Understanding the role of consistency during web–mobile service transition: Dimensions and boundary conditions

• Provide a typology of consistency.
• Mediating role of operational consistency.
• Moderating role of trust in web services.

With the advancement of mobile technologies, numerous web service providers have begun to extend their web services to the mobile context. To understand users’ mobile service adoption behaviour in the context of the web–mobile service transition, this study investigates the role of consistency between web and mobile services by proposing a typology of consistency and examining the extent to which and the boundary conditions under which consistency works. Specifically, consistency is classified into behavioural consistency (e.g., operational consistency) and object-based consistency, which includes consistency in information, system and service in terms of the information systems success model. We also contend the mediating effect of operational consistency and the interaction effect of trust in web services and operational consistency. A field survey with 235 mobile service users confirms our mediating and moderating hypotheses. The implications for theory and practice are also discussed.