How do network externalities affect customers' adoption intention in mobile app store: from a perception of consumer perceived value

Abstract

Faced with the fiercely competitive mobile apps market in China, many mobile app store managers developed their own communities to improve the users' adoption and retention. Those communities help make consumers a sense of the amount of users in mobile app stores and expand the complementarity of mobile app stores. Thus, in this study, we examine how network externality affects customers' intention to adopt app store using the concept of perceived value. Based on the theoretical frame of customer perceived value (CPV), we present a research model that integrates network externalities to adoption intention. The results of this study indicate that network externality has a positive and highly significant effect on CPV, which in turn affects people's intention to adopt. However, perceived price structure describing the financial value does not have a significant influence on adoption intention. Implications for theory and practice are presented.