Study of consumer attitudes towards connected reader devices in Japan based on the decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior

Some of the most interesting developments within mobile and wireless technologies have evolved from an enhancement of our daily life; creating objects and technologies that we can consume to hopefully increase our quality of life. Lately, a new (mobile) convergence is underway globally with new embedded connected devices entering the markets such as the iPad, the Galaxy tablet and dedicated connected reader devices such as Kindle, Librie and the biblio Leaf SP02 launched by KDDI in Japan. The framework of this study focuses on developing a deeper understanding of the attitudes and purchase intentions of end users of eBook readers. To accomplish that objective, the decomposed model of the Theory of lanned Behavior has been used as a guideline. Based on this a survey was carried out with prospective users utilizing Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) dimensions such as attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and behavioral intention. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate the maximum likelihood for these dimensions. Results showed that the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the traditional form of TRA fit the data adequately. To the authorfs knowledge, this is the first known paper to deeply explore the cognitive constructs underlying purchase intentions of eBook readers.