Variety seeking: conceptual model in information technologies domain

Information technologies have changed social media consumption. For example, competition between online streaming companies (e.g., Netflix) and cable TV firms have risen although these two services do not offer the same content. Our research argues that in this case consumers may be motivated to alternate between services to increase utility, rather than completely replace one service by the other. Previous research has focused on technology adoption, technology usage continuity, and switching to a new technology. However, alternating between technologies remains unexplored. Grounded on motivation theory, our proposed research model synthesizes the contributions from fields like psychology and marketing to find potential antecedents to user alternating behavior of technologies: OSL, ASL, variety seeking, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, and product characteristics. We will conduct a survey among USA users to gather data about these variables and validate their significant impact on alternating behavior of technologies. A pilot test will be conduct to refine our measurement items, whereas the full sample will be assessed in terms of reliability, validity, and explanation power. The results are expected to validate our model for explaining this relatively new behavior in the use of technologies, whereas they could suggest managers which strategies they can focus on to remain competitive in the market and co-exist with other technologies offering similar services.