Unleash the power of mobile word‐of‐mouth : An empirical study of system and information characteristics in ubiquitous decision making

Purpose – This study aims to examine the effects of system and information characteristics in developing users' perceptions towards ubiquitous decision support systems (UDSS). Design/methodology/approach – The research model is empirically examined with survey data from 218 mobile users who have adopted a UDSS, i.e. mobile Dianping.com. A structural equation modelling approach is employed to assess the hypotheses. Findings – The findings demonstrate that system characteristics of wireless networks, mobile devices and mobile applications significantly predicted system quality, which in turn determined system usefulness. Localisation, immediacy and customisation of mobile word‐of‐mouth were the major predictors of information quality, which in turn determined information usefulness. Originality/value – This study contributes to our current understanding of ubiquitous commerce, especially mobile word‐of‐mouth, by presenting an integrated research framework, identifying system and information characteristics that are specific to the ubiquitous era, extending system quality and system usefulness from a single system to a combination of systems, and empirically examining the crossover effects between system and information factors.