Convenient and worth the price? Identifying early users and predicting future use of book streaming services

Abstract

The printed book has been resilient to change, and the adoption of e-books has been slow. In this context, few studies have addressed a potential turn to streaming services for books. This paper examines the adoption of book streaming in the Norwegian market, where the market-leaders Storytel and Fabel report rapid increases in number of subscribers. We examine who these early adopters are, and what may predict future use of streaming services among non-users. Theoretically, the study is situated within the fields of innovation diffusion and technology acceptance. The study is based on a cross-sectional online survey with a representative sample of the Norwegian population. Results show that users are younger and more educated, and that book streaming is more popular among women than men. The audiobook format allows for flexible ways of consuming books, complementing rather than replacing the printed book. For non-users, results show that convenience value and price value predict behavioural intention to use book streaming services. While emotional attachment to printed books has been found to act as a barrier for adoption of e-books, its negative effect on behavioural intention for book streaming services is only modest.