Adoption of mobile internet applications as a means of communication in South Africa
Date
2014-01-21
Authors
Naidoo, Deena
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Abstract
Mobile network operators in South Africa are experiencing a decline in their voice
and messaging revenues as consumers continue to find new and cheaper ways to
communicate over the mobile internet. The availability of high speed mobile
broadband access and increased smartphone penetration in South Africa has
created an environment in which the availability and use of Mobile Instant
Messaging (MIM) applications (such as Whatsapp, Mxit, BBM and iMessage) are
flourishing. Consumers are now downloading MIM applications onto their
smartphones to support text messaging over the mobile internet as opposed to
using mobile operators’ own messaging platforms. Consequently, every text
message sent via MIM communication is lost revenue for mobile network
operators. With limited research pertaining to the factors that influence
consumers’ to adopt MIM for communication, this study attempts to identify these
factors and the extent to which they affect consumers’ behavioural intention to
adopt MIM for communication. Data collection was facilitated by means of an
online survey via the internet and respondents were contacted via e-mail to
participate in the survey. The samples used were mainly from the economically
active population in South Africa that have valid e-mail accounts and have access
to the internet. There were 259 valid respondents for the survey. The findings
suggest that the factors, facilitating conditions, attitude, compatibility, perceived
behavioural control, relative advantage and self-efficacy (in descending order of
importance) have significant positive influences on consumers’ behavioural
intention to adopt MIM for communication. While, subjective norms and significant
others were found to have no significant impact. The results of this study are
expected to give mobile network operators in South Africa an insight into how
consumers come to accept and adopt MIM services for communication. Mobile
operators must recognise that consumer behaviour is changing and that there is
an imminent risk of their services being eroded by MIM communication.
Description
MBA thesis
Keywords
Mobile telecommunications, Instant messaging