The Influencing Factors of Users’ Attitudes and Continuance Intention for Olympic Viewing on Mobile Applications in China

Abstract

Along with the proliferation of the mobile information system, broadcasters depend on multiple channels to distribute the massive amount of Olympic content. Users’ viewing habits for the Olympics gradually tend to be diverse, and undergo changes from the outlets of television to mobile broadcasting on smartphones. Through the mobile application of rights holding broadcasters, the users not only watch high-quality live-streaming content via multiple platforms but also enjoy interviews with athletes after the competition. In this way, it is necessary to investigate the users’ potential attitudes and intentions toward mobile viewing regarding the emerging techniques. In this study, we conduct an online survey to reveal the influencing factors of users’ attitudes and continuance intention of Olympic viewing on a mobile app during the period of Tokyo 2020 Summer and Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, where a total of 439 valid responses are collected. A conceptual model integrating the technology acceptance model and information system success model is established, which consists of information quality (IQ), system quality (SYQ), subjective norms (SN), innovativeness (INN), perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived enjoyment (PE), attitude (ATT), and continuance intention (CI). For the measurement, partial least square structural equation modeling is adopted to test the proposed model. The results show that respondents hold positive attitudes and robust continuous intentions towards mobile viewing. We also find that the constructs of IQ, SYQ, SN, INN, PEOU, and PE have a direct impact on attitude and continuance intention, which explained 80.6% and 70.8% of the variance, respectively. Although PEOU, PE, and SN are unexpected to have no direct correlation with CI, all of them can indirectly impact CI via the mediation of ATT. Therein, the moderation effects of average time focusing on Olympic contents and app usage time per session exists between PEOU and CI and SN and CI, accordingly. Through empirical investigation, this study offers a glimpse into individuals’ perception and willingness to mobile Olympic viewing, which aims to provide a reference for relevant Olympic service providers.