Analysis of the Causal Relationships Among the Factors that Influence the Use of Mobile Phone Services

A lot of researchers have been interested in the factors influencing the use of mobile phone services. Most of the previous studies, however, verified only the research models developed by the authors. They did not consider which model agrees better with the real situation. This study presents six alternative models based on various previous studies, and compares the data fitness of the models. A Web survey of mobile phone users collected 2,217 cases. Statistical analyses, using SEM (Structural Equation Modeling), show that the fitness of the simplest alternative model is better than that of any other model. The simplest model has no causal relationship among exogenous factors, and proposes that all of exogenous factors have direct impacts on the customer satisfaction. In addition, the analyses say that corporate and brand image and additional service are more important than the other exogenous factors such as communication quality.