Roles of self-monitoring, fashion involvement and technology readiness in an individual’s propensity to use mobile shopping

Abstract

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the relationships between self-monitoring, fashion involvement and technology readiness in the mobile shopping context. Although mobile shopping is still a novel activity in Turkish economical and social spheres, it has the potential to become an important driver of B2C electronic commerce in Turkey. Many Turkish firms have already extended their multichannel strategies by integrating a mobile channel into their pre-existing on-line and off-line channels. However, customers should be ready to actually embrace mobile commerce for the success of these strategies. Design/methodology/approach: To test the proposed research hypotheses, a survey was administrated online to 284 volunteer undergraduate students, who were potential users of mobile shopping channel. The measurement items were developed by adapting and modifying the previously validated 13-item, self-monitoring, 16-item technology readiness index 2.0 and 5-item fashion involvement scales. Findings: Results from a partial least squares analysis showed that the ability to modify self-presentation has a significant moderating influence on fashion involvement and technology readiness relationships. However, the moderating effect of sensitivity to the expressive behaviours of others for the same relationship was found to be insignificant. Further, fashion involvement appeared to have significant and direct influences on both technology readiness and attitudes towards mobile shopping. Finally, strong relationships between technology readiness, attitude and intentions to use mobile shopping were detected. Originality/value: There has been little research effort conducted to examine the proposed relationships between the cited research variables in a non-Western country. Therefore, these study results yielded valuable insights for both theory and actual practice. © 2017, © Emerald Publishing Limited.