Empirical Study on the Wechat Mini Program Acceptance Based on UTAUT Model——Take the Pearl River Delta as an Example

Lijun Ma, Lan Wang, Entao Jiang¹

Department of Management Science

College of Management, Shenzhen University

Shenzhen, China

ljma@szu.edu.cn, lanwang1995@163.com

Abstract—Users’ acceptance is important to evaluate the success of an application tool. There is no exception to the Wechat Mini Program. Based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), we construct a model with more explanative variables to investigate the affecting factors of users’ acceptance towards Wechat Mini Program. Using samples of college students in Pearl River Delta, we collected data by conducting an online questionnaire survey and applied them to test our model through a Structural Equation Modeling(SEM).The empirical results indicate thatthe five variables: Endeavor Expectation,PerformanceExpectation, Community Impact, Perceived Risk and Perceived Interference, affect users’ Behavior Intention. Furthermore, Behavior Intention and Convenience Level jointly influence Usage Behavior of Wechat Mini Program. Finally, according to these results, our study proposes some suggestions on how to improve the users’ acceptancetowards Wechat Mini Program.  

Keywords—Wechat Mini Program, users’acceptance, UTAUT model, Pearl River Delta

I. INTRODUCTION  

Wechat is a social platform based on acquaintances, and is a social application derived from instant messaging tools. Now, except for the initial communication function, it has developed more functions, such as payment, games, news and other aspects. With the richness of functions, Wechat has become a popular social application with a prominent community impact.

Taking account of the fact that more and more APPs take up too much space of storage and screen, the Wechat proposes a new technology—Wechat Mini Program on January 9, 2017, that users do not need to download and install extra APPs but can run the same services. At the same time, it has other benefits, such as simplifying the program, optimizing the users’experience, lowering developers’ barriers and promoting online and offline linkage. So, more and more consumers are willing to use it. The widely acceptance of Wechat Mini Program gains more and more attention from users and companies. Many people think using the Wechat Mini Program to meet users’ demands will become a popular trend in the future. However, some people consider that opening the Wechat Mini Program is inconvenient, and to a certain extent, badly undermining the users’ experience.  Therefore, the users’ acceptance of the Wechat Mini Program will gradually reduce.  

When developers design aMini Program, they must know clearly what kinds of business services they should provide and how to organize it to effectively satisfy users’ needs and enhance users’ acceptance.  As mentioned above, it isworthwhile to investigate people’s acceptance of Wechat Mini Program and its influencing factors.The college students, the majority of Wechatcustomers, have a strong dependence on Wechat and a larger say on Wechat Mini Program. Therefore, this study takes college students in the Pearl River Delta as the target group.  

Ⅱ.THEORY AND HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT

A. Literature Review

In China, researches about the Wechat Mini Program are very limited. Zhang(2017)^[1], the founder of Wechat, describes the Wechat Mini Program as an application that is more convenientthan any of our existing APPs. Liu (2016) ^[2] suggests that Wechat Mini Program is driven by users’ needs. Users have better experience with Wechat than the website. Lin (2016) ^[3] examines the visual design and interaction design of Wechat Mini Program, demonstrating that the Wechat Mini Program’s interface is too simple and only retainsthe core functions, which results in lowercustomer experience than APPs in interactive design activity. Kuang (2017)^[4] summarizes the advantagesof Wechat Mini Program, and discusses the challenges and other issues it may face in the future.Xiao (2017) ^[5] analyzes the Wechat Mini Program’s usage scenarios and the application of the media. Comparing Wechat Mini Program with HTML5 and other APPs, he proposes some recommendations for the improvement of Wechat Mini Program.  

These papers cover the aspects of definition, media applications and users’ vision. But most of them focus on superficial observation, and lack empirical conclusions. Our research attempts to fill the gap in the literature of people’s acceptance towards Wechat Mini Program, thus satisfyingusers’ needs betterand promoting the healthy development of Wechat Mini Program.  

In connection with the respondents,this paper raises a question:  

Question: What is college students’ acceptance of Wechat Mini Program?

B. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

Davis(1989) ^[6]proposes the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to study the influence of external variables on the beliefs, attitudes and behavior intention.Behavior intention is the indicator of usage behavior.Venkatesh, Davis (2000) ^[7]proposes the Technology Acceptance Model2(TAM2), which explicitly puts forward the determinants of usefulness cognition and related variables such as experience, voluntary and so on.Venkatesh (2003) ^[8] compiles previous researches and integrates eight theories and models of the predecessors: the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Task Technology Fit (TTF), the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), theIncentive Model (MM), the Innovation diffusion theory (IDT), the Social Cognitive Theory (STC), and the Computer Usage Model (MPCU). Then, he puts forward the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology) (UTAUT). UTAUT model is shown in Fig.1.  

Fig. 1 .The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT)

This model includes four key factors influencing Behavior Intentionand Usage Behavior: Endeavor Expectation, Performance Expectation, Community Impact and ConvenienceLevel. And there are four regulatory variables:gender, age, experience and voluntariness.  

UTAUT model has been widely used to study and analyze the influencing factors of information technology acceptance, especially in InformationTechnology,InternetBusiness, and E-commerce. For example, based on this model, Kiseol Yang (2010) ^[9], adds attitude expectation and hedonism expectation in his research on the acceptance of mobile shopping, and finds that the practice expectation, hedonism expectation, community impact and convenience level are important factors affecting consumers to use mobile shopping services in the United States.  

Based on the UTAUT model and some existing papers,this paper buildsa conceptual model. The following hypotheses can be made:  

l Hypothesis 1. Endeavor Expectation positively influences college students’ Behavior Intention in the Wechat Mini Program.

l Hypothesis 2.  Performance Expectation positively influences college students’ Behavior Intention in the Wechat Mini Program.

l Hypothesis3. Community Impact positively influences college students’ Behavior Intention in the Wechat Mini Program.

l Hypothesis 4.Behavior Intention positively influences college students’ Usage Behavior in the Wechat Mini Program.

l Hypothesis 5.Convenience Level positively influences college students’ Usage Behavior in the Wechat Mini Program.

In addition, Perceived Risk and Perceived Interference have been frequently introduced into the users’ acceptance model in domestic and foreign research. Perceived Risk is the uncertainty that consumers perceive when making purchasing decisions. Liu, Wei (2003) ^[10] add Perceived Risk to study the effect of different product categories on consumers’ online shopping intention, and verify that Perceived Risk has a negative and significant impact on users’ shopping intention. Wang (2009) ^[11] constructs a concept model of 3G business acceptance behavior based on the UTAUT model, and also reveals that Perceived Risk has an impact on consumers’ Usage Behavior. Perceived Interference is the degree of users’ interference caused by the existence of the Wechat Mini Program. Zhou (2017) ^[12] proves Perceived Interference has a positive and significant impact on Behavior Intention.

The Wechat Mini Program may cause inconvenience and annoyance when developers could not design the program well enough to meet the users’ needs.

In this study, Perceived Risk is negatively related to Behavior Intention, and Perceived Interference is negatively related to Behavior Intention too. Therefore, the following hypotheses can be made:

l Hypothesis 6.  Perceived Risk negatively influences college students’ Behavior Intention in the Wechat Mini Program.

l Hypothesis 7. Perceived Interference negatively influences college students’ Behavior Intention in the Wechat Mini Program.

Ⅲ. Methodology

A. Variables Measurement

According to the UTAUT model and the above assumptions, this study proposes the users’ acceptance model about Wechat Mini Program (as shown in Fig. 2).  

Fig. 2 .The Wechat Mini Program acceptance model

Our research constructs have been well established in the prior researches and thus we used existing validated measures in this paper. For example, Wu (2016) ^[13] studies the acceptance of Wechat Moments based on UTAUT model. She investigates Endeavor Expectation, Performance Expectation, Community Impact, Convenience Level and Perceived Risk. This paper is published in Marketing and Communication Forum. And we adopted these measurements in our paper. The measurements for Perceived Interference are based on Zhou (2017) ^[12] and incorporate whether it services well. Last, as an emerging thing, there is no available experience about Wechat mini program. Therefore, this paper does not observe the adjustment variables such as experience. All items are measured on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The measurement scheme of the variables is shown as TABLEⅠ.

B. Data Collection  

The survey is targeted on the college students in the Pearl River Delta Region, and the age ranges from 18 to 25 years old. The questionnaire is designed on the website: www.wjx.cn, and given out through the internet to the college students in the Pearl River Delta. We have received a total of 470 questionnaires, and 381 of them are valid. The response rate for the questionnaires is 81.06%. The demographic profile of the respondents is showed in TABLE Ⅱ.

C. Reliability and Validity Analysis

This paper uses the SPSS and AMOS 22 to analyze the data and verify the model. By using SPSS to analyze the reliability and validity of the scales in the questionnaires, we know the Cronbach’s Alpha of the scales is about 0.7. This demonstrates that the scales have good reliability. Additionally, the data pass the KMO test and Bartlett sphericity test. The KMO coefficient is 0.799 (as shown in TABLE Ⅲ), and the Bartlett sphericity test is significant. Next, we use the data for the factor analysis. After factor analysis, the factor loading of the scales are about 0.7 and 0.6. Therefore the data have good construct validity.

TABLE Ⅲ.  Result of KMO and Bartlett’s Test

Ⅳ. Results

A. Acceptance Analysis

Among 381 college students surveyed in our experiments, over 275 students have experience in using Wechat Mini Program. It demonstrates that it is very common for the college students to use Wechat Mini Program. To find out the acceptance of users, this research measures 5 indexes and divides the acceptance into two variables, Behavior Intention and Usage Behavior. And the results of measurements are shown in the TABLEⅣ. From the whole samples, the data of these five indexes are relatively centralized and the means are at upper middle level. In general, the mean of the index Behavior Intention is higher than that of Usage Behavior. From the sample t test, we know that the means of 4 indexes is close to 4 (the choice of agree), and the means of the other index is close to 3 (the choice of neutrality). It proves that the respondents have strong Behavior Intention, and Usage Behavior is slightly less than Behavior Intention. The acceptance of the most respondents is at upper middle level. That is to say, most respondents have a positive attitude to the Wechat Mini Program.  

TABLEⅠ. Variables measurement  

TABLE Ⅱ. Demographic Variables Information（N=381)

TABLE Ⅳ. Mean and Standard Deviation

B. Data Analysis

This research uses AMOS 22 to construct Structural Equation Model (SEM). The results are shown as Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 .Wechat Mini Program remarkableanalysis

According to the preamble, we put forward 7 assumptions, and analyze the fitting degree of our model. The results are as follows:

l Hypothesis 1. Endeavor expectation has positive effect on Behavior Intention.

l Hypothesis 2. Performance Expectation has positive effect on Behavior Intention.

l Hypothesis 3. Community Impact has positive effect on Behavior Intention.

l Hypothesis 4. Behavior Intention has positive effect on Usage Behavior.

l Hypothesis 5. Convenience Level has positive effect on Usage Behavior.

l Hypothesis 6. Perceived Risk has negative effect on Behavior Intention.

l Hypothesis 7. Perceived Interference has negative effect on Behavior Intention.

Ⅴ. Discussion and conclusion  

A. Results and advice

This paper explores the Wechat Mini Program acceptance of the college students and the influential factors, which is based on UTAUT model.

Analyzing the above data, we can see that the college students’ acceptance of Wechat Mini Program is at upper middle level. But for the program developers and the Wechat team, they can do better in the future. Empirical study indicates that all of Endeavor Expectation, Performance Expectation, Community Impact, Perceived Risk and Perceived Interference influence users’ Behavior Intention. In addition, Behavior Intention and Convenience Level influence Usage Behavior. Community Impact has the greatest influence on Behavior Intention, and its coefficient is 0.81. The reason might be that: Wechat Mini Program tends to be spread through the Wechat message between the college students. But we also know the Wechat Mini Program cannot be shared to Wechat Moments. In the meantime, the Wechat Mini Program will be placed at the top when you use it, and it is easier for users to use the Mini Program again. Above all, this paper gives several suggestions to increase the Wechat Mini Program acceptance, from the factors for Community Impact, Performance Expectation and Endeavor Expectation.

First of all, encourage the users to recommend the Wechat Mini Program. Community Impact has a great impact on Behavior Intention, and it illustrates that the recommendation from friends plays an important role on the Wechat Mini Program promotion. When they recommend the Mini Program to the friends, it may encourage their friends to use the Mini Program for the first time. What’s more, the Wechat Mini Program cannot be shared to Wechat Moments, which limits its transmission. Last, Wechat team can give the advertisements of how many friends use this mini program, or show their comments after using the mini program.

Secondly, improve the function practicability of the Wechat Mini Program. Performance Expectation measures the perception of program usefulness. This paper shows that Performance Expectation has a positive effect on the users’ Behavior Intention. Therefore, highlighting the usefulness of the Wechat Mini Program will increase the users’ Behavior Intention. For developers, they can design more functions.

Thirdly, make the Wechat Mini Program obtained more convenient. Endeavor Expectation has a positive effect on Behavior Intention, we can see that whether it is convenient to obtain and whether it is easy to use will influence the acceptance of users. When users can obtain the Mini Program conveniently and use it easily, it will increase the Behavior Intention, and then increase the Usage Behavior, when lack of these conditions, Usage Behavior may be constrained. We give two pieces of advice. Program developers can push an advertisement to tell the convenience and the usefulness of Mini Program to users who have used their APPs or subscribed to their services before. Next, pay attention to the feedback of users. According to these, developers can rank the rate of use and delete unnecessary functions regularly.

B. Limitations

This research has some limitations. Firstly, our survey is targeted on the college students in the Pearl River Delta, and it cannot represent other groups. Secondly, this research does not consider the individual factors influence on Behavior Intention, such as, individual difference. In further studies, we can explore the acceptance of Wechat Mini Program and its influential factors from the above aspects.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors thank for the National Natural Science Foundation of China with No. 71471118, by the Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation of Ministry of Education of China with No. 14YJC630096.

REFERENCES    

[1]      Zhang XL publicly interprets Wechat Mini Program for the first time.  

http://tech.qq.com/a/20161228/016787.htm?qqcom_pgv_from=aio  

[2]       Liu HW.Analysis of the construction and application of WeChat Mini Program [J].Wireless Internet Technology, 2016(23):11-12.  

[3]      Hu XL,MaZL. Innovative Thought for Interactive Advertising Designof Wechat H5[J]. PackagingEngineering, 2016.  

[4]     Kuang WB. The opportunities andchallenges faced by Wechat Mini Program [J]. News Tribune, 2017(2): 1-1.

[5]      Xiao ZM, Wu X.Analysis of the application of Wechat Mini Programin the era of Media[J].Science & Technology for China’s Mass Media, 2017(2).

[6]       Davis F D, Bagozzi R P, Warshaw P R. User acceptance of computer technology: a comparison of two theoretical models[J]. Management Science, 1989, 35(8): 982-1003.  

[7]       Venkatesh V, Davis F D. A Theoretical Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model: Four Longitudinal Field Studies[J]. Management Science, 2000, 46(2):186-204.  

[8]      Venkatesh V, Morris M G, DavisG B, et al. User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a Unified View[J]. Mis Quarterly, 2003, 27(3):425-478.  

[9]      Yang K. Determinants of US consumer mobile shopping services adoption:implications for designing mobile shopping services[J]. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 2010, 27(3):262-270.  

[10]     Liu X, Wei KK. An empirical study of product differences in consumers E-commerce adoption behavior [J]. Electronic Commerce Research & Applications, 2003, 2(3):229-239.

[11]      Wang L. The impact of 3G technologies on users’ acceptance: A study based on UTAUT model [D].BeijingUniversity of Posts andTelecommunications,2009.  

[12]     Zhou Y. An Empirical Study Based on UTAUT Model Related to the Acceptance of Advertising by WeChat Platform- Taking Xi’an University Students as an Example[J].Modern Business, 2017(31).  

[13]     Wu W, Zhou T. An Empirical Study Based on UTAUT Model Related to the Acceptance of Native Advertising by Wechat Platform[J].AdvertisingPanorama, 2016.  

[14]    Pavlou P A. Consumer Acceptance of Electronic Commerce: Integrating Trust and Risk with the Technology Acceptance Model[M]. M. E. Sharpe, Inc. 2003.  

[15]     Alshehri M, Drew S, Alhussain T, et al. The Effects of Website Quality on Adoption of E-Government Service: AnEmpirical Study Applying UTAUT Model Using SEM[J]. 2012:1-13.  

[16]   Zeng Z, Hu X, Mei S. Factors affecting a Mobile Application’s Acceptance: An empirical study of user acceptance of Wechat in China[J]. SystemvetenskapInformationssystem Och Informatik, 2013.  

[17]     Sun J, Lu J. An Empirical Study of User Acceptance on Medical and Health Website Based on UTAUT[J]. 2013.