Determinants of the intention of smartphone usage by mobile internet users for m-services

Purpose This study is exploratory in nature. The purpose of this paper is to examine the intention to use smartphones by mobile users for m-services in a growing market. In fact, it empirically studies the influence of ubiquity and immersion in the virtual context on the perceived value (utilitarian and hedonic) of the mobile user's experience. Moreover, it is an academic embarkation upon the examination of the effect of perceived value on the intension of using smartphones by mobile users for the m-services. Finally, it tests the mediating role of the perceived (utilitarian and hedonic) value between ubiquity/immersion and the intention to use smartphones for m-services. Design/methodology/approach The data are collected from a sample of 300 Tunisian students and analyzed using the structural equation modeling technique. Findings The results show that ubiquity and immersion positively influence the value perceived by mobile internet users. They also confirm that the perceived (utilitarian and hedonic) value positively affects the intensity of smartphone usage by mobile internet users for m-services and show the mediating role of the perceived (utilitarian and hedonic) value between ubiquity/immersion and the intention to use smartphones for m-services. Practical implications Companies in place focus on the importance of smartphone shopping by communicating about the comparative advantages of this type of purchase to make this option a possible choice in the future. The immersive dimension in the virtual context of commerce can be exploited as a factor of differentiation, at a time when commercial trafficking is intensifying; for example, immersive merchant sites, to enrich their particular utilitarian value with an equally hedonic value. The hedonic and utilitarian dimensions of the perceived value constitute a mediator and an important lever for the distributors within the framework of the m-commerce. Due to a genuine consideration of the availability and the possibility to carry out the service at any time and any place in view of the fact that it is perceived as being useful and compatible with the needs and way of life of the individuals' intention, the use of smartphones for the m-served is explained by the lived values which are in turn explained by the ubiquity. Originality/value Despite the massive adoption of information and communication technology, especially the internet, in distribution and service delivery, very little research has focused on the intensity of use of smartphones by mobile internet users for m-services. This exploratory study is the first to test the effect of ubiquity and immersion in the virtual context on the perceived (utilitarian and hedonic) value of the mobile internet users' experience as well as the effect of the perceived value on the intensity of use of smartphones by mobile internet users for m-services in the Tunisian context. Moreover, it puts under scrutiny the mediating effect of the perceived value in the determination of the intention to use smartphones by mobile users for the m-services in the Tunisian context.