Perceived Value and Usage Patterns of Mobile Data Services: A Cross‐Cultural Study

Abstract

Mobile Data Services (MDS) encompass all non‐voice value‐adding services accessible through mobile networks that are designated to augment end‐user experience with mobility and enrich mobile business models. The diffusion path of MDS varies considerably across countries and consumer segments with the Asia Pacific region leading the way and Europe and the Americas lagging behind. In view of this divergence in MDS adoption patterns, our study focuses on two countries, Greece and South Korea, considered representative of the aforementioned dipole, and seeks to cross‐compare user perceptions, usage levels and experiences with MDS. In doing so, the study draws upon a framework summarizing the key factors influencing MDS adoption and highlights the need to delve into more depth on the consumer side. Key findings from the empirical research in both countries (N = 1,935) show similar, however not identical, MDS categorizations which, in turn, generate three user clusters, namely heavy users, light users and trend followers. Within‐country and cross‐country comparisons pinpoint that heavy users, as well as Greek MDS adopters, are more disposed to business‐oriented usages of mobile data services. Thus, cultural‐driven user idiosyncrasies and socio‐economic contextual factors emerge as further research directions for understanding the non‐unitary evolution path of MDS around the globe.

Keywords:

• mobile data services
• mobile value
• cluster analysis
• demand side
• adoption

Acknowledgements

This research has been supported by Pythagoras II – EPEAEK. The project is co‐funded by the European Social Fund and National Resources (Greek Ministry of Education). The authors would like to acknowledge the preparatory work conducted by the WMDS consortium for forming the survey instrument. In addition, the authors would like to thank the Korean participation in WMDS (Prof. Jinwoo Kim and his team) for their helpful reviews on this paper.