Page 72 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.78, # 1, 2021, pp. 66-85

PRICE-VALUE RATIO

Venkatesh et al. (2012, p. 161) mentioned that price-value is an essential indicator in
terms of B2C sales and explained it as a “cognitive trade-off between the perceived
benefits of the applications and the monetary cost for using them”. Previous studies
illustrated contradictory results regarding the influence of price-value on behavioral
intention (Ameen et al., 2018; Merhi et al., 2019). Considering that handsets’
affordability level was 72 on a scale of 100 in 2019,(We Are Social & Hootsuite,
2019b, 2019a) the author expects to see a significant relationship among variables.

H5. The gender of respondents moderates the relationship between social influence
and price-value ratio.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE – CENTRAL ELEMENT OF THE STUDY

Social influence is one of the indicators involved in the original version of the
UTAUT (Venkatesh et al., 2003). The construct can be defined as the level at which
close people might influence the adoption of a certain technology (Venkatesh et al.,
2003, 2012). The findings of different studies related to social influence showed
contradictory results (Venkatesh et al., 2003). According to Venkatesh et al. (2012),
the relationship between social influence and behavioral intention is moderated by
age, gender, and other factors. The previous study from Iraq (Ameen & Willis,
2018) showed that there is no any statistically significant relationship between the
variables of the aforementioned factors.

HABIT AND ACTUAL USE

The definition of habit is “the extent to which people tend to perform behaviors
automatically because of learning” (Venkatesh et al., 2012, p. 161). According to the
UTAUT2 (Venkatesh et al., 2012) habit has a direct influence on behavioural
intention as well as use. Previous studies (Ameen & Willis, 2018; Macedo, 2017)
illustrated contradictory results. The author of the current work assumes that habit
has a direct impact on Actual use as it was hypothesized by Venkatesh et al.(2012):

H5. The gender of respondents moderates the relationship between social influence
and habit.Actual use was involved by Venkatesh et al.(2003, 2012) to original and
extended versions of the model. It combines different aspects of smartphone use.
The author included eight mainly used features such as phone calls, messages,
internet browsing, social media. Venkatesh et al. (2012) recommended considering
construct as a formative indicator.

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