Understanding users’ dynamic behavior in a free trial of IT services: A three-stage model

A free trial of an information technology service (ITS) provides users an opportunity to obtain direct usage experience without purchase commitment, which can significantly reduce their uncertainty about the utility and quality of the ITS and promote their intention of final purchasing. Previous studies of user behavior in a free trial of ITS have mainly focused on either the adoption intention in the pre-trial stage or purchase intention in the post-trial stage. There is a lack of study investigating the trial stage that facilitates the transition and connection between these two separately studied stages. In this study, we view free trial as a motivated learning process and propose a Three-Stage Model (TSM) based on the learning motivation theory and reference-dependent theory to investigate users’ free trial behavior dynamics in moving from motivation to trial, making efforts to gain trial experience, and finally making a further purchase decision after the trial. We collected 377 users’ free trial experience to test our TSM using partial least squares-based structural equation modeling. Our results indicate that the perceived trial benefit and social influence strongly motivate user’s willingness to trial and that the utility experience and flow experience gained through trial effort leads to a willingness to accept and ultimately affect user’s willingness to pay through the mediation effect of expected additional value and price justification. Our study contributes to the theory that explains the dynamics of user decision-making behavior in the context of a free trial of ITS.