Mobile phone applications : understanding if motivations to engage are related to the customer perceived value, customer satisfaction and customer engagement

Abstract

The growth of the smartphone market and the development of mobile applications for these devices has given created what literature has labelled an Application (App) economy or Application market. The sales income derived from selling mobile applications are driving the income in the economy with projected growth worldwide of USD 75 billion by 2017. By 2020, an estimated 5.8 billion smartphones globally are expected to be in use; this is an increase of 2.6 billion from the 2015 figures. Despite the robust growth and increased usage, many mobile applications are still not utilised by customers. There is limited studies and understanding of the elements that influence the customer decision or motivate the customer to buy them or to use them to a greater extent. The objective of this study is to discover the motivation aspects that drive the use of these mobile applications. The study looked at three motivators to ascertain which of these impacted the customer engagement. The study further aimed to analyse the relationship between these motivators to the customer satisfaction as well as the customer perceived value. The study tested the hypotheses method using a quantitative study to undertake a directional test. An internet -based survey was circulated for the data collection process. The survey was finalised with 134 respondents across gender, age and geographical location. The analysis supported the nine hypothesis factors. The study outcomes confirmed the presence of a relationship between the utilitarian, hedonic and social motivations to engage, with customer satisfaction; the existence of a relationship between the three engagement motivations with customer perceived value as well as a relationship between customer satisfaction and customer perceived value. The recommendation was, therefore, to encourage developers of the mobile applications into consideration what drives the customer to engage and for companies to incorporate mobile applications to a greater extent in their customer growth strategies. The recommendation was, by understanding what drives their customer to iii engage with mobile applications, companies would be better equipped in designing strategies that are more focused based on insight.