The role of decision rationality on users’ attitudes toward utilitarian mobile service usage

Organizations in various industries have emphasized the need to use mobile information and communication technologies (mICTs) to deliver utilitarian services. Firms need to understand how users make routine and unexpected use decisions in order for their utilitarian mobile services (UMSs) to gain market acceptance. In this study, we empirically tested a theoretical model that examined how both affective attitude and cognitive attitude influence both routine and unexpected UMS use and the role of decision rationality in the process. We tested our model using two independent empirical studies. The results show that affective attitude had a stronger effect than cognitive attitude on routine use, while cognitive attitude had a stronger effect than affective attitude on the unexpected UMS use. Furthermore, decision rationality weakened the effects that affective attitude had on both routine use and unexpected use but strengthened the effects that cognitive attitude had on the routine use of UMSs. Our results advance knowledge on: 1) users’ behaviors when they use UMSs, 2) the effect that attitude components have on use at different levels of decision rationality, and 3) the underlying mechanism for our mixed findings about the effect of both affective and cognitive attitudes. These findings also provide insights for practitioners on how to promote their services among consumers.