What makes users buy paid smartphone applications? Examining app, personal, and social influences

This study proposes an integrated model of users’ intention to purchase paid smartphone applications. Focusing on individual-level perceptions of paid smartphone apps, it investigates the impacts of paid apps’ characteristics (perceived usefulness and perceived price), as well as their users’ personal (personal motivation and self-efficacy) and social (mass influence and peer influence) characteristics on users’ attitude toward paid apps, which in turn influence users’ intention to purchase them. The proposed research model was evaluated using data collected from 231 respondents through the structural equation modeling technique. The results showed that perceived usefulness, self-efficacy, and peer influence are critical determinants of users’ attitude toward paid apps, which can lead to users’ intention to purchase paid apps. By highlighting the purchasing process of smartphone paid apps, it may provide guidance to app vendors to launch their new products or services in a successful manner.