Mobile phone feature preferences research digital divide of gender in Chinese youth Ge Chao Management Science Business School Renmin University of China.

Mobile phone feature preferences research

digital divide of gender in Chinese youth

Ge ChaoManagement Science

Business SchoolRenmin University of ChinaE-mail: [email protected]

Agenda

Background

• Increasing Mobile Device Usage– Most people are using at least one mobile

phone, one laptop and one PDA at the same time. (Economides and Grousopoulou, 2009)

• Emerging Feature Fatigue – Feature Fatigue(Roland, Debora, and

Rebecca, 2005) as a result emerge in mobile usage

• Sweet Spot- the youth market– Eager to try new functions and preferences

in adult period will be affected by their choices when young (Leslie, 2007)

Background

• Fast-growing Chinese market– In 2010, China's mobile phone users

increased by 110 million, reaching a total of 859 million (Data from Ministry of Industry and Information Technology)

– Gained rare attention from relevant academy field

• Digital Divide– It is proved that feature preferences exist

and defer from demographic characteristics such as age, gender and nationality, which is called Digital Divide in many studies.

Research Question

Mobile phone feature preferences of Chinese young people;

Digital divide: If the preference exists, whether it is different between genders

Literature Review

• Feature preferences: Digital Divide– late 20th century when IT applications

initially emerges, some scholars found the existence of Digital Divide, which means people divided by some standards use IT applications quite differently.

e.g. Linda (2007)

Literature Review

• Digital Divide of gender– Technology

e.g. Canada Bell Telephone (Leslie, 2007)

– Internet

e.g. early 1990s, women used Internet less than men; disappeared (Linda et al., 2007; Jackson et al., 2001)

– Mobile phone

e.g. feature differences and the cognitive structure (Economides and Grousopoulou, 2009).; "gender scripts”(Van Oost,2004); (Leslie, 2007)

Hypotheses

• Feature Preference: a phenomenon that people demonstrate different using time and using frequency for specific mobile phone features

• Digital divide: different groups of people show different feature preferences.

• Gender differences: one aspect of digital divide. Different genders show different preferences in features of Internet, mobile phones and other communication technology products.

Hypotheses

• H1: Young people have feature preferences in using mobile phone.

• H2: Feature preferences of young people receive the impact of gender, which is digital divide of gender.

• H3: Behind digital divide of gender in young people is different genders’ distinguished conceptualization of the phone features.

Research Methodology

• Empirical research • Data

– Develop a questionnaire based on literature analysis, especially on one research of Haverila (2011)

– 98 common mobile phone features surveyed– Using Likert 7 point scale

• Analysis– Use descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and

Exploratory Factor Analysis for basic data processing

– Using Data Mining method to discover anomalies

Conclusion & Discussion

46 features for male and 57 ones for female are used to do EFA next.

Conclusion & Discussion

Factor name Definition Battery and additional features

Battery includes the lifetime of a battery and talk time it supports.

Additional features include calendar and dictionary.

Communication

Communication features of SMS and calling.

Basic product characters

The most basic features such as Bluetooth, operation key, weight, background theme, screen size, etc.

Video and display Mobile phone camera, video playback, and screen display effect

Definition of common factor

Conclusion & DiscussionFactor name Definition Battery and additional features

Battery includes the lifetime of a battery and talk time it supports.

Additional features include calendar, dictionary, document viewer, Internet browser, application download, contact information, and so on.

Touch screen and call

Touch screen includes touch screen and operation.; Call features include hands free and speed dialing, etc

Basic product characters

The most basic features such as Bluetooth, operation key, weight, background theme, screen size, etc.

Video Mobile phone camera, video playback

Limitation

• Sample is limited: other districts; larger group

• Disturbing factors: the current mobile phone market; economic environment ；fortress mobile phone

• Other division direction, other digital divide type

Summer Camp teaches me…

What people say is not like what people do…

Try to follow their daily routine…

College student behave

differently when stepping into

job.

Christer Carlsson

Use case study; use Down Up Meter and other software for actual using data;

Add young who already work into sample, may do comparison;

Summer Camp teaches me…

When, why and how to use Case

Study…

Marko Nieminen

 Pay attention to perception or

reality…

Disturbing factors

(mobile change quickly).

Combine questionnaire with case study

Consider change of market, and system factors( Symbian? IOS? Android? Window?)

Harry Bouwman