Start Date

12-17-2013

Description

Despite a rapidly increasing number of third-party applications on Facebook and, as a consequence, exploding concerns regarding their data handling practices, little is understood about the rationale behind app installation decisions. Following a Grounded Theory approach and drawing on the results of 20 interviews and textual responses of 392 subjects, we propose a unified model of users’ decision-making process when installing a Facebook app. We conceptualize the decisional calculus behind the adoption of applications and locate it in the proposed process model. To complement our findings, we analyze results of the experiment, finding that trust in the app provider and intrusiveness of the information request have a significant impact on willingness to accept an app for experienced users. The effect of trust, however, disappears once friend recommendation is involved. Nonusers are found to be insensitive to these secondary factors, rather aligning their behavior with the perceived value of the app.

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Dec 17th, 12:00 AM

Will You Accept an App? Empirical Investigation of the Decisional Calculus Behind the Adoption of Applications on Facebook

Despite a rapidly increasing number of third-party applications on Facebook and, as a consequence, exploding concerns regarding their data handling practices, little is understood about the rationale behind app installation decisions. Following a Grounded Theory approach and drawing on the results of 20 interviews and textual responses of 392 subjects, we propose a unified model of users’ decision-making process when installing a Facebook app. We conceptualize the decisional calculus behind the adoption of applications and locate it in the proposed process model. To complement our findings, we analyze results of the experiment, finding that trust in the app provider and intrusiveness of the information request have a significant impact on willingness to accept an app for experienced users. The effect of trust, however, disappears once friend recommendation is involved. Nonusers are found to be insensitive to these secondary factors, rather aligning their behavior with the perceived value of the app.