Modifying adoption research for mobile Internet service adoption: cross-disciplinary interactions

Abstract

One often meets the argument that the adoption of mobile Internet services is difficult to understand due to a lack of relevant research. However, much research has already been conducted on the adoption of basic mobile and traditional Internet services that are likely to converge into the services provided by the mobile Internet. In this article, we try to categorize four research directions relevant in understanding mobile Internet service adoption. We argue that because mobile Internet services are new, a lack of studies directly investigating the adoption these services is to be expected. However, we also argue that existing research directions provide valuable points of departure for further investigating and understanding the adoption of mobile Internet services. In particular, we suggest a cross disciplinary integration of the findings of four different research directions may improve our understanding of the basic mechanisms of individuals' adoption of mobile Internet services. In this article, we exemplify such an integration by suggesting how traditional adoption models in information systems research, such as the technology acceptance model or the theory of planned behavior, may be modified and extended when applied to study the adoption of mobile Internet services.