How nostalgic feelings impact Pokémon Go players – integrating childhood brand nostalgia into the technology acceptance theory

The augmented reality smartphone game Pokémon Go is one of the biggest commercial successes in the last years, posing the question concerning the factors contributing to the game’s success. An apparent distinction to other games is the strong brand Pokémon. We derive a research model based on the established theory of technology acceptance, which includes an established construct for nostalgic feelings – childhood brand nostalgia – and theorise on how it is related to beliefs about technology characteristics and the intention to play the game. For this purpose, we adapt one of the most prominent technology acceptance models for the consumer context and for hedonic information systems, the UTAUT2 model. Based on our model, we conduct a study with 418 active German players aged between 18 and 35. Our results indicate that the effect of childhood brand nostalgia on behavioural intention is fully mediated by the belief constructs. Thus, nostalgic feelings about Pokémon influence the intention of users through altering beliefs concerning Pokémon. We include nostalgic feelings in a technology acceptance model for the first time, therefore contributing to the theoretical advance in the IS domain. The results can be used to enhance the technology acceptance of newly designed products.