Building customer engagement in mobile commerce through need fulfillment: an approach of self-determination theory

Customer engagement is an important multidimensional construct which determine the success of a firm (e.g. mobile applications). Nevertheless, research on how to develop customer engagement, particularly its individual dimensions, is still limited. Using a self-determination theory perspective, the present study examines the relationships between fulfilling the three basic psychological needs and the four types of customer engagement (i.e. co-developing, influencing, augmenting, and mobilizing) in a mobile commerce (mcommerce) setting. Based on a survey of 717 respondents, the findings show that relatedness and competence are strong predictors of the four dimensions. However, the results only show that fulfilling sense of autonomy will only help in co-developing and influencing. Additionally, age and income are important factors in predicting three out of the four dimensions. Meanwhile, gender is only affecting influencing behavior.