Role of users’ status quo on continuance intentions

Accelerated technological innovations have led to shorter product life cycles. Yet, consumers often decide not to discard the incumbent technology in favor of a new technology. To explain this decision-making process, a rich research stream has investigated subconscious motivations. However, there is little understanding of the role of conscious motivations and, more importantly, their interplay with subconscious motivations in their decisions. Using the value appreciation perspective, we controlled for the predictors of the second version of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) and leverage prospect theory to enrich our understanding of users’ continuance intentions. We conceptualize status quo preference with two new constructs—namely, the value of status quo and users’ commitment to status quo—and integrate them with other known predictors of continuance intentions (related to an incumbent system)—i.e., trust and habit. We empirically test our model in two studies. Study 1 was conducted among 2,096 users of smartphones in Hong Kong. Study 2 reports longitudinal data, across three waves of data collection over a period of six months, from 240 analysts introduced to a new technology to support their work in a large financial services organization. The findings support our model and suggest that (1) users’ status quo preferences significantly determine continuance intentions; and (2) trust and habit have an effect on users’ status quo preferences. These findings advance knowledge on continuance intentions by integrating the effects of users’ conscious and subconscious intentions to continue using the incumbent technology.