Technology Use as Consumption: A Longitudinal Study of Smart Phones

This paper investigates technology adoption and continued use as consumption behavior instead of through the traditional innovation/diffusion/acceptance frameworks. Building on consumer research we introduce the Theory of Consumption Values (TCV) to IS research in order to understand the underlying values and motives of technology usage. Data was collected through interviews, focus groups, and surveys from smart phone users during a six month period. We have adopted a narrative approach to analyze our empirical data and present the data as a dialogue between two smart phones. The story presented in the dialogue shows how different consumption values, including functional, epistemic, emotional, social, and conditional values, drive technology use and how they evolve over time. In the beginning, epistemic, emotional, social values drove the use. Later, functional value became the key driver.