Mobile Social Networking Application Viability: A Research ... · Humphreys, 2008; Sadeh et al.,...
Transcript of Mobile Social Networking Application Viability: A Research ... · Humphreys, 2008; Sadeh et al.,...
Citation: Chee Wei Phang, Juliana Sutanto, Chuan Hoo Tan & Jan Ondrus, Mobile Social Networking Application Viability: A Research Framework, International Journal of Accounting and Information Management, vol. 22, no. 4, p. 321 – 338, 2014.
Mobile Social Networking Application Viability:
A Research Framework
INTRODUCTION
Mobile social networking applications (MSNAs) are fast becoming popular among the
consumers today. These applications allow individuals to use a mobile device to construct a
public or semi-public profile space to display their personal information, and through doing so
establish new relationships, while also communicate with other users with whom they share an
existing relationship (Gressgard and Stensaker, 2006; Ling and Yttri, 2002). It has been
estimated that the number of such mobile social media users will grow from 650 million this year
to 1.3 billion by 2016 (Hanslip, 2011). Consistent with these speculations, it has been reported
that MSNA is currently among the most attractive type of mobile applications to venture
capitalists (Schweitzer et al., 2009) as well as to corporations looking for promising
technological investment (Kane, 2005). Indeed Facebook, which is currently the largest social
networking service provideri, is aggressively pursuing a mobile strategy with the launch of its
mobile platform in 2011 and its mobile app called Facebook Home in 2013 to tap onto the
growing mobile user populationii. This is unsurprising considering that of its 1.06 billion
monthly active users recorded worldwide in 2012, 680 million users accessed the social
networking service on mobile devicesiii.
Despite the promising outlook, it remains unclear how MSNA providers can more
effectively leverage on these applications to derive commercial benefits. As noted in an article
by the Knowledge@Wharton on 13 February 2013ii, “[t]he challenge for companies is
developing a strategy that takes advantage of the unique characteristics of mobile platforms.”
Elaborated by Saikat Chaudhuri in the same article ii, “[c]ompanies need to leverage uniquely
mobile features such as physical location, immediacy and targeting”, but how to achieve this
remains not well understood. This suggests a pressing need for a framework that can help MSNA
providers to more systematically utilize the features afforded by mobile technology to ensure
their commercial viability. Thus motivated, this article proposes a conceptual framework that
addresses the viability issue of MSNA. Viability here is understood in terms of how desirable
commercial outcomes may be derived from mobile applications specifically MSNAs.
To investigate the commercial viability of MSNAs, it is important to first understand how
these applications could better fulfill their core value to the users since continuous usage is a
foundation for deriving their commercial benefits. Specifically, the nature of MSNAs implies
that such applications need to address the social needs of users to be interconnected and to
maintain relationships with each other. The relationships of concern could transpire in several
ways, involving individuals who are 1) members of a social group e.g., a family clan, or
graduates of an educational institution, 2) located in close proximity e.g., residing in the same
housing area; and 3) simply end-users of the same application (Beer, 2008; Boyd and Ellison,
2007). This study builds on the relevant social networking perspectives to propose an
activity-based view on mobile application usage, which is then associated with a proposed set of
measurement metrics.
Additionally, while there has been a sizable amount of research conducted on the MSNAs’
technical design aspects (Miluzzo et al., 2008; Tsai et al., 2009) and user behaviors (e.g.,
Humphreys, 2008; Sadeh et al., 2009), studies conducted specifically on how to determine
whether such applications are commercially viable remain lacking, and lag far behind its rapidly
increasing popularity. To the best of our knowledge, there is yet to be directed, orchestrated
studies that focus on examining the link between the features of MSNAs and their assessments.
We distinguish three classes of MSNA features: (i) profile-based, (ii) spatial-based, and (iii)
temporal-based features. Through this conceptual framework (and the propositions), we hope to
promote subsequent research to examine MSNAs in a more orchestrated manner.
MSNA AS THE FOCAL APPLICATION
Extant research on MSNAs primarily focuses on the technical design of such applications,
such as the sensory technologies to detect MSNA devices and users (Miluzzo et al., 2008), and
the network architectural design for MSNAs (Eagle and Pentland, 2005; Tsai et al., 2009). We
found only two studies (Humphreys, 2008; Sadeh et al., 2009) that investigated user behavioral
response to MSNAs. Among them, Humphreys investigated Dodgeball, an MSNA that aimed at
facilitating social connection and coordination, and concluded that exchanging messages through
Dodgeball led to a tendency for strangers to congregate in urban spaces. Interestingly, Dodgeball
was bought over by Google in 2005 but was then shut down in 2009 because it could not bring
forth profit to the company. In another study by Sadeh et al. (2009), an MSNA that enables users
to selectively share their locations with others was developed to investigate users’ privacy
concerns via a series of laboratory and field experiments. While these studies managed to
integrate the technical and users’ behavioral aspects of MSNA to obtain richer insights into how
the application can benefit the users, they did not delve into how the application could be
enduringly viable.
Our reviews of the previous works on MSNAs highlight several gaps that need to be bridged
to advance research. Specifically, the review points to the opportunities to integrate the different
themes of research to advance the investigation on MSNAs. Essentially, the research
opportunities can be translated into the following research questions. First, by tying up the
themes on technical design, user behavior, and business consideration, we seek to answer the
question: “What are the technological design features of MSNAs pertinent to mobile use
behavior that can be leveraged for attaining the viability objective?” Second, given that
consumers interact among themselves and form social groups, there is a need to understand
consumers as groups rather than isolated individuals. This leads to the next question: “How can
we understand and leverage the mobile social networks afforded by MSNAs to enhance their
viability objective in conjunction with the pertinent design features?” Answering these questions
allow us to assess the value of MSNAs that can be extracted from consumer interaction with
each other through the applications. The technological design of MSNAs may also guide
researchers and practitioners in developing the MSNA for their research/commercial pursuits.
SOCIAL NETWORK PARADIGM AS THE THEORETICAL UNDERPINNING
When mobile users are interconnected and communicate with one another e.g., through the
use of MSNAs, a social network is formed. A social network is typically manifested by a set of
actors (e.g., mobile application users) connected by a set of ties (e.g., friendship ties). Individuals
tend to adapt and imitate the behavior of others in the social network. This led to the emergence
of a number of social network perspectives (see Valente (2006) for a review) to explain the
social influence among individuals in adopting an idea, practice, product, or information. A
summary of these social network perspectives is presented in Table 1.
INSERT TABLE1 ABOUT HERE
The central thrust of the social networking paradigm is the concept of interpersonal
influence as a form of social contagion, i.e., how individuals influence each other; and who
influences whom in the contagion process. Under this paradigm, scholars have examined
individuals who are more influential (e.g., opinion leadership principle) (Katz et al., 1963;
Harben and Kim, 2007; Goldsmith and Clark, 2008), individuals who are more/less likely to be
influenced and the breadth of influence (e.g., strength of weak ties principle (Granovetter, 1983)),
and individuals who can bridge disconnected groups of people (e.g., structural hole model (Burt
1992)). These derivations subsequently spin off a series of investigations to complement the
initial development underpinnings. For instance, explained through the opinion leadership model,
research has found that opinion leaders could influence consumers’ perception of advertising
messages (Harben and Kim, 2007) as well as their fashion preferences (Goldsmith and Clark,
2008). The opinion leadership model, however, does not clearly dictate how an individual is
more likely to be influenced (Watts and Dodds, 2007). This gap is addressed in different ways by
the network closure (Coleman, 1988), structural equivalence (Borgatti and Everett, 1992; Burt,
1987), and thresholds models (Granovetter, 1978; Rogers, 2003).
Taking a dynamic view, some researchers argue that an individual who is more likely to be
influenced by others may also become more influential as well, which is espoused in the dynamic
model (Myers, 2000). The dynamic model is typically depicted in the form of a
susceptible-infectious-recovery framework, which has been applied extensively in epidemiology
(Anderson, 1991; Bailey, 1975). Two key concepts are examined by this model with respect to
the social influence among individuals i.e., susceptibility and infectiousness. Apart from the
number of adopters surrounding an individual, the susceptibility of the individual (to an
influence) is also dependent on the degree to which he/she gets into contact with the adopters i.e.,
the individual will be more susceptible if he/she meets his/her adopter friends more frequently.
Further, once an individual has been converted from being susceptible to “infected” (i.e.,
becoming an adopter), he then becomes infectious (i.e., more influential) to others in the network,
implying a dynamic process of how social influence operates.
Collectively, the social network paradigm may inform useful strategies that merchants can
formulate to improve the diffusion and adoption of commercial messages. For instance,
merchants can locate the opinion leaders in a social network and engage them with appropriate
incentives to more effectively influence the others (Valente and Davis, 1999). However, it is
often difficult for merchants to know their customers well and get them to frequently get in touch
with each other for such social influence to operate. We contend that MSNAs, through acting as
the platform for social interaction among the users and allowing the users to conduct social and
economic activities at the actual physical context, will equip merchants with the needed
understanding of customers to improve commercial viability.
RESEARCH PROPOSITIONS
Drawing on the social networking paradigm, we can identify that the commercial viability of
a MSNA is contingent on the breadth and intensity of the communication and interaction activity
among the application users, which bonds and sustains the interest of the users to continue using
it. To this end, we can conceive the application viability as best manifested in terms of the
explicit social networking relationships among users in two ways: dynamic communication and
dynamic evolution. Dynamic communication perspective is reflected by the rate and quality of
message responses made by users of the same application. This is built on the conjecture that if
message communications are able to inspire responses from the users both in terms of intensity
and quality, this implies that users find meaning in the communications, which makes it more
likely for them to continue using the application to receive commercial messages. Dynamic
evolution perspective is more straightforward and was developed based on the viral marketing
literature (Bampo et al., 2008; Wiedemann et al., 2008a; 2008b). The deployment of the MSNAs
can be perceived as a form of viral marketing, whereby the MSNA can serve as a technological
tool to facilitate the dissemination of messages to the targeted consumers in existing social
networks so as to achieve marketing objectives. The central thesis of this perspective rests on the
measurement concept of the spread of message i.e., message relaying from one individual to
another (Ewing, 2009).
Considering both perspectives, we can conceptualize the commercial viability of MSNA in
three ways: 1) rate of message response, 2) quality of message response, and 3) spread of a
message. While rate of message response refers to how many targeted customers respond to a
commercial message, quality of message response refers to how well a commercial message is
received by the targeted customers. Spread of a message refers to how fast a commercial
message (e.g., information about a product, or discount offer) can be propagated or relayed to
targeted customers (Vernette, 2004).
MSNAs, being an increasingly pertinent form of mobile applications, possess three classes
of features i.e., profile-based, spatial-based, and temporal-based features, that together aid in the
attainment of their commercial benefits. Profile-based features of MSNAs leverage on users’
profiles, social network contacts, and interaction patterns to offer targeted information and/or
services to the users. Spatial-based features rely on information about the physical space (i.e.,
geographical location and surroundings) in offering information and/or services to the users.
Temporal-based features map users’ needs to different dimensions of time, which we will discuss
in the subsequent sections. These three classes of features, when viewed in isolation, are not
exclusive to MSNAs. For instance, web-based SNAs typically offer profile-based features to
associate users with their relevant social networks/groups. Likewise, mobile applications may
include spatial-based features (e.g., GPS functions) to facilitate users in locating places of
interest such as restaurants. These features, as offered in SNAs or mobile applications, could by
themselves bring about desirable commercial viability, but it is the combination of profile-,
spatial-, and temporal-based features and their complementary nature that make the MSNAs a
particularly efficacious commercial tool to merchants.
Figure 1 depicts the overarching research framework. We posit that the fostering and
bridging of networks of high-affinity customers are facilitated by MSNAs that can provide the
means (how) to better reach the customers (who) with the right product/service (what) at the
right place (where) and at the right time (when).
INSERT FIGURE 1 ABOUT HERE
Propositions related to Profile-based Features
Profile-based features of MSNAs fundamentally leverage on the notions of user profile and
profiling to meet commercial objectives. The importance of users’ profile information can be
understood from the social identity perspective (Erickson, 1968). Users’ profile information
reflects their social identity, which has a bearing on how they appraise themselves and behave in
their interaction with others (Whitbourne and Connolly, 1999). User profiling entailed in
MSNAs typically involves the creation of a database that contains information about users’
demographics, hobbies, lifestyles, social roles, and most importantly their social network
information which is at the heart of MSNAs. All this information has their established utility for
merchants to perform market segmentation on both their potential and existing customers so as to
offer customized products or services (Raghu et al., 2001).
The profile-based features are expected to play a part in contributing towards the attainment
of commercial viability in the following ways. First, by capturing the users’ social network
information (who knows who) and their social interactions among themselves (e.g., their sharing
of comments on product or discount information), the features may aid in the identification of
opinion leaders among the customers. Through measuring the centrality of each individual, a
merchant can identify how many others an individual can potentially influence and then engage
these opinion leaders as agents to initiate and accelerate the diffusion of a commercial message
(Katz et al., 1963; Rogers, 2003). Through mining the connections and interaction patterns
among the customers, customers’ network structures may be constructed and analyzed to detect
the existence of structural holes (Burt, 1992), for which certain individuals may be engaged to
bridge the disconnected groups of potential customers to enhance the extent of marketing
information dissemination. Knowledge about the network structure may also be employed to
identify consumers who occupy similar network positions i.e., having structural equivalence
with each other. A subset of these consumers may be targeted and invited to try out a new
product to instill the comparison tendency of their structurally equivalent others (Burt, 1987).
With the social network information, merchants may also locate groups of people with a high
density of interactions (i.e., high network closure), and capitalize on the trust and norms within
the groups to influence those connected to them (Coleman, 1988).
Second, customers’ profile information, such as demographics and interests, can be
employed to match their social network information to increase the effectiveness of the social
influence for disseminating commercial messages i.e., through profile-matching. As noted by
Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955), social influence is primarily a matter of communication among
those with shared interests. The greater the degree of similarities between two parties e.g., in
terms of interests and demographics, the greater the attraction between them, which in turn eases
their communication and fosters their relationships. Consequently, effort can be made to channel
the influence of opinions leaders to those who share similar profile information e.g., having
common interests, so as to make their influence more salient. Similarly, to better capitalize on
the influence of a customer to his structurally equivalent others, merchants could focus on
promoting products related to their shared interests or lifestyles. Merchants could also assess the
procurement threshold level of an individual based on his/her past responses to commercial
campaigns. For instance, some individuals might habitually respond to a commercial message
(such as using a coupon to buy a product) only after a large percentage of their social network
contacts had done so, as recorded by the profile-based features. Merchants may thus employ such
information to identify individuals with relatively low thresholds and target them as early
adopters of a product or service. Based on the discussion, we propose:
Proposition 1: Embedding profile-based features into MSNAs could contribute towards the
materialization of commercial viability by affording personalization to consumers; and aiding
merchants in identifying consumers occupying important social network positions (e.g., opinion
leaders and bridges), and leveraging on their behaviors through profile-matching.
Propositions related to Spatial-based Features
People tend to congregate at a place with knowledge of each other’s locations that is often
not pre-planned (Humphreys, 2008). Such a tendency could occur among people who know each
other e.g., close friends, or it could involve two or more strangers who fancy spontaneous
meetings e.g., on a Friday night at a pub. From the perspective of the dynamic model,
specifically the susceptible-infectious-recovery framework, individuals’ proximity may increase
both their susceptibility and infectiousness with regard to the diffusion of a commercial product,
service, or idea. Key to the contagion process in the framework is increased social interaction
among people (Sorenson and Stuart, 2001), which often emerges among individuals who are
spatially proximate to each other (Hawley, 1950). Indeed previous literature has noted that
proximity could facilitate communication and information exchanges (Saxeman, 1994), thus
stimulating diffusion of information. The spatial-based features in MSNAs may contribute
towards the materialization of commercial viability through fostering the proximity among the
consumers and exploiting the distance information between consumers and merchants.
The central theme of spatial-based features in MSNAs is the concept of space, which serves
as a container for places whose meanings are shaped by what one does in them (Curry, 1999).
The sharing of location information among users of an MSNA in real time may afford people
with opportunity to act on it spontaneously and may change the way they conduct social
activities (Humphreys 2008). This information enables the merchants to conduct group-based
promotions, whereby a certain number of shoppers are needed to enjoy an attractive product
discount rate. An MSNA can be used to alert shoppers on the number of others who are near the
shop and are interested in joining in the purchase of the product. With the help of the MSNA, the
interested shoppers may then organize themselves together and proceed to purchase the
discounted product at the shop.
Previous research shows that people prefer to interact with others while shopping rather than
doing it in isolation (O’Hara and Perry, 2001). Of particular interest is the finding that
conversations among customers about their product consumption experience may influence
attitudes towards the product and induce preference shifts (Schlosser and Shavitt, 2002). The
importance of social interaction in shopping activity is evident in the recent emergence of
web-based collaborative shopping tools. However, these web-based tools remains lacking in
terms of the social-experiential elements and rich communications that are present in face-to-face
interactions (Jahng et al., 2007); all of which can be afforded by the MSNAs. The ability for
MSNA users to be at the actual physical context (e.g., in a shop that sells audio systems) would
facilitate the deeper sharing of product knowledge among the consumers (e.g., how to visually
and audibly differentiate between a good and a mediocre audio system). With respect to this,
merchants may provide appropriate stimuli to induce information sharing among proximate
consumers about a target product or service.
The distance information provided by the spatial-based features based on the location
information of users and merchants may also improve the attainment of the desirable commercial
viability. Prior research has suggested that physical distance plays an important role in the price
that consumers are willing to pay for a product or service (Balasubramanian et al., 2002). Recent
research also shows that location-based mobile promotions may stimulate consumers’ unplanned
purchases in a supermarket context (Hui et al., 2013). Our discussion leads to the following
proposition:
Proposition 2: Embedding spatial-based features into MSNAs could contribute towards the
materialization of commercial viability by fostering the proximity among customers for enhanced
social shopping experience and to increase customers’ susceptibility and infectiousness to
information sharing and diffusion; and exploiting distance information to tailor offerings to
customers.
Propositions related to Temporal-based Features
The temporal-based features in MSNAs could contribute towards the materialization of
better commercial viability through predicting and fulfilling users’ needs along four perspectives
of time experience i.e., clock time, organic time, strategic time, and spasmodic time (Bulter,
1995). Clock time is linear and is the most common form of time experienced and understood.
For organic time, ideas and actions are developed through consensus building and congruence
over a possible future, but where the past is relatively uncodified and linked in an indeterminate
way to those futures (Bulter, 1995). Accordingly, decision making about when to send a
particular advertisement will be based on principles of satisficing rather than achieving optimal
solution. In the strategic time perspective, the future depends on the prediction of the actions of
other people, even though their views of possible futures may not always be congruent with
one’s views (Bulter, 1995). Examples of temporal-based features that take advantage of strategic
time are features that send discount coupons for electronic gadgets shortly before Black Friday.
Finally, time experience can also be conceptualized as spasmodic time. With spasmodic time, the
present is experienced through events that are irregular, highly novel, movable, and with many
concurrent events impinging (Bulter, 1995). In such circumstances, product/service choices often
occur in a haphazard way with the time scale bearing little relation to clock time.
Temporal-based features that take advantage of spasmodic time are those that send information
which depreciates quickly in value e.g., a time-limited group discount event (Balasubramanian et
al., 2002).
The essential message is that MSNAs, being applications installed on a mobile phone that is
always with the users, could blend into the rhythms of time experienced by the users in
conducting their everyday activities (Green and Harvey, 1999). The preceding characteristic of
MSNAs is particularly pertinent when one considers the tendency for people to organize and
coordinate their social activities e.g., shopping and gathering, in a spontaneous nature (Ling and
Yittri, 2002). The gathering of young pub goers on Friday nights (clock time) serves as a good
example for this tendency. With confidence that the mobile phone is always with the users, a pub
operator can send out promotional messages (e.g., free flow of beer) half an hour before the
“Happy Hour”, during which the pub goers are able to organize a gathering at the pub through
the application “on the spot” while the message is still fresh in their mind. In terms of organic
time, merchants may grab the opportunity to send out information on overcoat sales to shoppers
when there is a sudden drop in temperature accompanied by strong, cold wind in an evening
during the seemingly early winter. Again the action is made possible with the “always with
users” nature of the mobile phone. For temporal-based features capturing strategic time,
advertisements about the limited stock availability of a latest electronic gadget can be sent to
shoppers when a queue has already built up to purchase the gadget on Black Friday. This may
stir the curiosity of shoppers which may in turn help to further popularize the product. Finally,
the “always with users” nature of MSNAs is a natural companion for the temporal-based features
capturing spasmodic time. This is due to the importance to heighten a sense of urgency in
shoppers at a particular moment with respect to a limited-time promotional message tapping on
their spasmodic time experience. Our preceding discussion leads us to propose the following:
Proposition 3: Embedding temporal-based features into MSNAs could contribute towards the
materialization of commercial viability through assisting in the prediction and fulfillment of
users’ needs along the four forms of time experience (clock time, organic time, strategic time,
and spasmodic time), and by blending into the temporal rhythms experienced by users in their
everyday activities.
Propositions Combining Profile-, Spatial-, and Temporal-based Features
While we have placed separate focuses on the three features in how they may each
contribute towards commercial viability, we contend that it is the synergy created from
simultaneously utilizing the three features in MSNAs that allows their commercial potential to be
fully unleashed. Specifically, the spatial- and temporal-based features are expected to augment
the profile-based features in bringing about commercial viability in terms of 1) higher rate of
message response, 2) higher quality of message response, and 3) wider spread of a message.
Time and space are both valuable resources, and are among the most fundamental
dimensions of all economic activities (Balasubramanian et al., 2002). As noted by Ohta (1993;
pp. 1), “If time is the warp of economics, then space is its woof”. Extending this analogy, we
contend that MSNAs, through encompassing both spatial- and temporal-based features, would
empower merchants to better weave the warp and woof of their commercial activities,
particularly in augmenting the profile-based features to attain the desirable commercial viability.
More specifically, with the help of the three features collectively, merchants will be able to
integrate their understanding about customers’ characteristics and their social networks together
with information about the settings of their social and economic activities (i.e., time, place, and
surrounding conditions) to formulate targeted commercial strategies.
Consider the following example -- knowing that a group of white-collar movie lovers often
organize spontaneous movie or beer drinking sessions after work, a restaurant operator may offer
group dining with bar beer drinking discounts to these potential customers (through profile-based
features) when they are near the area (through spatial-based features) at the particular hours
(through temporal-based features) to improve their business. The discounts can be designed such
that the larger the size of the groups, the greater discounts they can enjoy. With the spatial-based
features that foster proximity among users, such commercial initiatives could further add to the
“pull factor” of gathering a large crowd of customers to the restaurant. Likewise, movie
distributors and cinemas may also send promotional materials of a new movie in the form of
pictures and trailers to these customers’ mobile devices during their gathering and before the
movie screenings (i.e., through temporal-based features). These examples involve both clock
time, i.e., after work, and organic time, i.e., spontaneous gatherings that may occur on any of the
weekdays but which the tendency of occurrence on certain weekdays may be approximated over
time. The aim is to increase awareness and stimulate discussions among customers about the
movie (Trusov et al., 2009).
Continuing from the example above, opinion leaders within this group of customers can be
identified with the help of the profile-based features to enhance the word-of-mouth effect. Based
on their indicated preferences, the opinion leaders may be invited to attend the preview of a
movie of their favorite genre, after which they will be requested to share their opinions about the
movie with others in the group. The request may be sent when the opinion leaders are detected to
be with his/her friends. The information propagation through the opinion leaders will serve to
intensify the social influence among customers in diffusing a commercial message (in this case,
information about the movie). The proximity between the opinion leaders and the other group
members during the gathering also increases their mutual exposure and interaction, and may
create continuous cycles of members within the group being susceptible and infectious to each
other. Furthermore, the spontaneous propagation of messages to those who join the group once in
a while (i.e., weak ties) through the MSNA may help to enhance the reach of the messages to
different groups of consumers. Together these led us to the following hypothesis:
Proposition 4: Integrating the profile-, spatial-, and temporal-based features in MSNAs would
offer merchants a more holistic understanding about their customers. Subsequently, appropriate
commercial messages could then be sent to the consumers that yield (a) faster spread of message,
(b) higher response rate, and (c) better response quality.
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
To recapitulate, we focus on three manifestations of commercial viability based on a review
of the viral marketing literature. The propositions on MSNAs offer valuable insights into how
such emerging mobile applications should be developed and molded to bring about greater
benefits to both their providers and consumers.
Boundary
While we have derived an important set of MSNA features and proposed an assessable set of
propositions in relation to commercial viability, we did not provide empirical validation of these
propositions. Our aim has been to systematically tie together relevant literatures through the
social network paradigm to propose a conceptual framework on which future research on
MSNAs can leverage.
Additionally, we did not embed some areas of research into this article to keep our scope
manageable. First, our focus on the profile-, spatial-, and temporal-based features unavoidably
leaves out some other potentially important features of these applications that deserve attention
e.g., decision support features. Nonetheless, we believe that it is important in its own right to
unveil in-depth insights into how the profile-, spatial-, and temporal-based features of MSNAs
can lead to the attainment of their commercial viability.
Second, the advantages of MSNAs do come with their drawbacks. One of the major concerns
is users’ fear of privacy invasion which has been highlighted by previous studies on MSNAs
(Sadeh et al. 2009). Previous studies have highlighted privacy issue as a major factor inhibiting
users’ acceptance of new technologies (Stewart and Segars 2002). Nonetheless, this issue may be
alleviated given careful design of mobile applications such that users can enjoy its functionalities
while having their privacy protected (Sutanto et al. forthcoming).
Implications for Research
This article contributes to research on several fronts. First, extant research has placed
separate focus on the technical design; user behavior; and potential commercial opportunities of
mobile applications including MSNAs. This research undertakes a coherent integration of the
three seemingly disparate themes by examining user behavior together with the business aspects
of MSNAs, and proposing the technological design considerations to fulfill the needs and
interests of the users for enhancing their commercial viability.
Focusing on three key features of MSNAs i.e., profile-, spatial-, and temporal-based features
individually and collectively, we explore the question of how these features may effectively
reach the right customers (profile-based) with the right products/services at the right place
(spatial-based) and right time (temporal-based). We contend that the answer to this question lies
in an understanding of consumer behavior in terms of their usage of the MSNA to perform social
and economic activities. First, individuals use these applications to interact with one another and
form social groups. To aid in understanding how individuals’ social networks can be leveraged
on, we have provided a comprehensive explanation of the different social network perspectives
that may inform future research. Individuals can also use the applications to organize their social
and economic activities within the actual physical context. For merchants, this could mean the
opportunity to obtain a better understanding of their customers’ context while performing a
shopping activity. For this we have organized our discussion on how the different features can
lead to the attainment of commercial viability of MSNAs through a rich collection of pertinent
social network perspectives that have mostly been employed in isolation in previous research
endeavors.
The propositions that link the features to achieve commercial viability can be further
formulated into specific hypotheses for empirical validation. Researchers may identify the
specific, individual features of interest. For instance, researchers may test the effectiveness of a
spatial-based feature that delivers promotional messages from nearby shops to users when they
are within the area. They may also test these features in combination.
Implications for Practice
For the providers of MSNAs, merchants, and marketing managers, this article suggests
possible measures to tap on MSNAs to maximize returns on their investments. Specifically, this
can be achieved via two leverages: 1) the social networks formed among the customers through
the applications; and 2) the contextualization afforded by the applications whereby the customers
are able to conduct social and economic activities at the actual physical contexts.
For the first leverage, this article provides detailed discussion on the different mechanisms
through which the social networks of customers can be interpreted, analyzed, and tapped on. The
key for this is the effective use of the profile-based features to identify customers who are more
influential e.g., opinion leaders, and those who can be more easily influenced. It is also important
to improve the connectivity of the customers’ networks e.g., by bridging structural holes and
exploiting weak ties in the networks. Additionally, practitioners need to be aware of the dynamic
nature of social influence among the customers, such that the social contagion among the
customers should be viewed as a continuous process with mutual influence between customers
who are more influential and those who are more easily influenced.
The above potential exploitation of customers’ social networks is made more viable with the
capabilities of MSNAs that enable customers to conduct social and economic activities at the
actual physical context. The implications to practitioners with regard to this second leverage is
that it is vital to encourage the customers to make full use of the spatial- and temporal-based
features of these applications to conduct and organize their activities such as social gatherings
and shopping activities. It is also important to construct a reliable and effective system to deal
with and respond to the contextual information of customers in real time.
However, caution needs to be taken in exploiting the aforementioned features for this
purpose, such that the afforded delivery of highly targeted commercial messages could irritate
the users due to privacy concern. For this practitioners may consider designing their applications
such that all personal and contextual information are kept within users’ mobile phone to give
them a feeling of psychological comfort that their privacy is preserved (Sutanto et al.
forthcoming).
CONCLUSION
Mobile commerce and the possibility to harness the power of consumers’ social networks
constitute two emerging areas of research and practice that have received growing attention in
recent years. The combination of the two gives rise to the MSNA that can serve as a powerful
tool to help practitioners unleash the commercial opportunities of modern information and
communication technologies. This article can serve to provide timely and useful guidance for
future research and practice on this promising IT artifact.
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