STUDENT DEPENDENCE ON SMARTPHONE: INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL NEED, SOCIAL INFLUENCE, CONVENIENCE AND DEPENDENCE ON PURCHASE BEHAVIOR

Abstract

Purpose — This study is done to investigate, how many students are depending on smart phone, their purchase behavior and how much they rely on smart phone. This investigation is conducted among the students of different colleges and Universities of Karachi. Methodology & Design — The design of the research is quantitative and the technique which is used is cross sectional. In this study an online survey was conducted to collect the data and 384 responses were gathered relationships were checked. the basis of which hypothesized, validity and reliabilityon Findings — The Results are derived from multiple regression analysis which revealed that social needs are one of the significant factors contributing to smartphone dependency in turn leading to purchase behavior. Since students are influenced by their peers, superiors (teachers, parents, role models) and opinion leaders another recommendation is that smartphone manufacturers should target these opinion leaders so that they would influence students in their smartphone preferences. Limitations - One of the reasons that limit the generalizability of the current research is that the sample size was only 384 students from colleges and universities of Karachi, Pakistan. Furthermore the research didn’t compare the findings with respect to different operating systems and device models Recommendations - Recommendations are that manufacturing companies like Samsung, Apple, Sony, etc. want to design their smart phones which are in user friendly sizes with brighter screens. And software developers may develop their apps which are also user friendly and with appropriate information and with perfect touches.