探討下載適地性服務手機應用程式影響因素之研究

A Study on the Factors Affecting Downloading of Location Based Services Mobile Applications

研究目的：本研究目的想要探討使用者一方面基於使用適地性服務App的好處，另一方面又害怕對於個人位置資訊不當使用的風險。因此我們使用隱私計算理論來探究其使用者行為模式，並進一步深入了解付費與免費對於使用者的隱私計算有何影響。研究設計／方法：總共收集425份線上問卷，刪除無效問卷後共有418份有效問卷，並使用Smart PLS 2.0統計軟體檢測其研究假說成立與否。研究結果：與娛樂型App相比，使用者會比較注重工具型App所能帶來的好處。和工具型App相比，使用者會比較擔心娛樂型App的潛在風險；然而付費App會讓使用者十分重視App所能帶來的好處，況且比起工具型App會更為重視娛樂型app的風險。假若是免費的App，使用者會比較重視工具型App的好處。研究限制／啟發：本研究主要是針對Android平台的用戶，所以IOS平台用戶的行為可能會有所不同。理論／實務／社會意涵：娛樂型的手機應用程式提供商必須保證其安全性或者要說明手機應用程式如何存取要求使用的權限，不然使用者會因隱私洩露的風險降低下載的意願。創見／價值：由於過去的研究很少討論付費型與免費型的手機應用程式對使用者隱私風險的影響，因此本研究提供這兩種不同情境做深入的探討。

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to find out if users may be attracted by the benefits of location based services (LBS) app’s functions, otherwise, users may have stopped by the perceived risks of the LBS app. Thus, we use privacy calculus theory to explain user behaviors in this context. Furthermore, we were to determine the impact of paid or free and app category on privacy calculus. Design/ methodology/ approach - A total of 425 people responded to our online questionnaire. After dropping invalid or incomplete responses, only 418 surveys were considered valid. We adopted Smart PLS 2.0 to calculate the β coefficients and significance levels of all the proposed hypotheses. Findings - First, whether paid or free makes a difference to the user’s privacy calculus depends on the app category. In the paid condition, users focus on the privacy disclosure benefits. This means that users will critically consider the app’s functionality. Users also attach importance to the privacy disclosure risks of hedonic apps. In the free condition, users attach more importance to the privacy disclosure benefits of utilitarian apps. Second, the app category also impacts the user’s privacy calculus. Users focus on the benefits of a utilitarian app and they pay more attention to the risks of a hedonic app. Research limitations/ implications - Our research focused on users of the Android platform, but the behaviors of IOS platform users might be different. Practical implications/ Social implications - Vendors of hedonic apps must either guarantee the security of their app or explain how the requested permissions are used by the app. Otherwise, the privacy disclosure risks decrease users’ intention to download the app. Originality/ value - Since there is almost no research discussing the effects of paid or free and app category on privacy risks, our research is the first to provide insight regarding these two constructs in this context.