A critical incident approach to consumer response in the smartphone market: product, service and contents

Multitudes of theory-based models have been developed and applied to identify drivers behind user behaviors in various information systems (IS) markets. Although these theory-based models have been successful in identifying and explaining consumer behavior, their fixed nature necessitates customization efforts when applied to a specific usage context. In this paper, we utilized critical incident technique (CIT) as a complementary approach to IS user behavior study to traditional theory-based models in the context of the smartphone market. Through a two-stage survey, both positive and negative critical incidents are collected, which are categorized into device, device-related services, network services and content services. Then, their impacts on user intention variables of loyalty and recommendation are derived by a structural equation analysis of 795 smartphone users’ responses. The results can be summarized as follows: Positive critical incidents improve user intentions whereas negative ones worsen them; among the positive incidents, the events related to network services are the most influential; Critical incidents related to application contents are the most influential among the negative; Mobile device manufacturers are the most strongly affected by critical incidents among the smartphone supply chain parties. Merits of CIT in IS user behavior study have been demonstrated: CIT’s flexible nature provides convenience in adapting to a particular IS usage context; Both positive and negative incidents are examined, yielding a complementary implication to other methods. We also revealed that a conventional wisdom of CIT to focus mainly on negative critical incidents might have to be adjusted since positive ones might be more influential depending on the particular context of IS usage.