Am I "Pushed" to Loaf at Work? A Study of Push Notification Triggered Mobile-loafing

With the prevalent use of smartphones and the emergence of the fourth generation of mobile telecommunications technology (4G), an increasing number of employees use their smartphones with cellular data for non-work related purposes during working hours. Compared to traditional cyberloafing, smartphone with cellular data provides a more convenient and private access to the Internet without any restriction of the company network. In this study, we introduce a new construct called mobile-loafing to describe this phenomenon. To understand the antecedents and consequences of mobileloafing, we build a new research model of push notification triggered mobile-loafing. We argue that push notification is positively related to mobile-loafing, while notification timing and notification source type moderate this relationship. In addition, the relationship between mobile-loafing and productivity has an inverted U-shape. To empirically test the model, a lab experiment with a 2×2×2 design will be conducted.