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Top1. Introduction
The number of available mobile applications has increased rapidly in recent years. Smart phones mainly offer communication service, entertainment, geographical positioning, ticket selling, mobile payments, and shopping (Watson et al., 2013); mobile applications such as games and those that offer business opportunities are among the most valuable services offered by smart phones. Consumers often use a navigation system to find, select, and buy application software in a mobile application store. Navigation systems are specifically designed for the facilitation of finding and examining online data (Webster and Ahuja, 2006). Text and icon link navigation cues offer consumers varying levels of control over online store navigation (Dailey, 2004). Tatiana and Artem (2021) found that navigation cues may reduce the cognitive load during the information search process. Navigation cues are an important research topic because they aid companies in improving customer experience and gaining competitive advantages.
Navigation cues are an essential element of online interaction between companies and consumers (Singh and Dalal, 1999). They can be used to explore, annotate, and interact with online objects (Wong and Elmqvist, 2014); they can introduce new products, trends, or fashions, while guiding customers to the products they seek. In practice, the two most commonly used navigation cues are product attributes and best-seller lists. Attitudes for measuring effective messages are important in traditional and online marketing communications (McMillan, Hwang, and Lee, 2003) as they are useful in predicting consumer behavior (Spears and Singh, 2004). Hence, attitudes toward navigation cues in mobile application stores are measured in this study.
Many online storefronts provide consumers with new product information to help them find new products. The speed and frequency with which a consumer buys said new products is called consumer innovativeness, and a highly innovative consumer enjoys buying novel and exciting products to feel special (Roehrich, 2004). Regarding mobile application stores, most users should be highly innovative because downloading new applications is an enjoyable activity.
Consumer involvement is the perceived relevance of a product based on the consumer's inherent needs, values, and interests (Wang et al., 2009). Consumer involvement indicates whether consumers understand and enjoy products in a specific product category. According to the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), different promotion strategies should be used for different levels of consumer involvement (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986). Because both central and peripheral cues affect the success of an online auction (Ko and Kim, 2015), appropriate navigation cues to introduce new products are an interesting topic in mobile application store management.
The effects of navigation cues, consumer involvement, and consumer innovativeness on mobile application store attitudes are investigated in this study. The two main research goals of this study are as follows: (1) compare consumer attitudes toward different store navigation cues, and (2) investigate the effects of combined navigation cues on store attitudes for consumers of different levels of involvement.
Previous studies regarding navigation systems have investigated the cover structure of navigation systems (Webster and Ahuja, 2006; Dailey, 2004; Danielson, 2002; Alkindi and Bouazza, 2010), metaphors in navigation systems (Yang, 2006; Benyon, 2001), rational and emotional appeals on web advertising effectiveness (Wang et al., 2009), web personalization (Tam and Ho, 2005), and best-selling rankings in a mobile application store (Carare, 2012). Although some studies, such as those of Wang et al. (2009), Tam and Ho (2006), Ko and Kim (2015), Wong and Elmqvist (2014), Bartosiak and Piccoli (2016), and Li, Jiang, and Wu (2014) have applied the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), the investigated topics were limited to web and personal computer environments. Therefore, the contribution of the current study is the integration of navigation cues and consumer characteristics in the mobile application store context. Furthermore, the applicability of the ELM theory in mobile commerce research is elucidated.