Page 67 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

Maral Jamalova: Socıal Influence and Smartphone Adoptıon in Collectıvıstıc Country:
Evıdence from Azerbaıjan

The competitors needed to adapt to changing circumstances and were able to launch
the smartphone sales only in 2008 (Reid, 2018). Surprisingly, customer interest
towards newly designed handsets was so high that the number of subscriptions, as
well as smartphone penetration worldwide, were gradually increasing.

Azerbaijan is an oil extracting/manufacturing country in the South Caucasus (Almas &
Hajiyev, 2014) that tries to develop other sectors of the economy. According to
information on Data Reportal (We Are Social & Hootsuite, 2019a), 67 out of 100 Azeri
citizens own handsets. Interestingly, 57% of the population are active internet users
while only 42% of the population uses social media through mobile phones. Moreover,
handsets’ affordability level was 72 on a scale of 100; the number clearly illustrates the
situation of developing society (We Are Social & Hootsuite, 2019b, 2019a).

Supported by statistical data, previous studies from the Middle East (Ameen &
Willis, 2018; Ameen, Willis, & Hussain Shah, 2018) analyzed the adoption of
smartphones using UTAUT2 by involving gender as a moderator variable. Based on
statistical data regarding digital skills of customers and smartphone usage (Eurostat,
2020; We Are Social & Hootsuite, 2019b), the authors argue that there is no gender
gap between smartphone users in the case of Hungary. Moreover, the gender gap in
the case of information communication technologies is wider (Ameen et al., 2018) in
developing countries (e.g. Jordan and other Arab countries) that are highly affected
by culture and social norms (Moghaddam, 2010). However, the impact of gender on
the decision of Azeri smartphone users was not previously analyzed. The current
research aims to identify the influence of gender on the formulation of behavioural
intention and actual usage among young adults. For this reason, smartphone owners
between 16 and 35 were involved in the survey.

It might increase the value of the paper that no study yet analyzed particularly the
compliance of the UTAUT2 with Azeri young smartphone users. Secondly, previous
studies did not involve brand awareness as an external variable in the case of
smartphone adoption even if the indicator was mentioned as influential in several
marketing-related studies (Filieri, Lin, D’Antone, & Chatzopoulou, 2019; Huang &
Shih, 2017; Wu & Ho, 2014).

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