A model for representing the motivational and cultural factors that influence mobile phone usage variety

Abstract

Mobile phone usage involves the mobile phone, the telecommunications system, mobile phone users, and the adoption and use of the system. Mobile communications is a complex and rapidly changing industry consisting of the hardware, software, network and business aspects. Mobile phone users are influenced by demographic, social, cultural and contextual factors that complicate the understanding of mobile phone usage. Advances in technology and market competition drive the addition of new services and features. In contrast, human cognition and attention are more constrained and many users find it difficult to cope with the cognitive demands of mobile phone technology. The aim of this study is to develop a model for representing the influence of motivational needs and cultural factors on mobile phone usage variety. The link between motivational needs and mobile phone usage variety, the cultural factors that influence mobile phone usage variety, as well as usage spaces as an approach to representing usage variety, are researched. The research encompasses a literature study, structured interviews, a pilot study and a survey. The pilot study and survey yielded data about mobile phone usage of university students under the age of 30 in South Africa. The results from the statistical analysis were triangulated with the findings of the literature study and the observations made about mobile phone usage during this two-year period. A final survey was conducted to verify the model. The contribution of this study is a mobile phone technology usage model (MOPTUM) for representing the motivational and cultural factors that influence mobile phone usage variety in such a way that users can use the model to express their mobile phone usage needs in non-technical terms while marketers and designers can use the model to convert the expressed user needs into the features required. MOPTUM draws on concepts and models from sociology, computer-supported cooperative work, human-computer interaction and technology adoption models from the field of marketing. MOPTUM verifies some existing findings on mobile phone usage and then integrates and extends these existing models to provide a new model for understanding the motivational and cultural factors that influence mobile phone usage variety.