Can you near me: perceived proximity and the intention to use mobile applications to consume local products.
(A2020-62453)

AUTHORS

Gauthier Casteran, Universiy of Limoges; Daria Plotkina, EM Strasbourg, University of Strasbourg

KEYWORDS

Local products; mobile app use; perceived proximity

ABSTRACT

Locally produced foods’ demand is rapidly increasing. As a consequence, mobile apps helping consumers to order local foods, get information on them and get in touch with local producers are more and more common. Research shows that proximity (access-, identity-, production- and relation-related) has a central role in local food consumption. The two questions that thus arise are whether these apps can create proximity between users on one side and producers on the other side and how this proximity helps mobile apps evaluations and intention to use. To answer these, we carry out an online experiment and find that access-related proximity is the most prominent perceived proximity from an app, while relation-related is the least. We further find that access-, identity-, and production-related proximities have indirect effect on intention to use the app through app evaluation (i.e., usefulness and convenience).