The version effect of apps and operating systems in mobile commerce

Abstract

Different versions of mobile operating systems or shopping apps enable different functionalities and information flows, thus creating various mobile shopping environments. In general, up‐to‐date versions provide better information flows and richer functionalities. However, mobile operating systems and shopping apps affect consumer behavior through different mechanisms. An up‐to‐date mobile operating system reduces the system response time, while an up‐to‐date shopping app improves algorithms for better search accuracy. The former encourages consumer explore and search, whereas the latter improves consumer search efficiency and reduces chances for consumers to discover more products. Using a unique large‐scale clickstream data set from a mobile commerce retailer, we examine the effect of mobile operating system and app versions on consumer search and impulse purchase behaviors in mobile commerce. Our results show that consumers with an up‐to‐date mobile operating system or a previous version of a shopping app conduct more searches in terms of increased product page views and time spent on product pages, which results in a higher probability of consumer impulse purchase. However, consumers' search for individual products is not affected by versions. Surprisingly, though more page views or time spent may boost purchases, we find that consumer search affects impulse purchases nonlinearly in that page views and time spent have a decreasing rate of impact. Our computations show that using an up‐to‐date operating system increases consumer search activities by 60.45 product pages or 521.30 seconds spent browsing compared to using a previous version of an operation system. Using an up‐to‐date app decreases consumer search activities by 129.34 product pages or 1446.48 seconds spent browsing compared to using a previous version of a mobile app.