Deriving value from branded mobile apps: Exploring the role of brand satisfaction, age, and value-in-use subdimensions

Abstract

The study investigates how value-in-use generated on branded mobile apps from supermarkets affects brand satisfaction and loyalty through two models. The first model assesses how value-in-use dimensions (i.e., personalization, experience, and relationship) affect the outcomes, and the mediation of satisfaction and the moderation of age on those relations. The second model decomposes experience and relationship into subdimensions. The Structural equation modeling results show that personalization, experience, and relationship influence satisfaction, although experience has a negative effect. Age moderates the relations, where younger individuals value personalization and older individuals value experience and relationship. Regarding the individual subdimensions, only behavioral experience, and app trust and commitment are relevant for satisfaction, whereas behavioral experience has a negative effect. In both models, satisfaction significantly influences loyalty and mostly acts as a full mediator. Two FGDs were conducted to understand the negative effect of experience on brand satisfaction. The results show that experience is mostly utilitarian with grocery apps and apps that require increased effort yield less satisfaction. The study enriches the literature on Service-Dominant Logic and value-in-use. The findings can provide managers with insights on using branded grocery apps to enhance the value co-created between the consumer and firm.