Understanding student attitudes of mobile phone features: Rethinking adoption through conjoint, cluster and SEM analyses

Young adults have been labelled as one of the most important segments for mobile phones, however there is little empirical evidence to indicate how these young adults value the feature richness of their devices. This research presents a richer view of mobile phone user preferences and perceptions by applying methodologies from the marketing and information systems domains. Conjoint analysis provides insights into how students value various mobile phone applications and tools. Cluster analysis extracts salient and homogenous consumer segments from the conjoint analysis output. Structural equation modelling then explores how antecedents to attitude may differ by the elicited consumer segments.

► Consumer segmentation by perceived utility of technology features. ► Two distinct segments of university student consumers of mobile phones. ► One segment wishes to instantly communicate in a synchronous fashion. ► Second segment seeks synchronously & asynchronously communication and information. ► Segments differ in their utilitarian and hedonic perspectives of their devices.