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Students dependence on smart phones

The influence of social needs, social influences and convenience
Norazah Mohd Suki
Labuan School of International Business & Finance, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Labuan International Campus, Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess whether social needs, social influences and convenience of smart phones affects students dependence on them. This research also examines whether students dependence on smart phones influences their purchase behaviour. This investigation is conducted among the students in a public university in the Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach The research used a multiple regression analysis in an attempt to achieve the objective. The construct validity was assessed by computing the principal axis factor with varimax rotations. In total, 200 completed and usable questionnaires were received from the respondents who comprised students from a public university in the Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia. A simple random sampling method was utilised where every unit in the population had an equal chance to be selected. Findings Results via multiple regression analysis revealed that social needs and social influences significantly affect students dependence on smart phones. The first was found to have the strongest effect. A strong relationship also existed between dependence on smart phones and students purchase behaviour. Research limitations/implications This study contributes significantly in confirming findings from similar research that could furnish statistical evidence in research findings to the smart phone provider in meeting customer needs to better create up-to-date smart phones with recent features through strategic, holistic marketing management and planning. Practical implications This research should contribute significantly to academics and educational developers in encouraging the students use of personal technologies such as smart phones and tablet PCs to enhance their learning process. On the smart phone provider side, the research findings could motivate them to continuously increase the smart phone functionality to be more relevant to students. The fact that dependence on smart phones contributes significantly in the students purchase behaviour may lead to better insights that they depend on the smart phone, which causes them to feel insecure when it is not with them. Their positive experience with smart phones outweighs their negative experience, as their usage of smart phones is high. Originality/value The research provides a unique perspective of students dependence on smart phones, which is not much covered in the literature in the Malaysia context. The measurement produced can be used as a research tool for more exploratory and explanatory research regarding students use of personal technologies such as smart phones and tablet PCs. Keywords Malaysia, Universities, Students, Consumer behaviour, Mobile technology, Social needs, Social influence, Dependence, Smart phones, Purchase behaviour, Regression Paper type Research paper

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Campus-Wide Information Systems Vol. 30 No. 2, 2013 pp. 124-134 r Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1065-0741 DOI 10.1108/10650741311306309

1. Introduction Smart phones are mobile phones with more advanced computing ability and connectivity that comprises of functions such as portable media players, low-end compact digital cameras, pocket video cameras and global positioning system (GPS)

navigation units (http://mashable.com/follow/topics/smartphone/). The popular mobile operating systems (OS) installed in the smart phones include Apples iOS, Googles Android, Nokias Symbian and RIMs BlackBerry OS. Smart phones have become necessary for consumers and this has boosted the smart phone demand in the market. With the popularity and functions offered in the smart phones, there has been an increase in demand (Park and Chen, 2007). According to Smura et al. (2009), in most developed countries, mobile phone have become an inseparable part of everyday life and a majority of people carry them all the time. It is noted by Jacob and Isaac (2008) that university students are among the highest contributors to the increasing number of smart phone sales. The factor that most influences the increase in smart phone usage is the functionality that helps users in their daily life especially business people and university students. Hence, this research aims to assess students dependence on smart phones and its impact on their purchase behaviour. This research assess whether social needs, social influences and convenience of smart phones affects students dependence on them. This research also examine whether students dependence on smart phones influences their purchase behaviour. Research findings could furnish statistical evidence in research findings to the smart phone provider in meeting customer needs to better create up-to-date smart phones with recent features through strategic, holistic marketing management and planning. 2. Literature review Consumers have become highly dependent on smart phones which they can use when they commute, relax at home, travel overseas and so on (Genova, 2010). Consumers are perceived to be dependent on their smart phones when they view them as a necessity and have strong propensity for continuous high usage, being engaged and unwilling to part from them (Tian et al., 2009). Thus, consumers expectations for future purchase behaviour will be affected by their past experience as they are heavily dependent on smart phones because of the underlying motives (Kuhlmeier and Knight, 2005). Suki and Suki (2007) found that heavy mobile phone users possess a higher level of knowledge, have more social participation, maintain extensive interpersonal networks and have contact with people not only within the social system but also outside it. This is supported by Peterson and Low (2011) who stated that student look at web sites, check their e-mail and use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter most often. 2.1 Social needs Social needs include love, affection, belonging and acceptance (Schiffman et al., 2009). Smart phones significantly vary the way people live, shop, buy, research, play and connect to the world (Goldman, 2010) besides developing and expanding a sense of affection among ones circle of friends and family members. Smart phone devices are programmed with various software tools, which allow the users to interact with other users more efficiently, and effectively without geographical limitations (Carayannis et al., 2012). Smart phones offer larger and higher resolution screens and provide consumers with a tremendous array of features, including mobile web browsing, thousands of applications, e-mail, instant messaging, picture messaging, video and audio playback, GPS, games, a video camera, picture and video editing and much more (Goldman, 2010). In Peterson and Lows (2011) study, almost three-quarters of the students stated that they used the contract or package provided by the smart

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phone provider which gives them with unlimited internet access on their mobile phone or limited internet service sufficient for their needs. Consequently, the study hypothesizes that: H1. Social needs significantly affect the students dependence on smart phones.

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2.2 Social influences Social influence is related to the way other people affect ones beliefs, feelings and behaviour (Mason et al., 2007). It is likely that the individual will adopt the particular thought, attitude, feeling and behaviour as well (Mei et al., 2012). Schiffman et al. (2009) stated that the influences of social class, culture and subculture, although less tangible, are important input factors that are internalized and affect how consumers evaluate and adopt products. The intention to buy a brand is based on a consumers attitude towards the brand as well as the influence of social norms and other peoples expectations ( Jamil and Wong, 2010). Friends and family members are seen as social influences perceived to be important to consumers in promoting and encouraging greater dependence on smart phones (Auter, 2007). Consumers may be susceptible to social influence by observation, perception or anticipation of decisions made by others in relation to smart phones (Suki and Suki, 2007). Therefore, it is hypothesized: H2. Social influences significantly affect the students dependence on smart phones. 2.3 Convenience of smart phone The smart phone allows users to do things that they never thought possible without being tethered to a home or office computer, from comparing store prices and searching for restaurant reviews to checking into a hotel and social networking (Goldman, 2010) at anytime and anywhere. With a smart phone and free software download, a user can swipe the barcode of a product in a physical store and then generate the product and company information automatically and promptly in real time. By means of smart phones, consumers can easily and quickly shop for products across multiple channels with substantially greater levels of convenience, flexibility, efficiency and personalization (Persaud and Azhar, 2012). This shows that advances in mobile technologies provide promising further benefits (Smura et al., 2009). Thus, the study hypothesized that: H3. Convenience significantly affects students dependence on smart phones. 2.4 Dependence on smart phone Mobile revolution is rapidly converting people from using ordinary mobile phones to smart phones in both developed and developing countries (Wong, 2011). People are inseparable from their smart phones and they are more likely to use mobile technologies to access different types of information. Peterson and Low (2011) state that a high percentage of students will upgrade their mobile phones to smart phones in the next 12 months, indicating a positive take up. Hence, the following hypothesis is proposed: H4. Dependence on smart phones significantly affects students purchase behaviour.

Based on the above literatures, the study proposed the theoretical framework as presented in Figure 1. 3. Methodology A total of 200 completed and usable questionnaires were received from the respondents who comprised students from the public university in the Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia. A simple random sampling method was utilized where every unit in the population had an equal chance to be selected. To be selected as a respondent in this study, the respondents were required to have a smart phone. The time frame necessary for data collection was two weeks. Measurement of items was adapted from Ting et al. (2011). The questionnaire used a five-point Likert scale with values ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). A quantitative research method was applied to determine whether the independent variables (i.e. social needs, social influence, convenience and dependence) significantly affect dependent the variable (purchase behaviour). The statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) computer program version 17.0 was used for statistical analysis and to attain the statistic data for this study. SPSS is useful for statistical tests, such as testing for correlation and hypothesis. It can also provide a researcher with frequency counts, sort data, rearrange data and serve as a useful data-entry device, with labels for brief entries. Data were analysed using multiple regression analysis to relate the importance of each independent variable. In the prediction of dependent variables the advantage of the multiple regressions is a better prediction from multiple predictors (Sekaran and Bougie, 2009). Besides, multiple regressions can avoid depending on a single predictor and can avoid non-optimal combinations of predictors. 4. Results and discussion Table I depicts the descriptive analysis of demographic profile of respondents. A total of 49 per cent of the respondents were male compared to 51 per cent female. A large number of respondents came from the age group of 20 years old and above (97.5 per cent). The majority of the respondents were Malays with 54 per cent, followed by the Chinese with 35.5 per cent. Students undertaking bachelor degree represented the largest number of respondents with 68 per cent, followed by students holding STPM 19.5 per cent and diploma with 10 per cent. 4.1 Experience with the smart phone Table II presents the students experience with the usage of smart phones. In total, 30 per cent of the students say yes to the statement I have used a smart phone more than two years. Next statement on My smart phone application is easy to find, a bigger group of students (73.5 per cent) state yes. For My smart phone is reliable all the time, 72.5 per cent of the students voted yes. In total, 78 per cent students were of

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Social needs H1 Social influence Convenience H2 H3 Dependency on smart phones H4 Purchase behaviour

Figure 1. Theoretical framework

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Gender Male Female Age (years) o19 20-23 24-27 Race Malay Chinese Indian Others Education level SPM STPM Diploma Degree

Frequency

98 102 5 158 37 108 71 10 11 5 39 20 136

49.0 51.0 2.5 79.0 18.5 54.0 35.5 5.0 5.5 2.5 19.5 10.0 68.0

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Table I. Demographic profile of respondents

Frequency I have been using smart phone more than two years Yes No My smart phone application is easy to find Yes No My smart phone is reliable in anytime Yes No My smart phone is fast and effective Yes No When I buy my smart phone, the price is oRM1,000 RM1,001-RM1,500 RM1,501-RM2,000 4RM2,001 Operating system used Android iOS RIM BlackBerry OS Symbian OS Window Phone Others

60 140 147 53 145 55 156 44 43 73 59 25 72 16 29 18 4 61

30.0 70.0 73.5 26.5 72.5 27.5 78.0 22.0 21.5 36.5 29.5 12.5 36.0 8.0 14.5 9.0 2.0 30.5

Table II. Experiences with the smart phone

the opinion that My smart phone is fast and effective. Of the students, 42 per cent bought a smart phone at a price of RM1,501 or more. With regard to the type of operating system used within the smart phone, 36 per cent of students use Android while only 8 per cent go for iOS and 2 per cent take up Windows Phone. Meanwhile, RIM BlackBerry OS is used by 14.5 per cent students.

4.2 Construct validity The construct validity was assessed by computing the principal axis factor with varimax rotations. The overall value of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy should be 0.60 or higher to perform factor analysis. Result for the Bartletts test of sphericity 364.327. The KMO measure of sampling adequacy 0.758 which exceeds 0.60. Both were highly significant, indicating that this variable was suitable for the factor analysis. Hair et al. (2010) suggested that variables with loading 0.70 or greater are very significant. As illustrated in Table III, the highest loading value in social needs factor is 0.833 for the statement Smart phone allows me to stay connected with those I care about. For social influence the statement The pressure from friends and family is likely to influence the usage rate of smart phone has the highest loadings, i.e. 0.932. Next, within the convenience factor, Having a smart phone is like having both a mobile phone and a computer together scored highest loadings (0.807). I always use my smart phone to deal with my job and I totally depend on my smart phone, both represented dependence factor highest loadings (0.917). As for the purchase behaviour factor, I intend to continue to use a smart phone in the future lead the rest of the factor items with loadings 0.883. Overall, all items load heavily in their respective factors.
Factor loadings

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Items Social needs Smart phone allows me to stay connected with those I care about I use smart phone to stay connected with friends and family through social networking web sites (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.) It is easy for me to observe others happening by using the smart phone I use my smart phone to catch up with friends and relatives Social influence The pressure from friends and family is likely influence the usage rate of smart phone It is important that my friends like the brand of smart phone Im using I would buy a smart phone if it helped me fit in with my social group better I would be open to be persuaded into using a smart phone if I had low self-esteema Convenience Having a smart phone is like having both a mobile phone and a computer together In my work, smart phone saves me time and effort I would prefer carrying my smart phone rather than my laptop A smart phone enables me to receive learning materials anywhere I go Using a smart phone would allow me to accomplish task more quicklya Dependency I always use my smart phone to deal with my job Im totally depending on my smart phone I cannot do anything with my job without the smart phone I will feel insecure when my smart phone is not with me In my daily life, usage of smart phone is high Purchase behaviour I intend to keep continuing use smart phone in the future I intend to have a better purchase of smart phone in the future from my experience On the whole, Im satisfied with the smart phone experience Overall, my positive experience outweighs my negative experience with smart phone Note: aRemoved as its factor loading below 0.50

0.833 0.801 0.788 0.767 0.932 0.868 0.847 0.807 0.802 0.741 0.717 0.917 0.917 0.833 0.801 0.738 0.883 0.822 0.814 0.804

Table III. Exploratory factor loadings

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4.3 Reliability testing Reliability testing was performed to investigate the reliability of the collected data. The acceptable value of coefficient reliability is more than 0.70 with higher values symbolizing higher reliability among the indicators. Table IV presents the result of reliability testing where the total scale of reliability for this study varies from 0.722 to 0.896 after removal of one item each from social influence and convenience factor, all factors exceeding the minimum limit of 0.70 are believed reliable. 4.4 Correlation analysis between variables Pearson correlation measures the correlation between two or more variables. Correlation coefficients can range from the value of 1.00 to 1.00 (Lind et al., 2011). The value of 1.00 represents a perfect negative correlation while a value of 1.00 represents a perfect positive correlation. Table V shows that all the factors affecting the purchase behaviour (social needs, social influence, convenience and dependence) are positively correlated and the correlation coefficient is between 0.078 and 0.911. Hence, there is no multicollinearity problem in this study. The skewness of all the items ranges from 0.279 to 0.566, below72.0. Similarly, the values for kurtosis ranges from 0.234 to 0.116 well below the threshold of 710. Both the skewness and kurtosis are below the said value, signifying that the scores approximate a normal distribution or bell-shaped curve. 4.5 Relationship between social needs, social influences and convenience of smart phones with dependence on them To test the relationship between social needs, social influences and convenience of smart phones with dependence on them, multiple regression analysis was performed. Table VI infers that the F-statistics produced (F 191.086) is significant at 1 per cent level (significance Fo0.01). Adjusted R2 is 0.741. These indicate that social needs,

No. of items Purchase behaviour Social needs Social influence Convenience Dependency 4 4 4 5 5

No. of deleted item 0 0 1 1 0

Cronbachs a 0.809 0.860 0.722 0.896 0.848

Table IV. Reliability analysis

Skewness Purchase behaviour Social needs Social influence Convenience Dependency Mean Standard deviation 0.566 0.351 0.312 0.279 0.227

Kurtosis 0.234 0.771 0.418 0.116 0.757

1 1 0.866** 0.164* 0.107 0.911** 2.620 0.930

Table V. Correlations analysis

1 0.123 0.144* 0.862** 2.633 0.956

1 0.078 0.130 3.488 0.793

1 0.089 3.776 0.568

1 2.629 0.991

Notes: *, **Correlation is significant at the 0.05 and 0.01 levels (two-tailed) respectively

social influence and convenience explained 74.1 per cent in dependence on smart phones. Furthermore, tolerance value ranges 0.967-0.981, are well above 0.10. The highest variance inflated factor (VIF) value can be seen in social needs factor (1.035), and is much smaller than 5. Hence, multicollinearity among the independent variables is statistically significant, indicating absence of multicollinearity. The most important factor that significantly influences students dependence on smart phones is social needs as tested in H1. H1 reveals there is a significant relationship between social needs and students dependence on smart phones ( p 0.000) at 95 per cent significant level. Therefore, H1 is supported with b1 0.864 and t-value 23.568. This significant result is analogous with Auter (2007) and Donahues (2010) study. This study confirms that students heavily and actively use smart phones to stay connected with friends and family through social networking web sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.). In other words, smart phones allow them to stay connected with those they care about. Interestingly, smart phones make it easy for them to observe whats happening globally at any time seven days a week, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. Next, findings in Table VI confirm that social influence is the second significant factor that affects students dependence on smart phones (b2 0.727, po0.05). Hence, H2 is supported by and agrees with the discovery by Park and Chen (2007). This confirms that social influences such as pressure from friends and family influence their usage rate of smart phones. Indeed, they are concerned whether their friends like the brand of smart phone they are currently using and would buy a smart phone if it helped them to fit in with their social group. It is of surprise to note that respondents in this study express that convenience of smart phones does not affect their purchase behaviour ( p 0.306, b3 0.038, t-value 1.027). Therefore, the proposed H3 is not supported by the data and is rejected. Results infer that they have the opposite perspective from having a smart phone is like having both a mobile phone and a computer together, it enables them to receive learning materials anywhere they go and they prefer carrying a smart phone rather than a laptop. Preceding research by Goldman (2010) had contradictory findings. 4.6 Relationship between dependence on smart phones and students purchase behaviour H4 supposes that dependence on smart phones significantly influences students purchase behaviour (b4 0.911, t-value 31.050, po0.05). In this relationship, multicollinearity is absent as the tolerance value is above the cut-off value of 0.10 and the VIF value is o5. The statistical results in Table VII authenticate the existence of a very strong relationship between dependence on smart phones and students

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Unstandardized coefficients B SE Social needs Social influence Convenience Adjusted R2 F Significance 0.896 0.029 0.059 0.741 191.086 0.000 0.038 0.040 0.057

Standardized coefficients b 0.864 0.727 0.038

t 23.568 0.734 1.027

Significance 0.000 0.034 0.306

Collinearity statistics Tolerance VIF 0.967 0.981 0.975 1.035 1.019 1.025 Table VI. Relationship between social needs, social influences and convenience of smart phone with dependency on smart phone

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purchase behaviour, implying that they depend on the smart phone which causes them to feel insecure when it is not with them. Their positive experience with smart phones outweighs their negative experience, as their usage of smart phones is high. Hence, H4 is supported. The finding of this study is consistent with Nanda et al. (2008). Dependence on smart phones explained 82.9 per cent of students purchase behaviour based on adjusted R2 0.829. 5. Conclusion This study assessed students dependence on smart phones and its impact on their purchase behaviour. All in all, with regard to the relationship between social needs, social influences and convenience of smart phones and dependence on smart phones, through multiple regression analysis, two hypotheses were supported (i.e. social needs, and social influence). Social needs have the strongest effect on the students dependence on smart phones, followed by social influences. However, convenience was found to be insignificant to students dependence on smart phones. It is worthy to note that a very strong relationship exists between dependence on smart phones and students purchase behaviour. Prior research by Woodcock et al. (2012) indicated that most students have not made strong connections for themselves between their personal smart phone technology, their needs as learners and the way they learn. One factor that affects convenience is the speed of the internet connection at the university and the availability of Wi-Fi services which are important for smart phone applications. Nevertheless, academics and educational developers need to encourage the students use of personal technologies such as smart phones and tablet PCs to enhance their learning process. On the smart phone provider side, it is recommended to continuously increase the smart phone functionality to be more relevant to students. One factor that might limit the current research findings is that the sample was only distributed among 200 students in a public university in the Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia and it has limited research findings regarding the influence of students purchase behaviour towards smart phones. It is recommended that the coverage of sample selection be widened to improve the generalizability of the results and to provide more accurate and holistic results. Future study should be conducted across student groups at university and secondary level in Malaysia to obtain more accurate and holistic results of buying behaviour factors and to reflect different cultures among students. A comparison between different cultural groupings would show the differences and similarities of how smart phones are perceived and used by students. The basic knowledge about cooperation model was not introduced in this study. Chang et al. (2010a) recommend a new study to be conducted on online virtual collaborative commerce information security using cross-cultural approach.

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Unstandardized coefficients B SE Table VII. Relationship between dependency on smart phone and students purchase behaviour Dependency Adjusted R2 F Significance 0.855 0.829 964.125 0.000 0.028

Standardized coefficients b 0.911

t 31.050

Significance 0.000

Collinearity statistics Tolerance VIF 1.000 1.000

The application could shorten the product design cycle and advance firms competitiveness (Chang et al., 2010b). Businesses should improve business performance by cooperating with collaborative vendors to reduce energy waste (Chang and Liao, 2012). Thus, future research is suggested to relate the behaviour with the cooperation optimization method.
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Peterson, L. and Low, B. (2011), Student attitudes towards mobile library services for smartphone, Journal of Library Hi Tech, Vol. 29 No. 3, pp. 412-23. Schiffman, L.G., Kanuk, L.L. and Wisenbut, J. (2009), Consumer Behavior, 10th ed., Pearson, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R. (2009), Research Methods for Business: A Skill Building Approach, John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY. Smura, T., Kivi, A. and Toyli, J. (2009), A framework for analysing the usage of mobile services, Journal of Policy, Regulation and Strategy for Telecommunications, Information and Media, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 53-67. Suki, N.M. and Suki, N.M. (2007), Mobile phone usage for m-learning: comparing heavy and light mobile phone users, Campus Wide Information System, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 355-65. Tian, L., Shi, J. and Yang, Z. (2009), Why does half the worlds population have a mobile phone? An examiniation of consumers attitudes toward mobile phones, Cyber Pshychology and Behavior, Vol. 12 No. 5, pp. 513-16. Ting, D.H., Lim, S.F., Patanmacia, T.S., Low, C.G. and Ker, G.C. (2011), Dependency on smartphone and the impact on purchase behavior, Young Consumers, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 193-203. Wong, S.H.R. (2011), Which platform do our users prefer: website or mobile app?, Journal of Reference Services Review, Vol. 40 No. 1, pp. 103-15. Woodcock, B., Middleton, A. and Nortcliffe, A. (2012), Considering the smartphone learner: an investigation into student interest in the use of personal technology to enhance their learning, Student Engagement and Experience Journal, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 1-15. About the author Norazah Mohd Suki is an Associate Professor at the Labuan School of International Business & Finance, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Labuan International Campus. She has successfully supervised several postgraduate students at MBA and PhD level. Her research interests include electronic marketing, E-commerce, M-commerce, consumer behaviour, mobile learning and areas related to marketing. She actively publishes articles in international journals. She is the editor-inchief to Labuan e-Journal of Muamalat and Society and a member of the advisory boards for several outstanding journals. She has sound experience as speaker to public and private universities, government bodies on courses related to structural equation modelling (SEM), Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Research Methodology. Norazah Mohd Suki can be contacted at: azahsuki@yahoo.com

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