Discount Coupons Versus Trust and Satisfaction—Which is Better for M-Commerce?

Abstract

Online shopping apps offer discounts with the help of coupons which have been shown to be highly effective, especially, in the case of mobile commerce. However, the mechanism of attracting customers via discounting and its effect on the adoption of mobile shopping apps have not been studied in detail. We explored the important antecedents for continued usage intention of mobile shopping apps. Further, we explored the effect of coupon proneness via the expectation confirmation model. We have explored the mediating role of trust and moderating role of coupon proneness on the relationship between satisfaction and intention of continued usage. We found direct and indirect linkages of satisfaction, confirmation of expectations, perceived usefulness and trust and coupon proneness with continued usage intention. Results indicated that trust partially mediates the relationship between satisfaction and continued usage intention, and coupon proneness negatively moderates the relationship between trust and continued usage intention. Our study shows that coupons are effective in the short run but satisfaction and trust building are important for long-term strategy. Some personality traits can have an impact on the findings which have not been part of this study. Future research can expand and validate these findings.