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NTU Management Review Vol. 33 No. 3 Dec. 2023

An app is an experiential product and it is difficult to judge its value before using it.
In this kind of situation, consumers tend to collect more product information, especially
through user evaluation, to determine whether the product is worth using (Chen et
al., 2014; Jeong and Jang, 2011). One approach to user evaluation is to refer to actual

experiences of other users who have experienced the apps (Mathieson, 1991). These
experienced users are able to leave their comments about the apps and have social
influence on new users. Products (apps) with higher social influence will positively

influence consumers’ choices; thus, this indicates that consumers are influenced by the
power of social influence to evaluate whether they are going to continue using an app
or switch to another one (Huang and Chen, 2006). Therefore, if users know that a new
app is highly positively rated by other experienced users, implying high social influence,
the intention to switch to other apps might be enhanced. In accordance with the above

argument, we propose the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2 (H2): Social influence has a positive effect on the intention to switch to
other health apps.

Many studies have focused on consumer satisfaction with mobile devices (Liao, Liu,

Liu, To, and Lin, 2011). Most of the results show that customer satisfaction is positively
correlated with behavioral intentions (Wirtz, Xiao, Chiang, and Malhotra, 2014). For
example, Gerpott, Rams, and Schindler (2001) conduct a study of the German mobile

phone market, and their results show that customer switching intention is impacted by
satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Su and Cheng (2016) explore the satisfaction measurement
of the Nike+ Running App. They discuss four aspects of app (i.e., technology, app
information quality, app service ability, and app interface design) to explore the willingness
of customers to continue using the product. The preliminary result shows that customer

satisfaction leads to continued use of the product, and dissatisfaction results in customers’
switching to another product. In a similar vein, we explore the switching factors related
to health apps. Based on the above discussion, dissatisfaction causes customers to change

products, so the following hypothesis is proposed:
Hypothesis 3 (H3): Dissatisfaction with current health app has a positive effect on the
intention to switch to other health apps.

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