eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of the research was to find out what affects the decision when people adopt or reject a new mobile phone innovation; an iPhone. The already existent research did not answer the question of motivators of adopting mobile phone innovations except for at the most on a very general level which makes the topic of the research fresh. In this research is widely used and discussed technology adoption models that are central to research in information systems science and which have been used as a basis for a large amount of scientific research. Also in this research are used models from behavioral science and social science such as the theory of reasoned action, theory of planned behavior and diffusion theory. These sciences in part aim to explain the motivators of human behavior and general adaptation behavior. The research was done from a consumer’s viewpoint. Since the consumer market is filling up with new smartphone innovations, the research topic is current and will be interesting at least in the near future as well as no end to the trend of new smartphones can yet be seen. iPhone was selected for the research as it has been the first product to introduce some specific qualities in a smartphone when entering the private consumers’ market.

METHODS USED IN RESEARCH In the research qualitative analysis was used as a research method. Research data was obtained from respondents by individual interviews. Main theories used in the research were Diffusion theory, the Theory of reasoned action (TRA) and the Theory of planned behavior (TPB).

RESULTS Research results reveal that a too high price can seriously impair the adoption possibilities of an innovation. By using Mill’s method of agreement it could be deduced that pricing of technology to be adopted has heavy relational weight as one of the motivators in making the technology adoption decision. As a result of this it could be argued that adoption could be speeded up by offering low-priced tying deals and leasing contracts through businesses for their employees.