A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ SMARTPHONE DEPENDENCE IN AN EMERGING COUNTRY

Abstract

Smartphone dependence has been emerged as a crucial concern especially for young consumers along with rapid technological advances over the past decades. Better understanding the determinants of smartphone dependence on young consumers may be valuable to decrease compulsive smartphone use in the future. The main objective of this study is to examine the association between smartphone dependence and product features, brand name, product price, social influence and social needs using a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). For this purpose, a well-established survey was conducted to 411 university students in a north-eastern university of Turkey. The empirical evidence of the present study reveals that there exists a positive relationship between smartphone dependence and social influence and social needs. Results also suggest that product price has a negative impact on smartphone dependence. This study is most probably the first attempt to examine factors affecting smartphone dependence in this specific sample. The results of this study may add value to explain the key drivers of problematic smartphone use in emerging countries.

Keywords

• smartphone
• dependence
• structural equation modeling
• social influence
• social needs