Determinants of Young Pakistani Consumer Intentions to Use Smartphones for Mobile Gaming: the Prominence of Utilitarian, Hedonic and Escapist Motivations

Abstract

This study aims to study the determinants of young Pakistani consumers to use smartphones for gaming. Gaming through mobile phones have plateaued in recent years. It is a $25.8 billion industry and since 2014 to 2016 it has grown to a whole 10%. The trend is still on the rise but the challenge that has to be faced in the entire process is of retaining the users..There is a dearth of thorough research in to understanding the factors behind continued use and the drivers of user’s behavioral intentions to play mobile games. Extant literature centers on the bearing of enjoyment to continued use. Given the pervasive acceptance of smartphones, the purpose of this paper is to understand consumer behavioral intentions to use smartphones for gaming. As far as the international context is concerned, there are innumerable researches that have focused on users’ hedonic(emotional) and utilitarian(cognitive) motivations to adopt mobile gaming but there is a lack of understanding of the factors that contribute to explain consumer intention in the context of personality or psychological motivations. The current study focuses on the use of smartphones by young consumers for gaming in Pakistan with the help of an interactive model that takes in to account unified theory of technology acceptance and use (UTAUT) factors which is a (cognitive intention) along with product coolness which includes design aesthetics which is purely a socially constructed positive trait (Emotional) and escapism motivation which is morally a (personality or psychological) dimension. Thus the current study describes all three determinants of customer behavioral intentions to use smartphones for gaming. There is a dearth of literature and lack of understanding regarding smartphone usage in the context of personality or psychological dimensions and thus this study contributes to this lack of understanding and provides a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of adoption by using an integrated model organized in line with the coolness concept and other theories escapism and unified theory of technology acceptance and use that motivate the use of interactive devices particularly smartphones for gaming which is the focus of this study.