Response to potential information technology risk: Users’ valuation of electromagnetic field from mobile phones

• The risk of electromagnetic field (EMF) is differently perceived by user clusters.
• Users would use a mobile phone with enhanced protection from EMF.
• Users determine the trade-off between the EMF risk and a device price.
• Users are willing to change preferred brands for better protection from the risk.

As information technologies have become embedded in daily life, end-users encounter unexpected dangers from using IT. Electromagnetic field (EMF) risk from mobile phones is an example of those dangers. In this paper, we explore how much users value their tolerance of EMF risk by scrutinizing their preference structure of mobile phone devices. The preference structure was generated from conjoint analysis including three attributes of mobile phone devices: brand, price, and electromagnetic emission. In addition, we examined four groups which were clustered based upon their preference structure. Results show that the risk is differently perceived by user clusters and approximately 80% of respondents are likely to change their mobile phone brands for better protection from EMF risk.