The role of personalization on continuance intention in food service mobile apps: A privacy calculus perspective

Purpose: This paper aims to examine consumers’ behaviors toward personalized services offered by branded mobile apps in the food service industry by applying privacy calculus theory and technology acceptance model (TAM). Further, this research identified the moderating role of technology anxiety. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey was carried out to investigate the role of personalization on continuance intention toward branded mobile apps. In total, 348 valid responses were analyzed to test hypotheses using structural equation modeling. Findings: The results show that personalization had significantly affected perceived benefit, perceived risk and perceived ease of use. Perceived benefit had positive effects on perceived value of disclosure, but perceived risk did not affect perceived value of disclosure. Perceived value of disclosure and perceived ease of use were linked to trust. Trust, in turn, positively affected intentions to use mobile apps. With regard to the moderating effect of technology anxiety, it had a significant moderating impact on the relationship between personalization and perceived risk. However, it did not moderate the relationship between personalization and perceived benefit. Practical implications: The findings of this study could provide useful theoretical and practical implications related to the successful implementation of mobile marketing. Originality/value: This study proposes the integrated model of privacy calculus theory and the TAM for deeper understanding of the customers’ responses toward personalization of branded mobile apps.