A laddering study of motivational complexities in mobile shopping

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to uncover the motivational tensions underlying mobile shopping (m-shopping) behaviours. The authors focus on consumer motivations and the pursuit of life end goals with respect to m-shopping. Design/methodology/approach Based on the means-end chain theory, hard-laddering approach was used to elicit associations between attributes, consequences and values from 251 online participants. Content analysis was used to develop a hierarchical value map “mapping” these associations to uncover underlying values for m-shopping. Findings Mobile shoppers are motivated by their self-actualisation needs (self-focused) and/or social needs (other-focused). Participants’ response contradictions reflected internal complexities and ambivalences during their purchasing decisions. Decisions are based on their concerns around security, time, technological or financial. Practical implications This study provides managerial insights into retail marketing and strategies. Marketers should consider creating user-friendly applications by researching the customer journey experience, heightening security measures and ensuring that added-value offers are clearly communicated to meet consumers’ personal values and motivations. Originality/value The paper presents an original conceptual contribution of personal values related to m-shopping as desires for self-empowerment, altruism and relationships with others, self-fulfilment and hedonism and possible consumer internal conflicts.

Why customers make mobile payments? Applying a means-end chain approach

“…From the implication matrix, HVM was constructed and included both the direct links and indirect links identified by interviewing respondents (Reynolds and Gutman, 1988). The HVM is a tree-like hierarchical cognitive structure, and the laddering output is transformed to determine the strength of link among element and their interconnection with other elements, consistent with other studies (Heinze et al, 2017;Pai and Arnott, 2013;Park et al, 2019). In the initial HVM, the ladders were found to overlap with each other, and the process of data reduction was adopted using a recommended cut-off value of 3 in each layer (Grunert and Grunert, 1995;Reynolds and Gutman, 1988), and a similar cut-off is used in other studies (Heinze et al, 2017;Pai and Arnott, 2013).…”

“…Various scholars have studied the applicability of MEC and empirical studies utilizing the A-C-V to create the relevant HVM, namely to understand Brand Equity (Wansink, 2003), the perceptions of consumers on value, price and quality (Zeithaml, 1988). Park et al (2019) used hard laddering to study the factors that motivate consumers to use mShopping in South Korea. Xiao et al (2017) used the integration of MEC and goal theory approach to study online Customers make mPayments: applying MEC approach group buying (OGB) in China, identifying 27 goals leading to four-goal paths, namely economic-driven, optimization-driven, convenience-driven and trust-driven paths.…”

“…The lack of familiarity with the MEC approach is one of the limitations (Reynolds and Olson, 2001), which confines to only a few studies that incorporate this approach. However, the MEC approach has been used in various areas spanning the extant studies: recycling goals (Bagozzi, 1994), mobile shopping (Park et al, 2019), Internet banking (Gerrard et al, 2006;Kuisma et al, 2007;Laukkanen, 2007), mobile banking services (Laukkanen and Lauronen, 2005), multi-channel shopping (Hsiao et al, 2012), using smartphones (Jung, 2014), social networking sites (Pai and Arnott, 2013), online group buying (Xiao et al, 2017). The literature review indicated no research on the empirical investigation of why consumers use mPayments using MEC approach.…”

Measuring the Interest of Smartphone Usage by Using Technology Acceptance Model Approach

“…The growth of cellular business shows very rapid development (Park, Yap, & Makkar, 2019;Choi, 2018;eMarketer, 2017;Sagib & Zapan, 2014). Along with the development of mobile Internet services, more consumers consider smartphones as their primary communication device.…”

“…However, functional attributes such as the perceived benefits and ease-of-use (derived from TAM) do not exclusively encourage m-shopping. The motivation of consumer consumption can be embedded socially and culturally in the lives of consumers (Park, Yap, & Makkar, 2019).…”