Factors influencing users’ employment of mobile map services

• Investigates what factors promote and contribute to the use of mobile map services.
• We examine the services’ acceptance and identify the antecedents of the acceptance.
• Various factors have notable roles in determining intention to use the services.
• Newly proposed factors have notable roles in influencing perceived usability.
• The results reveal the key influence of flow state on users’ acceptance.

This study introduces an integrated research model to examine user acceptance of mobile map services, hypothesizing potential causal connections between key cognitive factors and users’ intention to use the services. This study determined potential variables that may be significantly related to perceived usefulness of mobile map services through in-depth interviews with two groups: a user and an expert group. Collected data of 1109 users who took part in the internet survey were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that satisfaction with and perceived usefulness of the mobile map services were the most significant antecedents of users’ attitude toward the services and behavioral intention to use them. Users’ attitude and flow state also affected their intention to use the services, while perceived locational accuracy, service, and display quality had notable effects on attitude. This study demonstrates the significant effects of these and other examined factors, and the findings reveal that flow played a multiple moderating roles significantly affecting various connections in the integrated research model. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.