Importance of positive reputation for Smartphone adoption

This study is aimed at investigating the importance of positive reputation from external experience sources for diffusion of a mobile convergent device, Smartphone. We categorized the different reputation sources into four; personal, expert, consumers, and mass media. By conducting a conjoint analysis with 53 samples from a university, we found that the prior experience of consumer group has the largest importance for the purchasing decision of the potential adopters. Moreover, early adopters and female consumers give more importance on the prior consumers´ opinions. The reputation from expert and mass media was relatively lower than it from consumers and personal group. We discuss the implications for utilizing social networking service for diffusion of the innovative convergent device and the directions for further study.