Should I Stay or Should I Go - The Role of Status Quo for Using New Self-Service Technologies

Abstract

Self-service technologies (SSTs) enable many advantages for both company and customers. Studies have put forward numerous factors explaining SST usage. The influence of the current situation an individual encounters has however been largely neglected. This study takes a different approach for explaining SST adoption by considering this behavior as a choice decision. From this angle, the concept of status quo bias is investigated based on different streams in applied psychology literature, customer loyalty research and economics of decision making. Status quo bias describes the tendency of people to prefer the situation currently in existence or inactivity even if an alternative option is more attractive. We integrate the status quo concept in an extended Technology Acceptance Model together with factors shown to be of importance in SST adoption: perceived risk and perceived trust. By using structural equation modeling we show that status quo bias operationalized as satisfaction with the current service offering has an ambivalent influence on the behavioral intention to use an SST. On the one hand, it creates a higher perceived risk towards using the new SST and thereby yields an inhibiting effect on SST adoption. On the other hand, we find a trust enhancing effect of status quo satisfaction. Since perceived trust positively relates to behavioral intention and reduces the perceived risk of the innovative service offering, status quo bias also positively influences SST adoption. In view of these complex relationships the relevance of integrating status quo related concepts when studying SST adoption is demonstrated.

Keywords: Self-service technology, technology acceptance model, status quo bias, perceived risk, perceived trust, consumer behavior in choice situations, structural equation modeling, e-commerce