Can Coolness Predict Technology Adoption? Effects of Perceived Coolness on User Acceptance of Smartphones with Curved Screens

Abstract

This study proposes an acceptance model for curved-screen smartphones, and explores how the sense of coolness induced by attractiveness, originality, subcultural appeal, and the utility of the curved screen promotes smartphone adoption. The results of structural equation modeling analyses (N = 246) show that these components of coolness (except utility) increase the acceptance of the technology by enhancing the smartphones' affectively driven qualities rather than their utilitarian ones. The proposed coolness model is then compared with the original technology acceptance model to validate that the coolness factors are indeed equally effective determinants of usage intention, as are the extensively studied usability factors such as perceived ease of use and usefulness.