Author(s): Vinay.I, Dr. Gururaj G
The tremendous pace of the evolution of smartphone features, consumers have changed their shopping habits—especially younger shoppers who are drawn to the power of digital interactions and social sources of information. The purpose of this study is to explore how intrinsic/extrinsic cues affect young consumers' intention on innovative smartphones adoption with perceived value and social trust as mediators that mediated this effect. The research design employed in this study is Quantitative Research by employing Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach which was later used to analyze data generated from things of 450 samples. The results see that the influence of the electronic word of mouth (eWOM), the online review and the peer change is significant both for perceived value and for social trust while the impact of intrinsic cues is marginal for perceived value and is negligible for social trust. Social trust appeared to have the largest impact on the adoption intention because of the influence it has on consumer behavior. Specifically, the study shows that the relationship between the extrinsic cues and the adoption intention is significantly mediated by social trust. Overall, the model accounts for 67.1% of variance in adoption intention, which is quite explanatory. The study is valuable for the literature due to its effort of combining three converging theories: the Cue Utilization Theory, the Theory of Consumption Values and trust in technology adoption models. The results also have significant management implications for smartphone manufacturers and digital marketers who want to better predict and manage when consumers will use a specific smartphone and improve its adoption using trust-building and social engagement initiatives.