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Correlates of using the billing system of a mobile network operator to pay for digital goods and services

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  • Torsten J. Gerpott

    (University of Duisburg-Essen)

  • Phil Meinert

    (University of Duisburg-Essen)

Abstract

In many countries mobile network operators (MNOs) offer their customers the possibility to pay for digitized content, applications or services which they buy over their mobile smartphone via the carriers’ billing systems. To date, customer take-up of this mobile carrier billing (MCB) payment option is predominantly modest. At the same time, there is little empirical evidence on individual level factors significantly associated with the acceptance of MCB payment which differentiates firstly the principal adoption of the service in the sense of a yes-or-no decision and secondly the intensity of service usage among adopters. Therefore, the present study explores correlates between a total of 10 socio-demographic, contract-, communication habits- and smartphone-related variables on the one hand and the two MCB payment acceptance criteria on the other in a sample of 5010 postpaid residential customers of the German subsidiary of a multinational MNO. In contrast to many prior investigations, MCB payment adoption and usage intensity measures in the present work reflect real (and not retrospective subjective estimates of or intended) payment behaviors. A Probit regression analysis indicates that, compared to non-adopters, customers who have paid via MCB are male, have a shorter MNO tenure, have higher mobile service spending, generate more mobile Internet traffic, send more SMS and use a smartphone whose OS manufacturer offers MCB payment on its own online market place. In the subsample of adopters of MCB payments higher mean monthly MCB settlement amounts are generated by male and older subscribers who have a shorter MNO tenure, create more mobile Internet traffic, use mobile voice telephony more and SMS less heavily and who are equipped with a smartphone whose OS manufacturer does not offer MCB payment on its online market place. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for scholarly research on antecedents of the acceptance of novel telecommunication-based service offerings such as MCB payments and of basic levers of MNOs for improving the customer take-up of their MCB payment offerings and the usage intensity of the service among its adopters.

Suggested Citation

  • Torsten J. Gerpott & Phil Meinert, 2016. "Correlates of using the billing system of a mobile network operator to pay for digital goods and services," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 18(6), pages 1265-1283, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:infosf:v:18:y:2016:i:6:d:10.1007_s10796-016-9694-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s10796-016-9694-2
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