Beyond the Usefulness of Branded Applications: Insights from Consumer-Brand Engagement and Self-construal Perspectives

Branded mobile applications (apps) present one of the most promising opportunities for marketers to reach current and potential customers, sell products or services, and facilitate customer engagement with brands. This study aims to explore how branded apps influence consumers' brand repurchase intention and continuance usage intention. Integrating the utilitarian view from information systems research and the view of consumer-brand engagement from marketing research, a complementary engagement path alongside the utilitarian path was devised and tested in order to elucidate consumer perceptions toward branded apps. Independent self-construal and interdependent self-construal moderate relationships along the utilitarian path and engagement path, respectively. Data collected from 637 respondents support most of the proposed hypotheses. Results show that the engagement path has more influence on continuance intention and equal influence on repurchase intention when compared to the utilitarian path. Findings show that apps users have different thoughts along each of the two paths, depending on their self-construal. The study's findings also provide app designers and marketers with new perspectives on how to better design branded apps. (C) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.