Roles of perceived value and individual differences in the acceptance of mobile coupon applications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how consumers’ value evaluation and personality factors influence consumers’ intention to adopt mobile coupon (M-coupon) applications in China. The moderating effect of gender on the relationships between personality factors and consumers’ adoption intention is also tested. Design/methodology/approach – This study conducted a survey to collect data from M-coupon application users. In total, 271 valid responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) technology. Findings – The results indicate that perceived value, personal innovativeness, and coupon proneness positively affect consumers’ acceptance of M-coupon applications. Personal innovativeness has more positive impact on behavioral intention for males than for females. However, the differential effects of coupon proneness on behavioral intention are not significant between males and females. In addition, the findings show that perceived convenience, perceived enjoyment, and perceived money savings positively influence perceived value, whereas perceived fees and perceived privacy risk negatively influence it. Practical implications – This study helps M-coupon application providers to identify who is positive toward their services and how to improve consumers’ perceived value of the services, eventually expanding their user base. Originality/value – Prior studies mainly focussed on the usage behavior of M-coupons and overlooked the important role of M-coupon applications in promoting M-coupon use. This research fills this gap. The research findings offer insights into the factors influencing consumers’ behavioral intention to adopt M-coupon applications. Besides, the results of gender’s moderating effect advance the understanding of the differences in males’ coupon usage intentions between the contexts of M-coupon applications and paper-based coupon services, which enrich couponing research.