Super app on demand: Exploring the impact of service synergy on willingness to use a new service

Abstract

People prefer managing diverse activities within a “Super App,” driving the need for additional services to monopolize users’ time continually. In advancing this emerging theme, we present a model integrating synergy and brand extension theories to deepen the understanding, from the user’s perspective, of how an established super app (LINE) influences the launch of a new service (LINE Shopping). Focusing on their unique synergy, a phenomenon absent in single-purpose apps, we introduce the novel concept of expected service synergy. We establish five enabler-synergy linkages and one synergy-use linkage, empirically supporting all the hypotheses with survey data from 814 LINE users. Finally, enablers associated with LINE (perceived external prestige and brand competence), LINE Shopping (complementarity and compatibility), and their relationship (perceived fit) significantly contribute to expected service synergy. This synergy is crucial in motivating users’ willingness to utilize LINE Shopping. Our findings offer actionable guidelines for super app practitioners and researchers.