Exploring the attitudes and behaviour of generation Z students towards branded mobile applications.
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Date
2017
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Abstract
With the increasing mobile activity of the Generation Z market (those born after
1994) in South Africa, marketers’ interest in this social group is rising. This research
attempts to uncover the relatively unknown attitudes and behaviour of the youth
market in South Africa around branded mobile applications. The research problem
focuses on the academic literature gap of the latest group of consumers: Generation Z.
Previous studies on mobile marketing have focused on Generation X and Generation
Y. Furthermore, only quantitative studies have been performed on the youth market
and mobile applications in South Africa. This study is based on the theoretical
framework of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology Model 2.
The study employed a qualitative framework with focus groups as the data collection
method. The focus groups were stratified on gender and the participants ranged from
18-21 years old. The study was conducted at a private tertiary institution in Durban,
South Africa. The findings indicate that the participants had both positive and
negative attitudes towards branded mobile applications, however there were more
positive than negative attitudes. In terms of behaviour, on average, participants had
between 7-10 apps on their phone but only used 4-6 apps every day. The findings
revealed the most popular branded mobile application as Whatsapp. Furthermore,
social influences, facilitating conditions, performance expectancy, effort expectancy,
hedonic motivation, price value and habit are all influencers of branded mobile
application behaviour. The results identify age, gender and experience as moderating
factors related to the attitudes and behaviour of Generation Z students with mobile
apps. As a recommendation, the issue of privacy and its effect on mobile app adoption
is a factor to be researched in the future for academics. The research also provides
recommendations for marketers and app developers such as incorporating permission
marketing into mobile applications.
Description
Master of Commerce. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2017.