Local and Cultural Factors in Mobile Data Communications: The Case - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Local and Cultural Factors in Mobile Data Communications: The Case of the SMS in China and Hong Kong SAR

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Xu Yan (xuyan@ust.hk)

Introduction

! Studies from the social psychology

perspective have revealed that local and cultural factors are key determinants for technology acceptance

! The contrast between the booming of the

SMS in China and the sluggish response to the SMS in Hong Kong is a new evidence

Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)

Beliefs and Evaluations Attitude toward behavior(A) Normative Beliefs and Motivation to comply Subjective Norm (SN) Behavioral Intention (BI) Actual Behavior

! A person’s performance of a specified behavior is

determined by his behavior intention (BI).

! BI is a measure of the strength of one’s intention to

perform a specified behavior.

Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)

! BI is jointly determined by the person's attitude

(A) and subjective norm (SN)

! A is determined by his or her salient beliefs

about consequences of performing the behavior and the evaluation of these consequences.

! SN refers to the person’s perception that most

people who are important to him think he should or should not perform the behavior in

• question. It may also refers to social pressure.

Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

Attitude (A) Perceived Usefulness (PU) External Variables Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) Behavioral Intention to (BI) Actual System Acceptance External Variables + + + + +

! TAM, on the basis of TRA, is specifically used for

modeling user acceptance of information technology/systems.

! It posits that two particular variables, perceived

usefulness and perceived ease of use, are of primary relevance for IT acceptance behaviours

Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

! Perceived usefulness (PU) is defined as the

prospective user’s subjective probability that using a specific application system will increase his specified performance

! Perceived ease of use refers to which a

person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort

Research Framework Model

P e r c e iv e d U s e fu ln e s s ( P U ) E x te r n a l V a r ia b le s P e r c e iv e d E a s e o f U s e ( P E O U ) A c tu a l S y s te m A c c e p ta n c e

• f S M S

S u b je c tiv e N o r m ( S N ) E x te r n a l V a r ia b le s E x te r n a l V a r ia b le s + + +

Growth of Mobile Users in China

(Source: The Ministry of Information Industry)

• 50,000

100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 300,000

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

Digital Analog

Growth of Mobile Users in Hong Kong

103 % mobile penetration by 2003

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002.8 M o b ile u s e r s , Hong Kong, China (million) A nalogue Dig ital, 800/900 M Hz "A c tiv ated" prepaid us ers PCS 1.7/ 1.8 GHz 2.5G us ers Other prepaid

Source: OFTA

Source: ITU, OFTA

Subscribers are not Necessarily Users

431 366 299 213 141 115

231 189 176

86 72 63

50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

ARPU (Yuan)

Blended ARPU Contract User Prepaid User 439 393 366 296 234 207 322 324 334 122 103 99

50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

MOU (minutes)

Blended MOU Contract User Prepaid User

Explosive Growth of the SMS in China

126.7 313.4 1,299.70 4,775.70 12,600.00 27,800.00 40,690.00 100 5100 10100 15100 20100 25100 30100 35100 40100 45100 Million Messages 1H 2000 2H 2000 1H 2001 2H 2001 1H 2002 2H2002 1H2003

Sluggish Response to the SMS in Hong Kong

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Oct-02 Nov-02 Dec-02 Jan-03 Feb-03 Mar-03 Apr-03 May-03 Jun-03 Jul-03 Aug-03 Sep-03

Mean Comparison by T-test and One- way ANOVA

Yes .000 152.46 81 200 2.3951(1.147) 4.175(1.0724) UA3 Yes .000 205.17 94 200 2.1064(1.041) 4.030(1.0886) UA2 Yes .000 74.265 95 200 2.5684(.9963) 3.715(1.0999) UA1 Yes .007 7.355 95 200 2.6000(.8921) 2.950(1.097) SN2 Yes .000 160.58 93 200 2.5054(.8923) 4.040(.9967) SN1 Yes .000 264.65 100 200 2.2500(.9468) 4.1150(.9307) PEOU2 Yes .000 36.382 84 200 3.4881(.9999) 4.1700(.8089) PEOU1 Yes .000 37.102 96 200 2.7604(.8914) 3.4450(.9117) PU2 Yes .000 20.976 82 200 3.5610(.8620) 4.0950(.9000) PU1 HK Beijing Hong Kong Beijing Significantly different? P-value F N Mean (SD)

Frequency of Using the SMS

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% Daily Once a Week Once a Month Others Beijing Hong Kong

Information Infrastructure Level

! A substitute to e-mail wireline Internet

! 206.6 million mobile subscribers but only 49.7 million

Internet subscribers by 2002

! Not all mobile services are more advanced than the fixed!

Demand to Mobile Data Services in China

41% 16% 12% 10% 8% 6% 7% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% E-mail Stock Transaction News Game Shopping Banking Others

Preference of Using the SMS to Send Message

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% Strongly Disaggree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree Beijing Hong Kong

Culture

! Users in China are reluctant

to talk to machine

! Users in Hong Kong has

been used to leaving voice mail

! The competitiveness of mobile voice service makes the

SMS a relatively expensive service in HK

Price Perception of SMS

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% Cheap Reasonable Expensive Beijing Hong Kong

Market Competition

Political Factor

! The SMS is Now a New and Informal Literature

! Bypass the Government’s censorship ! Social pressure to access and share with the others

The SMS Content

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% Greetings Jokes Advertisement Others Beijing Hong Kong

Business Model: Forming a Positive Feedback

Payment Content Content

Input Methods of the Chinese

! Pin Yin is simple and popular in China ! Cheong-chi is a complicated method of inputting

Chinese in Hong Kong

Respondence to "SMS is easy to use"

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree Beijing Hong Kong

The SMS Acceptance Model

Perceived Usefulness (PU) Market Competition: Alternative Substitution to Highly Priced Voice Service Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) Actual System Acceptance

• f SMS

Subjective Norm (SN) Business Model: Enhance Information Richness and Benefit from Network Externality Culture: Alternative Substitution to Voice Message + + + Information Infrastructure Level: Alternative Substitution of Wireline Internet Language: Input Method Political Censorship: Access and Share Information that are not Available in the Public Media

Conclusion

! Good technology or bad technology? That is not a

problem.

! User will accept a new technology only when they

perceive it as a useful technology

! There are many local and culture determinants that

lead to the perceived usefulness

! Perceived ease of use should be paid with

attention by vendors and operators

! Social pressure is one of the key factor to achieve

critical mass

THANK YOU!