본 연구는 10대들의 휴대폰 사용경험에 관한 심층적인 자료를 정성적인 방식(ethnographic 면접과 부분적으로참여관찰)으로 수집하여 10대들이 스스로 발견하는 휴대폰의 새로운 용도와 가치를 발견하였고, 이러한 새로운 소비문화가 10대들에게 공유되는 정도를 확인하기 위해 설문조사(조사대상: 12~19세 청소년 1,000명, 표본선정:지역, 성별, 학년을 감안한 할당방식, 면접방법: 개별면접)를 실시했다.
본 연구는 정성적인 연구방식을 통해 10대들이 휴대폰을 사용하면서 새로운 용도 또는 가치를 만들어내고 있음을확인했다. 10대들이 휴대폰에 부여하는 용도 및 가치는 나만의 공간(my space), 나의 표현수단(my pride), 나의동반자(with me), 친구와의 연결고리(link to my friend) 및 놀이도구 등으로 요약되었다. 또한 10대들은 문자메시지의 새로운 가치를 발견하고, 이의 사용을 확산하는 과정에서 새로운 규범을 형성하고 있는 것으로 나타났다.
본 연구는 이러한 결과를 정보제공자의 관점에서 상세히 기술하였고, 정성조사에 발견된 주요 주제를 설문조사를통해 다시 검증한 결과 대부분의 주요 주제들이 확인되었다.
본 연구는 정성조사와 정량조사에서 나온 결과를 요약하면서 10대들의 휴대폰 사용경험에서 발견되는 소비자의역할을 참여적 소비, 놀이적 소비, 발현적 규범형성 관점에서 해석하고 이와 관련된 시사점들을 제시하였다. 마지막으로 본 연구는 본 연구결과가 제시하는 관리적 시사점들을 정리하였고, 연구과 갖는 한계점과 함께 후속연구방향을 논의하였다.
The recent technology boon has created a digital age. With new technologies for communication tools such as the Internet, mobile phones etc., companies have found exciting new ways to interact with each customer and to create products or services tailored to individual customers.
Accordingly, consumers can find new ways of communication and lifestyles. Nowadays consumers can build their own information network, and participate in producing and selling products or services. They are changing their role perceptions from buyers to participants,producers (i.e., prosumers), or sellers (i.e., salesumers) with respect to company-customer relationship.
These changes of consumers’ role perceptions can be found easily under mobile phone consumption situations. Mobile phones are becoming ubiquitous and in line with this trend,while children’s use of mobile phones has increased to the point where mobile phones are becoming commodities for them. Many managers have mentioned that teens are ahead of managers in finding new ways to use functions and in creating new consumption values with mobile phones. Thus company managers started observing their consumption styles more carefully to get some idea for developing new functions or new features.
Recognizing these phenomena, this study collected in-depth data about teen usage experiences with mobile phones. We employed qualitative research methodology to describe new usages and values discovered by teens. We have conducted in-depth interviews(i.e.,ethnographic interviews) with nine participants(purpose sampling: maximum variation with respect to age and school enrollment) for four to five weeks, with an intermittent week. When necessary, we also employed participant observations at each interview.
Analyses of the collected data led us to describe the teens’ unique consumption experiences and usage patterns with mobile phones. The teens regarded the mobile phone as their own space, a device to express themselves, an essential partner with them, a link to their friends and a tool for killing time. For example, children who send or receive mobile messages (mobile e-mail or SMS) more frequently, tend to feel stronger about their mobile phone as an essential tool in their life. We also found that mobile e-mail/SMS is more familiar to children than voice calls, and there is a high possibility that the network externality effect is particularly strong for mobile e-mail/SMS use. Children think of mobile phones as “information gadgets” for communicating, particularly by mobile e-mail/SMS. Furthermore, we found that teens are finding new values in the message function and forming their own group norms in sending, receiving and responding to messages. We have provided in-depth descriptions about these results from our participants’ perspectives.
This study also conducted surveys(respondents: 1,000 teens, sampling: quarter sampling method by sex, years, area, and contact method: individual interview). We asked the degree to which teens agreed to the survey items describing newly perceived values about mobile phones. We confirmed that those new usages or values are perceived by most respondents.
The survey results also indicated a change in the perception of mobile phones as tools for work-based communications into commodities used for day-to-day communication. The pheno-toon of mobile phone use on a day-to-day basis, oot only for bustioss, is not new, but their use by children is thought to be proof that this shift has come about. Furthermore the survey results confirmed that mobile e-mail/SMS plays a more important role in their lives than voice calling. The frequency of using mobile e-mail/SMS was higher than that of voice calling and the increase in mobile e-mail/SMS usage is also greater than that of voice calling.
Summarizing the results from qualitative and quantitative research approaches, we suggest that it is important to view consumers as participants, performers or players, not merely passive buyers. Playing tends to take on a more per formative and reciprocal style in which participants use their experiences to entertain each other. What is distinctive about our view of performer is that it deals with the emotional attachment of the consumer and it suggests that performance or play is not always caught up in a pre-established boundary, but may instead imaginatively create its own set of styles and its own context. Because of this nature, participants further changed their role from performers to producers(i.e.,producing their own consumption cultures). For example, the teen’s interactions with each other through mobile phone usage showed the very dynamics of a ritual invention. Finally,we summarized managerial implications, and discussed the limitations and future research directions.
