Willingness to Pay and Disposition Toward Paying for Apps: The Influence of Application Reviews

This article describes how mobile application adoption is growing dramatically. However, only a small proportion of mobile apps are paid for. This leads to the question: which factors dispose an individual to be willing to pay for an app? Using uncertainty reduction theory as a framework, along with transaction cost economics, this study considers several individual level, app and app review characteristics which may influence willingness to pay. An experiment is conducted using a mobile application marketplace simulator and 4 application reviews are developed which vary in terms of information quality and app utility. Also measured are several individual characteristics. Findings suggest that individuals who have a disposition toward paying for apps and those who score low in terms of mobile computing self-efficacy are willing to pay more for apps. Also, individuals are willing to pay more for hedonic apps than utilitarian apps. Finally, there is a positive relationship between both history of paying for apps and trusting disposition on disposition toward paying for apps.