Investigating the Relationships Between the Use Contexts, User Perceived Values, and Loyalty to a Software Product

Abstract

In this study, we propose that software products provide three types of value—utilitarian, hedonic, and social—that impact user loyalty. Although the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has focused on the user impacts of utilitarian and hedonic values provided by utilitarian and hedonic software products on system use, the impact of social value provided by the software products in general have been largely ignored. The results of a longitudinal study with actual users of three types of software products show that all three types of software products—utilitarian (Producteev), hedonic (Kerbal), and social (Facebook)—provide significant but varying degrees of all three types of values. Further, the value derived by the users’ primary use context moderated the impact of the secondary values provided by the software product to the users on their loyalty for the product.