Work

Mobile Application and Customer Effort: A Multigroup Analysis Among Energy Customers in Malaysia

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This study examines the impact of mobile applications (mobile apps) on customer effort across two main customer categories (residential and business) of a prominent energy provider in Malaysia. A questionnaire survey was administered to 951 respondents selected via stratified sampling, and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), SmartPLS 4.0, was employed to analyse the data using bootstrapping and multigroup analysis. The results indicate that customer effort was influenced by functionality and design quality. Conversely, social trust and information quality negatively impacted customer effort in both customer categories. The multigroup analysis revealed no substantial variances among all variables on customer effort. These findings can assist energy companies in standardising their mobile app services across various customer segments, thus improving customer experience and satisfaction. Future research can expand the study by including other industries for better generalisability of the findings.

Source: International Journal of Industrial Management

DOI: 10.15282/ijim.19.4.2025.12176

Authors: Abdul Rahman Zahari, Elinda Esa

Institution: Universiti Tenaga Nasional

Language: English

Topic: Technology Adoption and User Behaviour

Subfield: Information Systems and Management

Field: Decision Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

Funders: Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Universiti Tenaga Nasional

Award: G1185666807