Why People Resist Innovation: Study of Resistance to Music Streaming Service

Abstract

Emergence of online music streaming services transformed the music market. Music streaming services offered on demand music with affordable monthly fee, and created a win-win situation for everyone, as music lovers gets more options via various streaming systems, and musician receive royalties from the service, while service provider profit from monthly fees and commercial advertisement. However, some users still prefer incumbent systems even with the superior advantages of the new systems. This study investigates the factors that influence user resistance attitude and intention to music streaming services, and proposed a research framework from the perspective of benefit-cost, social norms and habit of using incumbent music systems. An online questionnaire survey was conducted, and 296 valid samples were analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM). Results revealed that uncertainty costs does not cause user resistance, but habit with incumbent system, transition costs and loss of performance costs, relative benefits, and social norms significantly influence users' resistant attitudes. Indicating that users have confidence in the music streaming services, while habit and relative benefits are the primary factors influencing user resistance. This study demonstrated that benefits and costs must be simultaneously considered in investigating users' resistance intentions against new information systems.