Determinants and Effects of Mobile Service Customization

Abstract

Service customization enables users to custom-made services for their specific needs while service providers can use custom outputs to offer superior services for their users. Less attention, however, has been paid to what factors influence individuals to customize mobile service differently and how custom outputs affect their intentions to use the services. The article proposes a new framework to examine the effects of information seeking and user experience on service customization (service configuration and custom outputs) and the effect of the service customization on users' intentions to adopt mobile services through the three values of mobile services–utilitarian value, hedonic value, and social value. The application-to-person short messaging service (A2P SMS) is used as the domain of study. The structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was used for data analysis. The results indicate that information-seeking and user experience regulate users' abilities to customize mobile services. Specifically, information seeking affects custom outputs while user experience affects service configuration. The results also show that custom outputs influence users' intentions to adopt mobile services through the perceived values of mobile services' utilitarian value, hedonic value, and social value. Hedonic value and social value have direct effects on mobile service adoption. This article broadens knowledge and understanding of mobile service adoption and provides guidance to service providers for effectively utilizing their customization strategies to enhance users' adoption of their services.