Behavioral aspects of cell phone usage among youth: an exploratory study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate cell phone use and broad cell phone feature preferences among youth in Finland. Of particular interest is the issue of gender differences regarding the behavioral aspects of the cell phones, and their conceptualization. Design/methodology/approach – The participants of the study are undergraduate students from a large university located in Tampere, Finland. The JMP 1‐2‐3‐software was used for statistical analysis. Findings – Significant differences between genders regarding the behavioral factors and specific behaviors were identified in three out of six behavioral factors and in 14 out 30 specific behaviors. The conceptualization of the cell phone behaviors by different genders was analyzed, and differences in the conceptualization were discovered. Finally a cluster analysis was performed with both genders in order to discover distinct and unique user groups on the basis of the differences in the behavioral variables. Practical implications – Designers and marketers of cell phones should pay attention to behavioral aspects of cell phone usage. In addition gender differences in these behaviors and their conceptualizations should be carefully appraised. Originality/value – Cell phone behaviors and the relevant customer clusters are compared. Also the conceptualization of the broad cell phone behaviors between the genders are compared.