Not Without My Smartphone! Impacts of Smartphone Addiction on Smartphone Usage

The widespread diffusion of smartphones and their growing importance for private and business use have created new challenges for IS research. This study explores the potential negative effects of smartphone addiction on beliefs and implications for technology use. Using a quantitative survey linking smartphone addiction with technology acceptance, we investigate whether beliefs distorted by addiction, termed maladaptive cognitions, influence usage behavior and thereby potentially lead to smartphone over-use. We thereby assume that addicted users follow their own versions of rationality by acting on distorted beliefs. Based on our PLS-SEM results of 296 responses, we claim that beliefs are positively inflated by smartphone addiction in relation to perceived security, usefulness, and enjoyment, and that these beliefs ultimately bias a person’s smartphone usage behavior. Moreover, we discuss the relatively most important role of perceived enjoyment and conclude with implications.