. 61, 47–55.
Faqih, K.M., Jaradat, M.-I.R.M., 2015. Assessing the moderating effect of gender dif-
ferences and individualism-collectivism at individual-level on the adoption of
mobile commerce technology: TAM3 perspective. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 22,
37–52.
Fishbein, M. (1979). A theory of reasoned action: some applications and implica-
tions.
Fornell, C., Larcker, D.F., 1981. Evaluating structural equation models with unobserv-
able variables and measurement error. J. Mark. Res. 18 (1), 39–50.
G. Taylor, D., Levin, M., 2014. Predicting mobile app usage for purchasing and infor-
mation-sharing. Int. J. Retail Distrib. Manag. 42 (8), 759–774.
Gill, M., Sridhar, S., Grewal, R., 2017. Return on engagement initiatives: a study of a
business-to-business mobile app. J. Mark. 81 (4), 45–66.
Gillani, F., 2012. Impact of peer pressure and store atmosphere on purchase inten-
tion: an empirical study on the youngsters in Pakistan. Int. J. Acad. Res. Bus.
Soc. Sci. 2 (7), 323.
Graf-Vlachy, L., Buhtz, K., König, A., 2018. Social influence in technology adoption:
taking stock and moving forward. Manag. Rev. Q. 68 (1), 37–76.
Gupta, A., Arora, N., 2017. Understanding determinants and barriers of mobile shop-
ping adoption using behavioral reasoning theory. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 36,
1–7.
Ha, I., Yoon, Y., Choi, M., 2007. Determinants of adoption of mobile games under
mobile broadband wireless access environment. Inf. Manag 44 (3), 276–286.
Hair, J.F., Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C.M., Mena, J.A., 2012. An assessment of the use of
partial least squares structural equation modeling in marketing research. J. Acad.
Mark. Sci. 40 (3), 414–433.
Hernández, B., Jiménez, J., Martín, M.J., 2010. Customer behavior in electronic com-
merce: the moderating effect of e-purchasing experience. J. Bus. Res. 63 (9–10),
964–971.
Hew, J.-J., Lee, V.-H., Ooi, K.-B., Wei, J., 2015. What catalyses mobile apps us-
age intention: an empirical analysis. Ind. Manag. Data Syst. 115 (7), 1269–
1291.
Hsu, C.-L., Lin, J.C.-C., 2008. Acceptance of blog usage: the roles of technology ac-
ceptance, social influence and knowledge sharing motivation. Inf. Manag. 45 (1),
65–74.
Hsu, C.-L., Lin, J.C.-C., 2015. What drives purchase intention for paid mobile apps?
– An expectation confirmation model with perceived value. Electron. Commer.
Res. Appl. 14 (1), 46–57.
Hsu, C.-L., Lin, J.C.-C., 2016. Effect of perceived value and social influences on mo-
bile app stickiness and in-app purchase intention. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change
108, 42–53.
JID: AMJ
ARTICLE IN PRESS
10 A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
Hsu, C.-L., Lu, H.-P., 2004. Why do people play on-line games? An extended TAM
with social influences and flow experience. Inf. Manag. 41 (7), 853–868.
Hui, P., Buchegger, S., 2009. Groupthink and peer pressure: social influence in online
social network groups. In: Paper presented at the 2009 International Conference
on Advances in Social Network Analysis and Mining.
Jensen, J.M., Wagner, C., 2018. A cross-national comparison of millennial consumers’
initial trust towards an e-travel website. Mark. Intell. Plann. 36 (3), 318–333.
Joshua, A.J., Koshy, M.P., 2011. Usage patterns of electronic banking services by urban
educated customers: glimpses from India. J. Internet Bank. Commer.
Juaneda-Ayensa, E., Mosquera, A., Sierra Murillo, Y., 2016. Omnichannel customer
behavior: key drivers of technology acceptance and use and their effects on pur-
chase intention. Front. Psychol. 7, 1117.
Kang, S., 2014. Factors influencing intention of mobile application use. Int. J. Mobile
Commun. 12 (4), 360–379.
Karjaluoto, H., Riquelme, H.E., Rios, R.E., 2010. The moderating effect of gender in
the adoption of mobile banking. Int. J. Bank Mark.
Khare, A., Pandey, S., 2017. Role of green self-identity and peer influence in fos-
tering trust towards organic food retailers. Int. J. Retail Distrib. Manag. 45 (9),
969–990.
Kim, D.-H., Ha, S.-H., Park, K., 2015. Antecedent factors influencing the continued
use of smart banking by different mobile platforms: android OS vs. iOS. J. Inf.
Syst. 24 (2), 209–240.
Kim, S.C., Yoon, D., Han, E.K., 2016. Antecedents of mobile app usage among smart-
phone users. J. Mark. Commun. 22 (6), 653–670.
Kim, S.J., Wang, R.J.-H., Malthouse, E.C., 2015. The effects of adopting and using a
brand’s mobile application on customers’ subsequent purchase behavior. J. In-
teract. Mark. 31, 28–41.
Kim, S., Baek, T.H., Kim, Y.-K., Yoo, K., 2016. Factors affecting stickiness and word of
mouth in mobile applications. J. Res. Interact. Mark. 10 (3), 177–192.
King, W.R., He, J., 2006. A meta-analysis of the technology acceptance model. Inf.
Manag. 43 (6), 740–755.
Knoll, L.J., Magis-Weinberg, L., Speekenbrink, M., Blakemore, S.-J., 2015. Social influ-
ence on risk perception during adolescence. Psychol. Sci. 26 (5), 583–592.
Kucukusta, D., Law, R., Besbes, A., Legohérel, P., 2015. Re-examining perceived use-
fulness and ease of use in online booking: the case of Hong Kong online users.
Int. J. Contemp. Hosp. Manag. 27 (2), 185–198.
Kumar, V., Reinartz, W., 2018. Future of CRM. Customer Relationship Management.
Springer, pp. 385–404.
Laforet, S., Li, X., 2005. Consumers’ attitudes towards online and mobile banking in
China. Int. J. Bank Mark. 23 (5), 362–380.
Laukkanen, T., Sinkkonen, S., Kivijärvi, M., Laukkanen, P., 2007. Innovation resistance
among mature consumers. J. Consum. Mark. 24 (7), 419–427.
Lee, C.-Y., Tsao, C.-H., Chang, W.-C., 2015. The relationship between attitude toward
using and customer satisfaction with mobile application services: an empirical
study from the life insurance industry. J. Enterpr. Inf. Manag. 28 (5), 680–697.
Lee, M.-C., 2009. Understanding the behavioural intention to play online games: an
extension of the theory of planned behaviour. Online Inf. Rev. 33 (5), 849–872.
Lee, S., 2018. Enhancing customers’ continued mobile app use in the service indus-
try. J. Serv. Mark. 32 (6), 680–691.
Lu, X. (2015). Evaluating E-relationship marketing features on hotel mobile apps.
McFarland, D.J., Hamilton, D., 2006. Adding contextual specificity to the technology
acceptance model. Comput. Hum. Behav. 22 (3), 427–447.
Morosan, C., DeFranco, A., 2016. Modeling guests’ intentions to use mobile apps in
hotels: the roles of personalization, privacy, and involvement. Int. J. Contemp.
Hosp. Manag. 28 (9), 1968–1991.
Muralidharan, S., Men, L.R., 2015. How peer communication and engagement moti-
vations influence social media shopping behavior: evidence from China and the
United States. Cyberpsychol. Behav. Soc. Netw. 18 (10), 595–601.
Nambisan, S., Baron, R.A., 2007. Interactions in virtual customer environments: im-
plications for product support and customer relationship management. J. Inter-
act. Mark. 21 (2), 42–62.
Nunnally, J. (1978). C. (1978). Psychometric theory, 2.
Olaleye, S.A., Salo, J., Sanusi, I.T., Okunoye, A.O., 2018. Retailing mobile app useful-
ness: customer perception of performance, trust and tension free. Int. J. E-Serv.
Mobile Appl. (IJESMA) 10 (4), 1–17.
Opoku, R., 2012. Young Saudi adults and peer group purchase influence: a prelimi-
nary investigation. Young Consum. 13 (2), 176–187.
Payne, A., Frow, P., 2017. Relationship marketing: looking backwards towards the
future. J. Serv. Mark. 31 (1), 11–15.
Peng, S., Yang, A., Cao, L., Yu, S., Xie, D., 2017. Social influence modeling using infor-
mation theory in mobile social networks. Inf. Sci. 379, 146–159.
Pentina, I., Pullins, E.B., Wilkinson, J.W., 2014. Comparing drivers of social media
marketing adoption by salespeople in Australia and the USA: a pilot study. Int.
J. Inf. Syst. Manag. 1 (1–2), 146–165.
Qin, L., Kim, Y., Hsu, J., Tan, X., 2011. The effects of social influence on user accep-
tance of online social networks. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact. 27 (9), 885–899.
Please cite this article as: A. Vahdat, A. Alizadeh and S. Quach et al., Would you like to shop via mobile app technology? The technology
acceptance model, social factors and purchase intention, Australasian Marketing Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.01.002
[m5G;February 6, 2020;14:37]
Rivera, M., Gregory, A., Cobos, L., 2015. Mobile application for the timeshare indus-
try: the influence of technology experience, usefulness, and attitude on behav-
ioral intentions. J. Hosp. Tourism Technol. 6 (3), 242–257.
San-Martín, S., Jiménez, N., López-Catalán, B., 2016. The firms benefits of mobile
CRM from the relationship marketing approach and the TOE model. Spanish J.
Market.-ESIC 20 (1), 18–29.
Schepers, J., Wetzels, M., 2007. A meta-analysis of the technology acceptance
model: investigating subjective norm and moderation effects. Inf. Manag. 44 (1),
90–103.
Scully, K., Moital, M., 2016. Peer influence strategies in collectively consumed prod-
ucts (events and festivals): an exploratory study among university students.
Young Consum. 17 (1), 46–63.
Seitz, V.A., Aldebasi, N.M., 2016. The effectiveness of branded mobile apps on user’s
brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Rev. Econ. Bus. Stud. 9 (1), 141–154.
Sharma, S., Conduit, J., Hill, S.R., 2014. Organisational capabilities for customer
participation in health care service innovation. Austral. Mark. J. (AMJ) 22 (3),
179–188.
Sherman, L.E., Greenfield, P.M., Hernandez, L.M., Dapretto, M., 2018. Peer influence
via instagram: effects on brain and behavior in adolescence and young adult-
hood. Child Dev. 89 (1), 37–47.
Sherman, L.E., Payton, A.A., Hernandez, L.M., Greenfield, P.M., Dapretto, M., 2016.
The power of the like in adolescence: effects of peer influence on neural and
behavioral responses to social media. Psychol. Sci. 27 (7), 1027–1035.
Shin, D.-H., 2015. Effect of the customer experience on satisfaction with smart-
phones: assessing smart satisfaction index with partial least squares. Telecomm.
Policy 39 (8), 627–641.
Talukder, M., Quazi, A., 2011. The impact of social influence on individuals’ adoption
of innovation. J. Org. Comput. Electron. Commer. 21 (2), 111–135.
Tarute, A., Nikou, S., Gatautis, R., 2017. Mobile application driven consumer engage-
ment. Telem. Inf. 34 (4), 145–156.
Thaichon, P., 2017. Consumer socialization process: the role of age in children’s on-
line shopping behavior. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 34, 38–47.
Thaichon, P., Quach, T.N., 2015. The relationship between service quality, satisfac-
tion, trust, value, commitment and loyalty of internet service providers’ cus-
tomers. J. Glob. Schol. Mark. Sci. 25 (4), 295–313.
Thaichon, P., Lobo, A., Quach, T.N., 2016. The moderating role of age in customer
loyalty formation process. Serv. Mark. Q. 37 (1), 52–70.
Tseng, L.-Y., Lee, T.-S., 2013. Investigating the factors influence tweens’ purchase in-
tention through peer conformity in Taiwan. Adv. Manag. Appl. Econ. 3 (3), 259.
Valentine, D.B., Powers, T.L., 2013. Generation Y values and lifestyle segments. J.
Consum. Mark.
Venkatesh, V., 20 0 0. Determinants of perceived ease of use: integrating control, in-
trinsic motivation, and emotion into the technology acceptance model. Inf. Syst.
Res. 11 (4), 342–365.
Venkatesh, V., Bala, H., 2008. Technology acceptance model 3 and a research agenda
on interventions. Decis. Sci. 39 (2), 273–315.
Venkatesh, V., Davis, F.D., 20 0 0. A theoretical extension of the technology accep-
tance model: four longitudinal field studies. Manag. Sci 46 (2), 186–204.
Venkatesh, V., Morris, M.G., Davis, G.B., Davis, F.D., 2003. User acceptance of infor-
mation technology: toward a unified view. MIS Q. 425–478.
Veríssimo, J.M.C., 2016. Enablers and restrictors of mobile banking app use: a fuzzy
set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). J. Bus. Res. 69 (11), 5456–5460.
Verma, V., Sharma, D., Sheth, J., 2016. Does relationship marketing matter in online
retailing? A meta-analytic approach. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 44 (2), 206–217.
Viswanathan, V., Hollebeek, L.D., Malthouse, E.C., Maslowska, E., Jung Kim, S.,
Xie, W., 2017. The dynamics of consumer engagement with mobile technologies.
Serv. Sci. 9 (1), 36–49.
Walker, R.H., Francis, H., 2003. Customer service and relationship management in
the context of technology-enabled service delivery systems. Austral. Mark. J.
(AMJ) 11 (2), 23–33.
Walumbwa, F.O., Hartnell, C.A., Misati, E., 2017. Does ethical leadership enhance
group learning behavior? Examining the mediating influence of group ethical
conduct, justice climate, and peer justice. J. Bus. Res. 72, 14–23.
Wang, S.-m., Chuan-Chuan Lin, J., 2011. The effect of social influence on bloggers’
usage intention. Online Inf. Rev. 35 (1), 50–65.
Wong, C.H., Tan, G.W.H., Loke, S.P., Ooi, K.B., 2014. Mobile TV: a new form of enter-
tainment? Ind. Manag. Data Syst.
Yoganathan, D., Jebarajakirthy, C., Thaichon, P., 2015. The influence of relationship
marketing orientation on brand equity in banks. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 26,
14–22.
Yu, C.-S., 2012. Factors affecting individuals to adopt mobile banking: empirical ev-
idence from the UTAUT model. J. Electron. Commer. Res. 13 (2), 104.
Yuan, S., Liu, Y., Yao, R., Liu, J., 2014. An investigation of users’ continuance intention
towards mobile banking in China. Inf. Dev.