Study on the Free Trial of IT Services from Users’ Decision Perspective: A Conceptual Framework

Nowadays, information technology services (ITS) are offered to individual end users from free to fee, free trial has become a necessary and crucial promotion strategy to many information technology companies, which calls for advancing our understanding on free trial phenomena. In this paper, we define free trial as an inseparable whole process including the initial trial, experience, and fared use stage from users’ decision prospective, and build a theoretical framework conceptualizing the dynamics surrounding users’ decision making in free trial. Using this framework, we further develop the research model; investigate corresponding decision variables and present propositions. The integrated conceptual framework provides a comprehensive understanding of users’ adoption, purchase intentions, and behaviors for ITS promoted by free trial.