The Perfect Mobile News Application; A Study of Literature and Practice on Mobile News Application Service Quality

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The Perfect Mobile News Application; A

Study of Literature and Practice on

Mobile News Application Service Quality

ABSTRACT:

The current research provides an analysis and evaluation on the relationships between technical features and the App-‐store rating as a concept: Mobile News Application Service Quality (MNASQ). Results of the data show no significant relationship between the (amount of) features and the App-‐store ratings or the number of ratings. Through findings it is shown that there are factors other than technical features of Mobile News Applications that influence the Service Quality as perceived by its consumers.

KEYWORDS:

Service Quality, Mobile, News Applications, App-‐store ratings, Regression, Features.

By Timen Baart

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Executive Summary

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2.5.4.1 DIMENSION: NAVIGATION 20 2.5.4.2 DIMENSION: LAYOUT 21 2.5.4.3 DIMENSION: INTERACTION 22 2.5.4.4 DIMENSION: INFORMATION 23 2.5.4.5 DIMENSION: PERSONALIZATION 24 2.5.4.6 DIMENSION: VARIETY 25 2.6 CONCLUSION 26 3 CONCEPTUAL MODEL 27 3.1 HYPOTHESES 27 3.2 CONCEPTUAL MODEL 29 4. METHODOLOGY 30 4.1 RESEARCH STRATEGY 30 4.2 SAMPLE SELECTION 30

4.2.1 SAMPLE SELECTION APP-‐STORE 30

4.2.2 SAMPLE SELECTION COUNTRIES 31

4.2.3 SAMPLE SELECTION CONTENT 31

4.2.4 SAMPLE SELECTION HARDWARE 32

4.2.5 APP-‐STORE RATINGS 32

4.3 DATA COLLECTION 32

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4.4.1 DEPENDENT VARIABLE: SERVICE QUALITY MEASUREMENT 33

4.4.1.1 USAGE STATISTICS 33

4.4.1.1.1 NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER USER 33

4.4.1.1.2 TIME SPENT ON APPLICATION 34

4.4.1.1.3 DOWNLOAD STATISTICS 34

4.4.1.2 APP-‐STORE RATINGS 35

4.4.1.3 CONCLUSION ON DEPENDENT VARIABLE 36

4.4.2.1 NUMBER OF APPRECIATION OUTINGS 37

4.4.2.2 MARKETING EFFORTS 37

4.4.2.3. ASKING FOR RATING 37

4.4.2.4 CONCLUSION ON CONTROL VARIABLE 37

4.4.3 INDEPENDENT VARIABLES: FEATURES 38

4.4.4 CONCLUSION 41

4.5 DATA ANALYSIS 42

4.6 RELIABILITY, VALIDITY AND GENERALIZABILITY 42

5. FINDINGS 43

5.1 REGRESSION ANALYSIS 43

5.2 TESTING THE MEDIATION 46

5.3 SOLUTIONS FOR DEALING WITH A NON-‐SIGNIFICANT MODEL 47

5.3.1 DIFFERENT DEPENDENT VARIABLES 47

5.3.2 CHANGING SAMPLE SIZE 47

6. DISCUSSION 48

7. REFLECTION 50

8. CONCLUSION 51

8.1 INTRODUCTION 51

8.2 RESEARCH QUESTION 51

8.3 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THEORY 51

8.4 IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE 52

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1. Introduction

1.1 General introduction

Newspapers find themselves in heavy weather. The rapid evolution of the Internet in combination with the current financial depression has forced newspapers to become innovative. The numbers reveal a challenging situation. In the Netherlands, edition numbers decreased from over 7,2 million to 6,4 million in a period of 5 years (2007-‐2012)1_{,
a
loss
of
11
per
cent
on
average
per} newspaper.

More noticeable for the editorial offices is the loss of advertisement income for printed media. The Telegraaf Media Groep (TMG), reported that the overall loss of advertisement income for newspapers was 7,7 per cent in 2011 compared to 2010, from €544 million in 2010 to €502 million in 2011. The first 6 months of 2012 showed a 12 per cent decrease compared to the first months of 2011 (TMG Annual Report, 2012).

These figures are not particular only to the Netherlands. The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) presents similar statistics. In 2012, the advertisement revenues of daily and Sunday printed newspaper decreased with 8.5 per cent, a trend that has been continuing over the past years.

1.2 Online publishing as a new possibility

In order to compensate the diminishing income, news publishers were forced to develop radical solutions.

Nowadays, consumers have widespread access to the Internet. In 2011, 94 per cent of the Dutch households have access to the Internet, against 78 per cent in 20052_{.
News
publishers
have
thus
decided
to
make
use
of
this
fact
and
increase} their presence by publishing their content online. The news-‐websites that they have created have indeed helped to increase the number of readers.

1_{http://www.siob.nl/bibliotheekmonitor/trends-‐media-‐informatie/kranten-‐en-‐} tijdschriften/oplage-‐dagbladen/item99

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Where American news-‐websites reached 27 per cent of the American population in 2004, they reached 63 per cent in 20123_{.
This
increase
in
reach
goes
hand
in} hand with the advertising expenses for online news. In 2004, the total digital newspaper advertising expenditures was $1,541 million. In 2012, this has risen to $3,370 million, making it a significant source of income for the news publishers.

The rise of online readers has brought along a change in business models. At first, the focus was put on keeping the advertisers from news publishers happy. In general, news-‐websites did not charge a fee to customers for reading the online content. This was due to technical implications as well as the aim to grab market share; a news-‐website is easily abandoned when it charges money for a product that other (news) websites offer for free. Revenue was, and still is today in most cases, dependent on advertising income.

1.3 Mobile

In the early years of the third millennium, Internet was not solely used on desktop computers anymore. The rise of mobile Internet gave implications for news publishing companies to develop strategies that would capture the public on their (smart) phones. Besides communication with friends, family and business partners, obtaining information became one of the most common activities on mobile phones (Ling, 2000). According to Nielsen (2008) a critical mass for advertisers, and thus for mobile news applications, on mobile Internet was reached in 20084_{.
At
that
time,
40
million
people
were
active
users
of
mobile} Internet in the United States only.

Mobile terminals have, however, some limitations compared to desktop computers. Smaller screens, lower resolutions and inconvenient input features highlight the necessity to provide users with good mobile interfaces (Ji, Park, Lee, & Yun, 2006; Y. E. Lee & Benbasat, 2004).

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News publishers have therefore launched dedicated platforms to best serve the mobile news consumer. This was achieved either through mobile websites or mobile applications (also known more commonly as “apps”). Nu.nl, for instance, launched its iPhone application in July 2010. Telegraaf.nl published their iPhone application in August of the same year. CNN released its first iPhone application in September 2009. The Wall Street Journal launched before April 20105_.

1.4 Distinguishing success factors

Having a dedicated application for smart-‐phone owners, however, is not enough. The iTunes store, where the applications for any type of iPhone can be downloaded, illustrates this point well. When a user searches for Dutch news applications, no less than 500 search results are provided. Broaden this search for news applications worldwide and 20,000 news applications are added to the search results6_{.
News
publishers
need
to
continuously
attract
consumers
back
to} their application, and not on that of the competitors’, with more than just marketing. News is generally provided by news agencies and distributed by the publishers, causing news articles to show large similarities.

News applications need distinguishing success factors to make them stand out against other competitors. A thorough understanding of these success factors will make a successful news application more attainable. Success factors can be marketing efforts; the content presented on the device and the way content is presented on the device.

1.4.1 Features as success factor for Mobile News Applications

The mobile phone is an innovative device with special characteristics that are new to the news industry. These characteristics make it possible for publishers to present their content in ways that have never been possible before. The challenge for the publishers is to design the Mobile News Applications in a way that best serve the consumer of the news. This results in the development of different features, using the options that come with the functionalities of mobile devices.

5_{http://www.appannie.com/apps/ios/app/the-‐wall-‐street-‐journal/}

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1.5 The framework

Even though literature has written about singular success factors for the quality of general mobile applications and news applications separately, never has a framework emerged. As aforementioned, online news publishing is a billion dollar industry. It is therefore of utmost importance to understand and apply the factors that will make the consumers of the news on a mobile device appreciate the service. Understanding and applying the factors in news application design will give publishers a competitive advantage, against publishers lacking this knowledge.

1.6 Research Question

In order to shape the research in a systematic way, a research question is formulated.

The Research Question of the current research:

Are technical features within Mobile News Applications, designed for the iPhone 4, influencing the Service Quality as perceived by their customers?

Alongside the Research Question, two Sub-‐Questions emerged:

1: Which features are the most important in determining Service Quality? 2: What is the definition of Service Quality for Mobile News Applications?

1.7 Aims of this research

Resulting from the aforementioned, as well as from the personal interest of the writer, the following research goals are formulated:

-‐ Providing a theoretical framework of success factors for mobile news applications

-‐ Providing a practical framework, direct applicable to mobile news publishers for assessing and developing mobile news applications

-‐ Add to the literature in the domain

-‐ Gather insights in the mobile news publishing industry and the individual players that operate in it

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1.8 Research Area

The applied research area for the testing of mobile news applications will be the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Choosing a specific geographical location excludes the risk of distortion by context variables, such as cultural differences and legal issues. Narrowing down the research area, however, also implies the loss of target population and the increased risk of external factors influencing the research. As the number of large mobile news publishers is limited, a broad selection of countries has to be made.

1.9 Scope and Domain

Before the research is conducted, the scope of the current research is defined. In the scope the span of the research is determined. This increases the focus and accuracy of the subject investigated.

First, the relevant models building on the concept of Service Quality (Grönroos, 1984) are evaluated. These models are important in understanding how the Service Quality models are defined and narrowed down to the specific suitable context. The models investigated are important for founding the concept of Service Quality and pave the pathway to a model for Mobile News Applications. As the models that are dealing with Service Quality are numerous, however, the amount of models covered in the current research will be selected on their applicability to the topic of Mobile News Applications. Service Quality models that are providing solutions to segmented industries other than the one used in the current research are therefore left out.

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between January 2008 and May 2013, containing any type of relevant feature possibly influencing Mobile News Applications Service Quality. Articles that are published outside of the timeframe or within other journals are, if they are not mentioned within the articles reviewed, left outside the current research. Additionally, articles dealing with aspects of Mobile News Application Service Quality based on items other than technical features that can be included in the software of an application are ignored, as it does not comply with the aims of this research.

After having collected the necessary data from the articles, a model is constructed. Mobile news applications are then chosen to be analyzed with the model. As explained in the introduction, the number of nation-‐wide newspapers in a country is limited. For the purpose of this research, the newspapers of multiple countries will be studied to increase the accuracy of the findings. The set of countries is selected based on the capacity of the researcher to process applications in the applicable languages and based on similar cultural dimensions according to the Country Comparison developed by Hofstede (2010), limiting the risk of distortion of the research by cultural differences influencing the outcomes. Even though the number of observations can challenge the general acceptable threshold for conducting statistical research, this scope is deemed to be acceptable for the possible number of observations and market size. The applications used for this research have to be published in the following countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Additionally, the applications have to be published in the App-‐store from Apple’s iTunes and have 100 App-‐store ratings or more. Furthermore, the applications have to be published in News section of the App-‐ store and comply with the content demands for Mobile News Applications, as explained in the chapter on sample selection.

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of two delays in the observation. If the Mobile News Application fails to function at any of the observation times, the Mobile News Application fails to comply with the scope of the current research and will not be observed.

During the research, no publisher of Mobile News Applications is contacted directly to provide information on usage statistics or technical features applied. All data is collected from sources that are publicly available. Contacting publishers directly provides the possibility to gain extra information regarding usage statistics and insights in the testing results of the features applied in the Mobile News Applications. However, this information is highly biased and depends on individual measuring methods, which are hard to generalize. Additionally, the process of contacting the news publishers is time consuming and does not guarantee the co-‐operation of the publishers to the research.

Marketing efforts, both online and offline, are outside of the scope of the current research. Marketing efforts can potentially influence the perception of users towards Mobile News Applications, influencing the perceived Service Quality of the specific application.

The type of content that is used within an application is beyond the scope of the current research. The content of the applications used in this research have to comply with characteristics regarding availability and sources of the content displayed in order to be included, which is explained in the section on sample selection. However, the type of content, such as content of a one sided political background, industry or product, might influence the perceived Service Quality of an application. The type of content increases the segmentation of the research sample, resulting in a lower applicability of the research. This results, additionally, leads to a more complex model that goes beyond the scope of this research and in an increased difficulty to operationalize the features of the model.

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order to increase the validity of the research. As the Industry Experts are interviewed twice, the number of experts consulted is limited due to time constrains of both the researcher and the experts.

1.10 Outline of this paper

After this introduction, the paper will proceed with introducing the theoretical context. Then, the literature will be systematically analyzed in order to provide relevant dimensions for this research. The research then proceeds with the methodology section, in which the final model derived from literature will be presented. Furthermore, in the methodology section the research outline is presented. These results of the research are presented in the findings section and analyzed within the discussion section. The conclusion presents a broad summary of the conducted research.

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2 Theoretical Framework and Research Model

In this section, the relevant theoretical works will be explored, in order to provide an insight in the field. Current models for assessing the Service Quality of mobile applications will be described and analyzed for their applicability in the current research. In order to develop a model for assessing the service quality of mobile news applications, current respectable and widely recognized Service Quality models are evaluated. The models are included based on their value for the concept of Service Quality and for the specific goal of the current research, excluding Service Quality models that are developed for segments that do not apply to Mobile News Applications.

2.1 Service Quality

The importance of Service Quality and the need for a definition was first recognized by Grönroos(1984). In his works a model was developed, measuring the expected service and perceived service, distinguished by the perceived Service Quality. This importance was confirmed through the research of Imrie, Durden and Cadogan (2000). SERVQUAL, introduced by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985, 1988) is one of the most used models for assessing the difference between expected and perceived Service Quality. This difference can be named a gap, therewith calling SERVQUAL a gap analysis. As the extended model to assess Service Quality, the 1985 version of SERVQUAL used ten determinants of Service Quality, being access, communication, competence, courtesy, credibility, reliability, responsiveness, security, tangibles and understanding. After evaluation in 1988 the new model for SERVQUAL brought the number of determinants down to 5: reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness.

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removed the expectation concept from the SERVQUAL model, as they argue that the disconfirmation theory is not sufficiently supported by empirical evidence. 2.2 Electronic Service Quality

In order to have a model assessing the Service Quality for online dimensions, Parasuraman et al. (2005) developed the E-‐S-‐QUAL, based on the earlier developed e-‐SERVQUAL model by Zeithaml et al. (2000,2002). The phenomenon that this model is describing is the extent to which a website facilitates efficient and effective shopping, purchasing and delivery. The reason for this narrow applicability and the choice for it might lie within the large monetary value that can be addressed to the improvement of online web-‐shops. Even though this model does not provide means to evaluate news-‐websites or other content providing websites, it still is important to evaluate this model. The overlap between Electronic Service Quality and other Service Quality is present.

Parasuraman et al. (2005) constructed the E-‐S-‐QUAL model for measuring the service quality of websites on which consumers shop online, consisting of a 22-‐ item scale divided over four dimensions, being efficiency, fulfillment, system availability and privacy. Parasuraman et al. (2005) divided concrete cues, the technical aspects available on a website, such as ‘one click shopping’ and the ‘availability of a search function’, into perceptual attributes, such as ‘easy to navigate’. This way concrete cues that are outdated as a result of technological development can easily be removed and replaced by new concrete cues that affect the same perceptual attribute, leaving the model in tact.

2.3 Mobile Service Quality

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variety, feedback, experimentation and personalization.

2.3.1 Exploring features of Mobile Service Quality

Elaborating into the MSQ-‐model reveals a great overlap with the E-‐S-‐QUAL-‐ model. Two important dimensions, however, are introduced in order to explain MIES: motivations and perceived playfulness.

Extrinsic and intrinsic motivations are agreed to influence behavior, according to several motivational theories (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Vallerand, 1997). Extrinsic motivations were found to be important to engendering user acceptance, but others have also found that intrinsic motivations were equally important (Davis et al., 1992; Moon & Kim, 2001). Whereas extrinsic (usefulness) motivations might apply to Mobile News Applications, intrinsic (playfulness) seem to apply better to gaming and shopping services.

In the study, perceived playfulness is defined as “the extent to which the individual perceives that his or her attention is focused on the interaction with the World Wide Web; is curious during the interaction; and finds the interaction intrinsically enjoyable or interesting” (Moon and Kim, 2001). According to Fang et al. (2006), perceived playfulness was only significant when users perform a gaming task. Incorporating this dimension in a broad research on MIES, including information-‐only services, is therefore doubtful and cannot be applied to Mobile News Applications.

These two dimensions, motivation and playfulness, indicate that the MSQ-‐model will not be directly applicable to a model defining the success factors of Mobile News Applications. Nevertheless, the dimensions can provide useful items and insights that can serve as a foundation for a new model, as the dimensions within MSQ can suggest dimensions for a model that will be used in the current research.

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Kozar & Larsen (2003), it is incorporated in this research as explaining why consumers would use MIES.

Perceived ease of use is defined as “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort” (Davis, 1989). Functionalities that are easy to use will increase users’ intrinsic motivation of Internet usage, are important to gaming tasks and show a high correlation to perceived enjoyment (Bruner & Kumar, 2005; Fang et al., 2006; Sun & Zhang, 2006). Within the MSQ-‐ model, perceived ease of use is considered to be an important aspect to MSQ content. Content quality significantly determines users’ attitude towards mobile information quality (Chae et al., 2002; Vlachos, vrechopoulos & Doukidis, 2003; Chan and Ahern, 1999).

The importance of audio and visual elements is presented in the Variety dimension. The service variety is found to be an important attribute of perceived value of mobile services (Methlie and Pedersen, 2005). In 1997, Webster and Ho suggested that multimedia could be manipulated to be more or less engaging for users.

Feedback, used in the sense that media operators respond to actions from users, is considered to increase interactivity in the MIES context (Hoffman & Novak, 1996; Webster & Ho, 1997). According to the MSQ research, this is particularly related to flow and playfulness.

Experimentation is encouraged by flow (Csikszenmihalyi, 1990). Websites facilitating experimentation or exploratory behavior were found to encourage playfulness (Chung & Tan, 2004).

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2.4 Previous models as foundation for the current research.

A thorough understanding of previous models built on a foundation of literature is very valuable for determining dimensions to use in the current research. As stated by Parasuraman et al. (2005), and taken into account the criticism made on previous models (Buttle, 1996; Cronin and Joseph, 1992; Cronin, Joseph, Taylor, 1994), models for specific industries might need adjustments to be fully able to gain explanatory value. There are, however, many overlaps in the history of Service Quality models. It can therefore be assumed that the same holds for a new model for Mobile News Application Service Quality.

The Mobile Service Quality model for Mobile Information and Entertainment Services is expected to hold the most relevant dimensions for the current research for a number of reasons.

-‐ The MSQ model deals with mobile devices, distinguishing itself clearly from the broad definition used for other Electronic Service Quality research. The specific nature of the mobile device constitutes different possibilities, needs and behavior.

-‐ The MSQ model is specifically built for MIES services, whereas other research is mainly focused on retail. With the rise of the Internet, however, a new type of service emerged alongside the retail, namely MIES. The functioning of this service type is fundamentally different to the retail channel, resulting in the need of a dedicated model.

Even though the MSQ model holds the largest compatibility with the current research objective, the nature of MIES and Mobile News Applications can prove to be too different, resulting in dimensions being left out or introduced.

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2.5 Constructing a model

In this section, the previous models will be developed into a model fitting MNASQ. As a result from the aforementioned literature, measuring the Service Quality for Mobile News Applications is defined as measuring the perceived quality of Mobile News Application services as experienced by their consumers. Selecting objective measures that can be tested will operationalize the chosen dimensions.

2.5.1 Dimensions from existing models

The dimensions from the previous models are hard to operationalize, as they are difficult to make into objective features and will not provide a relevant guideline to practitioners. Nevertheless, the dimensions applicable to Mobile News Applications can serve as a foundation for a new model, as features from Mobile News Applications are likely to be able to fit into each of the dimensions. Providing a clear set of dimensions makes it possible to structurally explore success features for MNA in current literature.

From the previous explored models, the MSQ-‐model is arguably the best fitting model for this research. In the MSQ research, the following dimensions were utilized: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, content, variety, feedback, experimentation and personalization.

2.5.2 Proposing dimensions for measuring Mobile News Application Service Quality

A new model covering MNASQ is suggested based on current accepted models and completed with measurable items found in a large number of relevant studies and their accompanying models. As the field of Mobile News Applications is infantile, experts in the field of Mobile News Applications are consulted to fill missing gaps within the model.

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completed with observations from other models and observations from features in news applications suggested by experts. The results are submitted to experts in the field of mobile applications and mobile news, validating the suggested model.

Features found in literature are clustered in the following dimensions: navigation, layout, interaction, information, personalization and variety.

Compared to the MSQ model by Tan and Chou (2008), there are some differences. The reasons for these differences lie within the nature of the product and the goals of this research. For instance, content is changed into information, and feedback is changed into interaction. As one of the aims of this research is to construct a practical advise to practitioners, all dimensions respond directly to sets of features. All dimensions will be explained in detail in the following section.

2.5.3 Exploring the features

Features contributing to the success of Mobile News Applications are derived from the literature. Although many studies focused on website quality, mobile is a relatively new phenomenon. Studies, therefore, on features conducted in only the past 5 years were chosen to be included into this research, securing the relevancy of the introduced feature. All relevant articles published between 2008 and 2013 in twenty-‐one leading journals in the fields of Information Systems, Marketing, Human Interaction and Journalism were analyzed. It appeared that there are a number of features, defined before 2008, that is still relevant in models currently applied. Those features are included into the MNASQ-‐model. As applied in Parasuraman et al. (2005) and Tan and Chou (2008), the features will be split into different dimensions covering all aspects of MNASQ. The items in the new MNASQ model must all be objectively measurable with either being available (yes) or absent (no) in order to fulfill the research objective.

2.5.4 Explaining the features

The features are divided into the most relevant dimension, derived from the common characteristics of each feature. This way, a probable result might show the most important dimensions for the MNASQ.

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2.5.4.1 Dimension: Navigation

Many studies have focused on the usability of the Navigation of mobile applications. The essential limitations and opportunities that the mobile devices contain are providing the basis for this interest. Compared to desktop computers, mobile terminals have some limitations such as smaller screens, lower resolution, and inconvenient input features. These limitations highlight the necessity to provide users with good mobile interfaces (Ji, Park, Lee, & Yun, 2006; Y. E. Lee & Benbasat, 2004). In this research, Navigation is defined as the

process or activity of ascertaining one’s position and the position of the desired displayed content within the mobile news application. The features in the

Navigation dimension are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Features of Navigation Dimension

Feature Description and background Source

Menu Ziefle & Bay (2006) highlighted the importance of a clear structure within mobile applications and tested two types of menues in order to overcome disorientation. Also, the importance of displaying categories was underlined (Darroch et al., 2005).

Ziefle & Bay (2006), Darroch et al. (2005)

Menu parent item

Another measure to overcome disorientation within mobile applications is the menu parent item, also called breadcrumb. According to Ziefle & Bay (2006) this feature will make the user more aware of their position within the application.

Ziefle & Bay (2006)

Menu

visibility on one page

A clear menu, visible on one screen without the need to scroll, is a feature to increase the overview within the application by showing what the app contains (Kim, Jacko & Salvendy, 2011; Zhang & Lai, 2011; Darroch et al., 2005).

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Page outline Zhang & Lai (2011) argue that showing the user the outline of an article increases successful navigation. By presenting information cues users are more aware of what to expect, before having to peruse for details.

Zhang & Lai (2011)

Position in page

The position within a page, showing for instance that a user is almost reaching the end of an article, is found to be helpful in mobile application usability (Zhang & Lai, 2011).

Zhang & Lai (2011)

Search function

A search function is important, according to Jeong & Han (2012), as a navigation aid to move to articles or pages that are not easily found through the regular menu, or are deeper within the application.

Jeong & Han (2012)

Link to full website

As mobile applications are sometimes not well suited to display content properly, the mobile application should contain a link to the full page, or a function with which a link can be send via email (Jeong & Han, 2012).

Jeong & Han (2012)

2.5.4.2 Dimension: Layout

The layout is a very important dimension in this research. Layout is defined as

the way in which content and design of Mobile News Applications are laid out within the application. Similarity between pages will increase the appropriate

memory storage, categories it and improves decision-‐making when similar situations occur (Hintzman, 1986; Nosofsky, 1986; Medin, Goldstonde & Markman, 1995). The nature of the mobile device requires Mobile News Applications to apply a Layout that is suited for the device. The features within the Layout dimension are presented in Table 2.

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Table 2: Features of Layout dimension

Consistent page layout

A consistent page layout increases the user experience (Song, 2011; Zhang & Lai, 2011). The consistency of the layout within applications is expected to increase MNASQ.

Song (2011), Zhang & Lai (2011)

Consistent page color

Along the lines of the page layout, also a consistent page color shows to be a determinant for a higher similarity (Song, 2011). Seeing as page layout and color can differ significantly, it is split into a different feature.

Park & Salvendy (2011),

Song (2011), Zhang & Lai (2011)

Consistent font

Song (2011) also found out that font is important for higher rates of similarities.

Park & Salvendy (2011),

Zhang & Lai (2011) Image in

thumbnail

As a specific design feature, the image in thumbnail is considered to be important by experts working with mobile applications.

Various news applications & expert review

2.5.4.3 Dimension: Interaction

In Table 3, the features within the Interaction dimension are described. Interaction is defined as the way in which consumers of the Mobile News Application can communicate with other users, potential new users, or the application itself. Susarla, Oh & Tan (2012) found that social interactions, either through social media or forums, influence the success of online content.

Table 3: Features of Interaction dimension

Social media options

Consumers want multiple ways to share stories (Rhee, Lee & Chang, 2010). This way they can discuss topics with friends or

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colleagues, with referring to the source. Commenting

option

Commenting on news is an option to make news more interactive. It can be expected that this influences MNASQ in a positive way. Experts found this to be a missing feature within the model.

Various news applications & expert review

2.5.4.4 Dimension: Information

In Table 4, the features within the Information dimension are described. Information is defined as the factual general content provided within the Mobile News Application.

In their work, Jeong & Han (2012) explored a set of features that newspapers presented on mobile websites should possess, in order to have the best user interface and comply with user demands.

Table 4: Features of Information dimension

Weather prediction

Weather prediction is considered to be one of the most popular items, particularly in local news sites (Jeong & Han, 2012). Having an accurate, location adjustable weather prediction is therefore one of the features.

Jeong & Han (2012)

Current date and time

Jeong & Han (2012) consider a current date and time as necessity within mobile news websites. Most mobile phones, however, display the current date and time. Nevertheless, current date and time is a feature, as it might show results.

Jeong & Han (2012)

Publication timestamp

With a publication timestamp consumers can see how old the article is and judge the topicality of the item.

Jeong & Han (2012)

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date of last update

time and date of a last update, either from the app or from a particular news item, is important. This shows consumers that they have the most recent news. According to the experts, this feature is important within Mobile News Applications.

applications & expert review

2.5.4.5 Dimension: Personalization

In Table 5, the Personalization Dimension is described. Personalization is defined as the possibility for adjusting the content or layout of the Mobile News Application in order to accommodate the specific desires of the consumer.

Much research has been done to the topic of Personalization (Mittal & Lassar, 1996; Ji et al, 2010; Vlachos et al., 2011; Lee, 2009, Reinecke & Bernstein, 2011; Teevan et al., 2010; Djamasbi, 2011; Venkatesh & Ramesh, 2002; Ho & Kwok, 2003). In a research by Mittal & Lassar in 1996, it is shown that Personalization significantly influences customer experience and evaluation of service. This type of Personalization, however, concerns individual attention from sales employees to specific clients. Venkatesh & Ramesh (2002) argue that Personalization can also describe data reduction, so that unnecessary information would not be transmitted, increasing the information-‐fit with the consumer.

Table 5: Features of Personalization dimension Feature Description and background Source Personalization

of layout

Personalizing the content can apply to different adjustments. Regularly, the font-‐size can be adjusted to reading preferences. Sometimes menu orders, color settings, size of images and others are also possible to change.

Mittal and Lassar (1996), Ji et al. (2010),

Vlachos et al. (2011), Lee (2009),

Reinecke & Bernstein (2011),

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(2002) Personalization

of content

Uninteresting topics can be hid, or published with a lower priority, in order to increase the match between preferred content and published content (Venkatesh & Ramesh, 2002)

Ho & Kwok, (2003), Mittal and Lassar (1996), Ji et al. (2010),

Vlachos et al. (2011), Lee (2009),

Reinecke & Bernstein (2011),

Teevan et al. (2010), Djamasbi (2011), Venkatesh and Ramesh (2002)

2.5.4.6 Dimension: Variety

In Table 6, the Variety Dimension is described. Variety is defined as the extent to which content is presented in a diversified way.

The service variety is found to be an important attribute of perceived value of mobile services (Methlie and Pedersen, 2005). Webster and Ho (1997) suggested that multimedia could be manipulated to be more or less engaging for users.

Table 6: Features of Variety dimension

Use of video The use of video is the most advanced way of improving the variety of ways of publishing news content. Regular use of video content increase the perceived value of mobile services. Lee and Benbasat (2004), Methlie and Pedersen (2005)

Use of audio Audio fragments are another rich way to publish content, and are perceived as a feature increasing MNASQ.

Lee and

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Use of images

The use of imagery and photographs are considered to positively influence MNASQ.

Lee and

Benbasat (2004), Methlie and Pedersen (2005) 2.6 Conclusion

The concept of Service Quality (Grönroos, 1984) has received much of attention from researchers. SERVQUAL (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985, 1988) has been the most influential model. It has, however, received criticism (Buttle, 1996; Cronin and Joseph, 1992; Cronin, Joseph, Taylor, 1994). With the aim to increase the fit from the model to web-‐shops, E-‐S-‐QUAL (Parasuraman et al., 2005) emerged. Tan and Chou (2008) constructed a model for measuring Mobile Information and Entertainment Services. From the foregoing is concluded that, even though the Mobile Service Quality model from Tan and Chou (2008) approaches the intentions of the current research, a new model will have to be developed. The constructs for the new model will be derived from extant studies.

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3 Conceptual Model

From the aforementioned theory, hypotheses emerged. These are explained in this section. The hypotheses are presented in the conceptual model.

3.1 Hypotheses

Throughout literature, Service Quality (Grönroos, 1984) is measured in dimensions consisting of features that form the Service Quality model (Parasuraman et al. 1985, 1988, 2005; Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Zeithaml et al, 2000, 2002; Tan & Chou, 2008). Jeong & Han (2012) added up to the concept of the inclusion of features in order to increase Service Quality, by providing a list of features that contribute to the quality of Mobile News Applications. This strong foundation within literature implies that features are important to the level of Service Quality, therefore resulting in the first hypothesis of this research:

H1: The inclusion of features increases the Service Quality of Mobile News Applications.

As previous research has shown, there is a difference between features when it comes to the contribution to Service Quality (Parasuraman et al., 1985, 1988; Cronin and Taylor, 1992). The SERVQUAL model received criticism that the general applicability of the model is low (Buttle, 1996; Cronin and Joseph, 1992; Cronin, Joseph, Taylor, 1994). However, Service Quality models measuring the online and mobile industry show that there is a similar difference between features, from which an order of importance to Service Quality can be derived (Zeithaml et al., 2000, 2002; Parasuraman et al, 2005; Tan & Chou, 2008). This leads to the second hypothesis (H2):

H2: A distinction between features can be made, based on the influencing rate of Service Quality for Mobile News Applications.

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the iTunes App-‐store and its appreciation outings. From the interviews with Industry Experts is derived that publishers of Mobile News Applications that are the largest in terms of turnover and customer base, are expected to be able to include the most features. The large customers base results in more appreciation outings given for the Mobile News Application of this publisher, compared to publishers with a lower customer base. Appreciation outings can be any type of quality label given by users of the Mobile News Application. This results in the third hypothesis (H3):

H3: Mobile News Applications that contain the most features have the highest number of appreciation outings.

High importance is given by publishers to positive appreciation outings for the success of a Mobile News Application. Positive appreciation outings are more likely to increase the monetization of a Mobile News Application. According to the Industry Experts, it is therefore common practice that publishers, as well as others who are involved with the success of the Mobile News Application, give positive appreciation outings to the application. This results in a relatively positive average level of appreciation outings when the total number of appreciation outings is low. According to the Industry Experts, this biased level of appreciation outings is reduced when the number of appreciation outings becomes larger. This results in a logical Control Variable (CV) and the fourth hypothesis (H4):

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3.2 Conceptual Model

The aforementioned results in the conceptual model:

Image 1: Conceptual Model

The Perfect Mobile News Application; A Study of Literature and Practice on Mobile News Application Service Quality