Content, Enjoyment or Payment? Factors Influencing Consumers‘ Purchase Intention in Mobile Reading: An Empirical Study from China

Abstract

Purpose – The development of mobile devices leads to the popularity of mobile reading. This paper aims to investigate the influential factors driving consumers’ intention to pay for e-books on Apps. The results can be used as references for improving service quality and increasing purchase rate of mobile reading services. Design/methodology/approach – 413 effective data was collected through questionnaires oriented to possible potential mobile readers by convenient sampling method of non-random sampling approach. Questions about respondents’ demographic information, mobile reading habits and the perception of relevant variables were included. SEM was employed as the analysis method towards the theoretical model. Findings – The results show that content characteristics along with enjoyment and payment characteristics all present significant effects on purchase intention. Specifically, perceived cost performance and perceived cost enjoyment show the strongest impact. Conversely, the correlation between perceived payment convenience and purchase intention is not significant. Practical implications – This study can help mobile reading service providers acquire a better understanding of consumers’ reading patterns, improve product design and sales patterns and eventually switch users’ reading behavior to payment behavior. Originality/value – The paper is one of the first to study purchase intention in the field of mobile reading. Study is conducted from the views of content characteristics, enjoyment characteristics and payment characteristics. Enjoyment, quality and cost are integrated into cost enjoyment and cost performance. Findings can provide some managerial insights for service providers to get deeper knowledge of users’ demands and make their mobile reading service more profitable.