A study of smartphone applications and their effects on users' attachment and positive WOM

Ever since smartphones were introduced to the mobile industry, the number of smartphone applications and services has been rapidly growing in Korea. Smartphone users can virtually do limitless tasks, for example, web surfing, SNS, shopping, mobile healthcare, schedule management, etc, at anytime and anyplace. Thus, smartphones and applications are now more than just communication tools. Two of the common uses of smartphone apps are expressing themselves and developing relationships with others. This study examines how self-connection and social-connection with smartphone applications affect their attachment, and how such attachment in turn affects brand supportive behavior such as positive word of mouth (WOM). Main results of this study support that self-connection and social-connection with a smartphone application have a positive effect on attachment with applications. Moreover, attachment with smartphone applications has a positive effect on positive WOM, in this study. There are several theoretical contributions of this study. First, this study showed how individuals develop attachment with applications in terms of applications's self-connection and social-connection. Second, this study suggests that attachment plays an important role on brand supportive behavior such as positive WOM.