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Mobile
Design aesthetics as drivers of banking
value in mobile banking: does
customer happiness matter?
Walid Chaouali 219
Rabat Business School, Université Internationale de Rabat, Morocco
Received 22 March 2019
Renaud Lunardo Revised 14 May 2019
27 May 2019
Department of Marketing, KEDGE Business School, Bordeaux, France Accepted 29 May 2019
Imene Ben Yahia
Applied Research in Business Relationships and Economics (ARBRE),
High School of Commerce of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
Dianne Cyr
Faculty of Business Administration,
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada, and
Abdelfattah Triki
College of Business, University of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how customers derive value ( functional, emotional, social
and epistemic value) from the design aesthetics of mobile banking applications and then form intention to
adopt mobile banking. Furthermore, this research investigates the moderating effect of happiness, which is
predicted – and showed – to strengthen the effects of design aesthetics on value.
Design/methodology/approach – A survey using screenshots of mobile banking applications was
administered to a sample of 281 bank customers. Data were analysed using SmartPLS.
Findings – The results show that design aesthetics have a positive effect on functional, emotional, social and
epistemic value. In turn, these value dimensions positively affect intention to adopt mobile banking. The
findings also demonstrate that happiness moderates the effects of design aesthetics on these value dimensions.
Practical implications – This work can be useful to designers of banking applications and other
practitioners to improve their policies and strategies related to mobile applications.
Originality/value – This research represents an initial attempt to examine how customers derive functional,
emotional, social and epistemic value from design aesthetics in mobile banking. In addition, this research
demonstrates that happiness moderates – and more specifically strengthens – the effects of design aesthetics
on customer value. The results provide a theoretical contribution to the importance of value in customer
decision making, and in the current case, in the seldom-researched area of mobile banking.
Keywords Value, Mobile banking, Happiness, Design aesthetics
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
The banking sector has recently started to disseminate high-tech delivery channels. Mobile
banking represents one such channel, enabling customers to conduct transactions
conveniently and offering opportunities for banks to strengthen their relationships with
their customers (Berraies et al., 2017). However, this shift towards digital banking implies a
change in banks’ marketing models, making it important to understand its impact on
customer experience (Mbama and Ezepue, 2018) and research on mobile banking adoption
International Journal of Bank
(Chemingui and Ben Lallouna, 2013; Shaikh and Karjaluoto, 2015). Recent research on the Marketing
adoption of mobile banking has provided evidence for the role of important determinants Vol. 38 No. 1, 2020
pp. 219-241
such as ease-of-use (e.g. Lin, 2011; Mortimer et al., 2015; Shareef et al., 2018), convenience © Emerald Publishing Limited
0265-2323
(Gupta and Arora, 2017) or trust (Oliveira et al., 2014), but by focusing on such variables, DOI 10.1108/IJBM-03-2019-0100
IJBM it has left unidentified the specific characteristic of mobile banking applications that
38,1 explains these variables and ultimately adoption.
Another limitation in existing research lies in the lack of a clearly identified way for
banks to design mobile banking applications that provide value for customers, who
always search for products and services that maximise value (de Ruyter et al., 1997; Ruiz
et al., 2008; Zeithaml, 1988). Even though recent research has identified perceived value as
220 an important driver of mobile banking adoption (Arcand et al., 2017; Baptista and Oliveira,
2017; Berraies et al., 2017; Gupta and Arora, 2017), no explanation as to how these
applications can drive perceived value has so far been delivered, leaving bank managers
unable to effectively design applications that offer value. In light of resistance from
customers to adopt such new payment methods (Chemingui and Ben Lallouna, 2013;
Kleijnen et al., 2007), one may yet argue that this avoidance behaviour largely reflects the
inability of banks to understand the customer value creation process (Kleijnen et al., 2007;
Roig et al., 2006), while such institutions should become value providers by offering
differentiated products and services that create an enhanced customer experience
(Sánchez-Fernández and Iniesta-Bonillo, 2007).
We propose in this research that the design of the application could arise as an important
driver of perceived value and, consequently, adoption. Given the widely acknowledged role
of design in determining preferences (Liu et al., 2017) and facilitating interaction between
customers and products or services (Bloch, 1995; Oppenheimer, 2005), we suggest that the
examination of the value creation process in mobile banking may benefit from a design
aesthetics perspective. To this regard, two questions remain unanswered: do – and
how – design aesthetics of mobile banking applications create values for customers? And
how do those values shape intention to adopt mobile banking? To address these issues, this
research builds on environmental psychology (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974) and more
specifically on the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) model. Being the most widely
used framework for the examination of the effects of environmental stimuli during the
customers’ decision-making processes (Turley and Milliman, 2000), this model enables a
clear theoretical explanation of the effects of the design aesthetics of mobile banking
applications as a stimulus on perceived value and consequently on adoption intentions.
In addition, and due to its focus on the influence of design aesthetics in the value creation
process, this research also draws from the theory of consumption values (Sheth et al., 1991),
which suggests that values emerge as critical factors that enhance customers’ experience
(Berraies et al., 2017; Grönroos, 2006).
Nevertheless, these theoretical frameworks have not considered the effects of individual
differences that could lead customers to react differently to mobile banking design
aesthetics. Building on positive psychology (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) and prior
research showing that customers assess services depending on their levels of happiness
(Hellén and Sääksjärvi, 2011), this research argues that happiness may strengthen or
weaken the effects of design aesthetics on customers’ values. Such happiness – referring to
“an individual’s propensity to experience frequent positive emotions and infrequent
negative emotions” (Hellén and Sääksjärvi, 2011, p. 936) – is stable over time and across
situations, making it differing from emotions, which are more transient and not enduring
(Lyubomirsky and Lepper, 1999). As such, happiness is here suggested as an individual trait
that could explain consumers’ reactions to the design aesthetics of mobile applications on
perceived value and eventually adoption intentions.
This paper starts by reviewing research on customer values to identify the potential
aspects of values that design aesthetics can influence. Then, the positive psychology
literature presents happiness as an important variable that is predicted to moderate the
effects of design aesthetics on perceived values. The results are then presented. Finally,
the implications of our findings for research and for practitioners are discussed.
2. Theoretical background Mobile
2.1 Values and intention to adopt mobile banking banking
The notion of customer values represents a core concept in the marketing literature (Grönroos,
2006; Holbrook, 1999; Woodruff, 1997). Customers are constantly looking for value
optimisation, making it necessary for companies to understand the specific drivers of and
barriers to values (Kleijnen et al., 2007). While value first emerged as a concept focusing on the
costs and functional aspects associated with an offering (e.g. quality/price ratio) (Zeithaml, 221
1988), its conceptualisation has moved away from a unidimensional – only centring on
functional aspects – to a richer multidimensional lens (El-Adly and Eid, 2015; Gummerus,
2013; Sweeney and Soutar, 2001; Turel et al., 2007; Varshneya and Das, 2017). This view lies at
the core of the theory of consumption values (Sheth et al., 1991), which posits that customers
derive multiple values from their interaction with firms’ offerings – including banks. Of note,
the theory of consumption values has been acknowledged as the dominant theoretical lens in
the value literature (Sweeney and Soutar, 2001). This theory has proved its effectiveness in
many contexts such as online and offline retailing (Carlson et al., 2015; Kleijnen et al., 2007),
mobile social media (Carlson et al., 2019), wireless telecommunications industry (Karjaluoto
et al., 2012), offline financial services (Roig et al., 2009, 2013) and mobile banking (Berraies
et al., 2017). This multifaceted view identified different types of values (Berraies et al., 2017;
Roig et al., 2006; Sheth et al., 1991; Sweeney and Soutar, 2001; Karjaluoto et al., 2012) and
includes functional, emotional, social and epistemic values.
Functional value pertains to whether a product is able to perform its functional,
utilitarian or physical purposes (Sánchez-Fernández and Iniesta-Bonillo, 2007). This view is
grounded on the economic theory of the consumer and means-end theory and encompasses
all “rational and economic” assessments that are made by customers when appraising
product or service quality (Carlson et al., 2019). From the preceding, and building on
the notion that customers are motivated by the relative advantages and high quality of the
mobile banking application, functional value in this research will reflect the practical or
technical features derived from the usage of mobile banking (Berraies et al., 2017; Lin and
Bhattacherjee, 2010).
In addition to instrumental benefits, emotional value in the specific context of mobile
banking refers to “the fun, enjoyable, positive feeling and emotional responses aroused
during the use of mobile banking applications” (Sánchez-Fernández and Iniesta-Bonillo,
2007, p. 438). This particular aspect of value refers to the intrinsic enjoyment felt by
customers when they encounter an attractive mobile application (Zhou, 2012). An
aesthetically appealing application enhances customers’ hedonic experience as a human
biological and automatic response (Pham, 2004; Norman, 2004). Stated differently, the
attractiveness raises pleasure among customers, increasing their intention to adopt mobile
banking (Ha and Jang, 2010).
Besides functional and emotional values, customers acquire and consume products or
services to enhance their social image (Belk, 1988). Products or services can convey symbolic
meanings, and thereby are likely to mirror individuals’ status and enable them to construct a
positive social reputation (Varshneya and Das, 2017), and even respect and admiration in their
social environment (Lin and Bhattacherjee, 2010). Such social value – or “the utility
derived from the product’s ability to enhance social self-concept” (Sweeney and Soutar, 2001,
p. 278) – represents one of the most important factors in customers’ choices (Tian et al., 2001).
In this sense, when customers believe mobile banking is “a way of improvement of self-image,
expression of personality, or a categorization in a specific status” (Berraies et al., 2017, p. 1022),
they are likely to exhibit high intention to adopt this service.
Epistemic value is also suggested to play an important role concerning intention to adopt
mobile banking. It refers to “the capacity of the product or service to surprise, arouse
curiosity or satisfy the desire for knowledge” (Roig et al., 2006, p. 270) and is triggered
IJBM by customers’ intellectual curiosity or desire to search for novelty (Sánchez-Fernández and
38,1 Iniesta-Bonillo, 2007). The perception of epistemic value is consequential and purposeful to
many customers (Carlson et al., 2019), suggesting that epistemic value could determine
intention (Wu and Chang, 2016).
Considering what precedes, it is hypothesised that:
H1a. Functional value will have a positive effect on intention to adopt mobile banking.
222
H1b. Emotional value will have a positive effect on intention to adopt mobile banking.
H1c. Social value will have a positive effect on intention to adopt mobile banking.
H1d. Epistemic value will have a positive effect on intention to adopt mobile banking.

2.2 Values of mobile banking: an environmental psychology approach

The S–O–R framework from environmental psychology assumes that environmental
stimuli (scent or odour or colours, among others) influence customers’ internal states (called
organism) which in turn shape behaviour (response) (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974). The
attractiveness of environmental cues, as observable attributes, provides a positive halo for
other unobservable attributes (e.g. performance, quality and predictability) (Massicotte et al.,
2011; Morrison et al., 2011). This halo effect derives from the attractiveness of the
environmental stimuli leads customers to make inferences (i.e. judgements) about a specific
target (e.g. retailer, organisation, person, product and service) (Krishna, 2012). This
framework has been widely applied in different contexts ( for a review, see Turley and
Milliman, 2000), providing support for the effects environmental stimuli have on values and
choices (Babin and Attaway, 2000). In the online shopping context, Ganguly et al. (2010)
confirmed this halo effect by showing the positive effect of website design components on
purchase intentions. In the same vein, Cyr et al. (2018) provided evidence for the role of
website design elements on attitude. Consistent with the S–O–R framework, Eroglu et al.
(2001) provided evidence for the role of affective and cognitive internal states in the impact
of online atmospheric cues on shopping outcomes. In the context of mobile retailing, Cyr
et al. (2006) showed that design aesthetics influence mobile loyalty through the intervening
effects of the cognitive states of perceived usefulness, perceived ease-of-use and trust.
Applying the S–O–R framework to the context of mobile banking applications – and in
light of research showing that judgements regarding usability and overall impressions can be
formed very quickly ( fewer than 50 milliseconds) and stable over time (Tuch et al., 2012) – we
propose that customers may use design aesthetics as signals that “inform” them about the
usefulness and usability of the application. Design has a communicative function (Haug, 2016),
which enables customers to decide on different aspects, such as how the product/service
operates or whether it can satisfy their needs (Veryzer, 1995). Customers may thus use design
aesthetics to draw some inferences regarding the functional value of the application, or its
perceived utility resulting from its inherent ability to perform utilitarian purposes (Sheth et al.,
1991). Related to this in the context of health portals, Sillence et al. (2006) observed that poor
design of a highly utilitarian service resulted in customers either rejecting or not trusting the
portal. Given what precedes, it is expected that design aesthetics positively influences
functional value. Therefore:
H2a. Design aesthetics will have a positive effect on functional value.
With respect to emotional value, customers “can value the ‘look’ of a product purely for its
own sake, as looking at something beautiful is rewarding in itself” (Creusen and
Schoormans, 2005, p. 65). Accordingly, an aesthetically appealing mobile banking
application facilitates the creation of enjoyable experience (Walls, 2013). Research suggests
that an attractive design has the power of eliciting physiological customers’ visceral Mobile
responses in the form of pleasure (Pham, 2004). Given the effects of design aesthetics on banking
emotions (Cai and Xu, 2011; Liu and Jang, 2009), it may be likely that an attractive mobile
banking application enhances customers’ subjective experience by generating joy and
pleasure (Cai and Xu, 2011; Wang et al., 2010). By doing so, design aesthetics may contribute
to the anticipated emotional value derived from the mobile banking application, or its
perceived ability to arouse or perpetuate feelings or affective states (Sheth et al., 1991). 223
Therefore, it is hypothesised the following:
H2b. Design aesthetics will have a positive effect on emotional value.
Besides utility and emotions, products and services deliver symbolic images (Belk, 1988).
This notion is supported by evidence showing that customers’ behaviour is highly
motivated by the desire for uniqueness (Parsons et al., 2014). Due to their newness in terms
of functions or design, products or services are perceived as unique and thus associated
with “social image, identification, social self-concept, expression of personality and pursuit
of class membership” (Karjaluoto et al., 2012, p. 638). Symbolic association – or “the
perception of what a product [or service] says about its owner or user” (Crilly et al., 2004,
p. 552) – may occur between the product/service and the customer through its design (Bloch
et al., 2003). In this vein, mobile banking allows customers to project a social identity by
making a favourable impression and improve the way they are perceived by others
(Sweeney and Soutar, 2001). Hence, design aesthetics may lead customers to anticipate
higher social value resulting from the image and symbolism conveyed by the application
(Sheth et al., 1991). Therefore, it is predicted the following:
H2c. Design aesthetics will have a positive effect on social value.
High levels of attractiveness enhance cognitive and sensory stimulation among people,
leading them to search for excitement and explore novel experience (Lin and Worthley,
2012; Sheth et al., 1991; Wang et al., 2012) in order to satisfy their intellectual curiosity or
novelty-seeking motives (Sánchez-Fernández and Iniesta-Bonillo, 2007). Offering mobile
banking applications which embed design aesthetics and include new screen features such
as colours, music, menus and animations may thus be likely to stimulate customers’
curiosity and desire to search for novelty (Roig et al., 2006). Accordingly, customers are
likely to derive epistemic value from the design aesthetics of mobile banking applications.
In other words, such value results from the ability of attractiveness to arouse curiosity,
provide novelty or satisfy the desire for knowledge (Creusen and Schoormans, 2005; El-Adly
and Eid, 2016; Sheth et al., 1991). Thus, it is hypothesised that:
H2d. Design aesthetics will have a positive effect on epistemic value.

3. Positive psychology: the moderating role of happiness

The current research assumes that the effects of design aesthetics on customers’ values may
differ across people. Thus, it is useful to consider how these differences may impact the effects
of design aesthetics (Koo and Ju, 2010). In fact, previous studies support this view showing
that individual differences such as the tendency to innovate (Celhay and Trinquecoste, 2015),
visualising/verbalising tendency (Holbrook, 1986) or involvement (Eroglu et al., 2003) do
modify customers’ responsiveness to design aesthetics. In this vein, happiness may influence
customers’ responses – and thus perceptions of values – to mobile banking design aesthetics.
Indeed, happiness, which is “as an individual’s propensity to experience frequent positive
emotions and infrequent negative emotions” (Hellén and Sääksjärvi, 2011, p. 936) comes into
play in the process of service evaluation (Hellén and Sääksjärvi, 2011) and is particularly
relevant when making financial and banking decisions (Guven, 2012).
IJBM Another theoretical rationale for predicting the moderating role of happiness lies in the
38,1 notion that happiness influences user perceptions and emotions related to attractiveness
(Hills et al., 2011; Schwartz, 2004). Furthermore, prior studies show that customers make
inferences and judgements depending on their levels of happiness (Isen, 2001). People who
are happy tend to “see the world through rose-colored glasses,” expect that they will
encounter favourable events, have high confidence in their intuitions and choices, believe
224 that their decisions lead to positive outcomes and are optimistic and flexible (Areni et al.,
2000; Forgas and East, 2008; Menon and Kahn, 2002; Myers, 2000). By contrast, people who
are less happy are more sceptical about the future outcomes of their decisions, believe that
they will encounter unfavourable events and are less self-confident, risk-averse and
pessimistic (Areni et al., 2000; Forgas and East, 2008; Menon and Kahn, 2002; Myers, 2000).
Hellén and Sääksjärvi (2011) posit that happy people evaluate one given service more
favourably compared to those who are less happy. Hence, people who are happy expect
more favourable outcomes from the mobile banking design aesthetics and thus perceive
greater functional value, as compared with those who are less happy.
Furthermore, happy people tend to enjoy more attractive stimuli, while those who are
less happy are more difficult to please (Hellén and Sääksjärvi, 2011). Design aesthetics might
thus lead to greater emotional value for those who are happy. Also, because happy
individuals are more concerned with their social identity and peer acceptance (Forgas and
East, 2008), it is expected there will be a greater effect of design aesthetics on social value for
such individuals. In addition, customers who are happy are more curious and stimulated by
novelty, unfamiliar and atypical stimuli, while those who are less happy are less open to new
ideas and less interested in exploration behaviours (Wang et al., 2012; Raju, 1980). Thus,
those who are happy might derive epistemic value from design aesthetics more than those
who are less happy. In sum, it is expected that happiness moderates the extent to which
customers derive values from design aesthetics. More precisely, customers who are happy
(vs less happy) are expected to derive more value from design aesthetics. Thus, we propose:
H3. Happiness will moderate the effects of design aesthetics on (a) functional value, (b)
emotional value, (c) social value and (d) epistemic value, such that the effects will be
stronger for those who are happy and weaker for those who are less happy.
The preceding hypotheses lead to a theoretical model as shown in Figure 1.

4. Method
4.1 Procedure
Because this research focuses on the effects of design aesthetics on intention to adopt
mobile banking, we chose to perform the study among individuals who have not yet

Functional value

Emotional value
Design Intention
aesthetics to adopt
Social value

Epistemic value

Figure 1.
The theoretical model Happiness
adopted such a service (i.e. reduce familiarity bias). Therefore, the choice was made to Mobile
perform the current study among real bank customers in Tunisia, a country seen as a banking
promising location for the investigation of the effects of aesthetics. The first reason for
this choice lies in that mobile banking is not well diffused in Tunisia, as opposed to other
countries such as North American and European countries (Chemingui and Ben Lallouna,
2013), likely ensuring respondents are not familiar with such a mobile banking
application. Second, the use of visually appealing mobile banking applications is relatively 225
new in this country, which makes the comprehension of the effects of design aesthetics
much more accurate and thus insightful compared to other countries where bank
customers may already be familiar with enhanced designs.
We began by conducting a pilot study to select among the set of existing real mobile
banking applications the three that were perceived the most appealing in order to use
them as stimuli in the main survey. One application per bank was thus selected as each
Tunisian retail bank proposed one mobile banking application. This selection involved
two rounds. In the first round, five experts – specifically, programmers and developers of
websites and mobile applications – were involved to select the seven most aesthetically
appealing mobile banking applications based on their technical knowledge. They removed
USSD technology and poorly designed applications. In the second round, 76 raters were
enroled to rank the selected mobile banking applications from the most aesthetically
appealing (Rank 1) to the least aesthetically appealing (Rank 7). These raters were
recruited via an online survey company, and did not participate in the main study.
In addition, we verified whether there was a significant statistical consistency between
the raters (not randomly ranked), using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (Kendall’s W ),
which “takes the maximum value 1 when there is complete agreement, and the minimum
value zero when there is no agreement” (Sprent and Smeeton, 2007, p. 305). The results were
satisfactory (Kendall’s W ¼ 0.871, χ² ¼ 397.190, df ¼ 6, and p ¼ 0.000), allowing the
identification of the three applications that were ranked to most appealing and to be used as
stimuli in the study. In the main survey, following previous research that used pictorial
stimuli (Bateson and Hui, 1992), participants were thus asked online to observe one
screenshot of the real mobile banking application of his or her bank.

4.2 Sample
This research used an online survey company to collect data, in line with currently
accepted research practices (Gowanit et al., 2016; Souiden et al., 2019). The participants
selected for the study were at least 18 years old. They were required to hold an account at
one of three selected banks. Another requirement was that none of the participants had
been exposed to any mobile banking applications at the time of the study to remove
any familiarity biases. The sample for this study was composed of 281 respondents.
Table AII summarises the sample characteristics: 50.9 per cent of the respondents
were male and 29.5 per cent were in the 30–39 age group. In addition, 58.4 per cent of the
sample had an undergraduate degree and 49.8 per cent of respondents were employees of
the private sector.

4.3 Measures
All measures were drawn and adapted from prior studies and use multi-item scales.
Intention to adopt mobile banking was measured using a three-item scale (AbuShanab and
Pearson, 2007). Then, functional value and social value were adapted from Karjaluoto et al.
(2012), emotional value from Carlson et al. (2019) and epistemic value from Pura (2005).
Happiness was measured from Lyubomirsky and Lepper (1999). Table AIII provides a
description of the multi-item measures.
IJBM 5. Results
38,1 The theoretical model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling
(PLS-SEM, SmartPLS 3), as this technique has minimum demands regarding normality
assumptions and sample size (Hair et al., 2012, 2014). First, we assess the measurement
model and then the structural model.

226 5.1 Multicolinearity and confound variables

Multicolinearity was first checked. All variance inflation factor values are well below the
cutoff value of 10 (Hair et al., 2014). Thus, multicollinearity is not an issue in this research
(Hair et al., 2014). Furthermore, we controlled the effects of psychographic variables (age,
gender, education, occupation and income) since previous research suggests them (e.g.
Meuter et al., 2003). In addition, we controlled the effect of satisfaction towards the bank,
given that the participants were actual bank customers and rated the application of
their own bank. Moreover, we controlled the effect of being a customer of a specific bank
(because we have different banks). This analysis reveals that all control variables have non-
significant effects. Furthermore, ANOVAs indicate that there are no significant differences
between customers’ perceptions (i.e. design aesthetics, values, intentions and happiness)
across the three bank applications (F DA(2, 278) ¼ 0.158, p W0.05; FFUV(2, 278) ¼ 0.297,
p W0.05; FEMV(2, 278) ¼ 0.735, p W0.05; FSOV(2, 278) ¼ 0.650, pW 0.05; FEPV(2, 278) ¼ 0.595,
p W0.05; FIA(2, 278) ¼ 0.672, p W0.05; and FHAP(2, 278) ¼ 0.794, p W0.05). Moreover, we did
not find differences between customers’ psychographics across banks (w2gender ¼ 3:027,
df ¼ 2, p W 0.05; w2age ¼ 15:304, df ¼ 8, p W 0.05; w2education ¼ 2:065, df ¼ 4, p W 0.05;
w2occupation ¼ 4:982, df ¼ 4, pW 0.05; and w2income ¼ 3:614, df ¼ 8, p ¼ W0.05). Therefore, the
bank application was not considered as a potential confound variable.

5.2 The measurement model

All factor loadings were greater than 0.7 and statistically significant at the p o0.01 level
(see Table I). In addition, each composite reliability was well above the threshold of 0.7
(Hair et al., 2014) and each Cronbach’s α was above the recommended threshold of
0.7. Overall, these results lend support to the constructs’ reliability and validity (Hair et al.,
2014). Discriminant validity was then checked. The square root of each construct’s average
variance extracted is greater than its correlations with all other constructs (Fornell and
Larcker, 1981; Table II).

5.3 The structural model

Results from the structural model revealed that the research framework explained 80.8
per cent of the variance in intention to adopt mobile banking. Further, the model explained
44.8 per cent of the variance in functional value, 50.2 per cent of the variance in emotional
value, 57 per cent of the variance in social value and 40.2 per cent of the variance in
epistemic value. In addition, Stone–Geisser’s Q2 values were assessed (Geisser, 1974; Stone,
1974). This Q2 criterion helps assess the model’s predictive relevance and is calculated using
the cross-validated redundancy approach of the blindfolding procedure (Hair et al., 2014).
Values above 0 show that the model has predictive relevance (Hair et al., 2014). Since the
model yielded Q2 values that were well above 0 – more specifically, Q2 ¼ 0.362 for functional
value, Q2 ¼ 0.394 for emotional value, Q2 ¼ 0.455 for social value, Q2 ¼ 0.309 for epistemic
value and Q2 ¼ 0.661 for intention to adopt mobile banking – the model was considered as
having high predictive relevance.
Turning to hypotheses testing, results revealed positive effects of functional value
(β ¼ 0.324; t ¼ 5.482; p o0.001), emotional value (β ¼ 0.205; t ¼ 4.286; p o0.001), social value
(β ¼ 0.274; t ¼ 3.537; p o0.001) and epistemic value (β ¼ 0.222; t ¼ 4.306; p o0.001) on
 Loadings CA CR AVE
Mobile
banking
DA 0.901 0.932 0.776
DA1 0.748
DA2 0.917
DA3 0.929
DA4 0.915
FUV 0.918 0.948 0.859 227
FUV1 0.938
FUV2 0.949
FUV3 0.894
EMV 0.901 0.938 0.835
EMV1 0.891
EMV2 0.905
EMV3 0.945
SOV 0.908 0.942 0.845
SOV1 0.943
SOV2 0.922
SOV3 0.892
EPV 0.894 0.934 0.825
EPV1 0.875
EPV2 0.910
EPV3 0.938
HAP 0.878 0.892 0.677
HAP1 0.726
HAP2 0.709
HAP3 0.847
HAP4 0.981
IA 0.925 0.953 0.870
IA1 0.933
Table I.
IA2 0.953
Factor loadings,
IA3 0.912 Cronbach’s α,
Notes: DA, design aesthetics; FUV, functional value; EMV, emotional value; SOV, social value; EPV, composite reliability
epistemic value; IA, intention to adopt mobile banking; CA, Cronbach’s α; CR, composite reliability; and AVE, and average variance
average variance extracted extracted

DA FUV EMV SOV EPV HAP IA

FUV 0.637 0.927

EMV 0.692 0.648 0.914
SOV 0.732 0.744 0.761 0.919
EPV 0.618 0.589 0.635 0.744 0.908
HAP 0.078 0.063 0.082 0.098 0.038 0.823
IA 0.715 0.792 0.765 0.836 0.747 0.121 0.933
Notes: DA, design aesthetics; FUV, functional value; EMV, emotional value; SOV, social value; EPV, Table II.
epistemic value; IA, intention to adopt mobile banking. Italic values indicates the square root of AVE Discriminant validity

intention to adopt mobile banking, supporting H1a–H1d. Likewise, design aesthetics were
found to have significant positive effects on functional value (β ¼ 0.577; t ¼ 13.671;
p o0.001), emotional value (β ¼ 0.649; t ¼ 16.780; p o0.001), social value (β ¼ 0.674;
t ¼ 16.118; p o0.001) and epistemic value (β ¼ 0.579; t ¼ 13.489; p o0.001). Overall, these
results bring support to H2a–H2d. Table III provides a summary of the results.
IJBM Path β t-statistic p-value f2 Conclusion
38,1
Main effects
FUV → IA 0.324 5.482 po 0.001 0.236 Supported
EMV → IA 0.205 4.286 po 0.001 0.087 Supported
SOV → IA 0.274 3.537 po 0.001 0.098 Supported
EPV → IA 0.222 4.306 po 0.001 0.112 Supported
228 DA → FUV 0.577 13.671 po 0.001 0.554 Supported
DA → EMV 0.649 16.780 po 0.001 0.782 Supported
DA → SOV 0.674 16.118 po 0.001 0.962 Supported
DA → EPV 0.579 13.489 po 0.001 0.516 Supported
Interaction terms
DA × HAP → FUV 0.199 3.604 po 0.001 0.076 Supported
DA × HAP → EMV 0.144 4.667 po 0.001 0.045 Supported
DA × HAP → SOV 0.177 2.504 po 0.05 0.076 Supported
DA × HAP → EPV 0.136 2.407 po 0.05 0.033 Supported
R2 (%) Q2
FUV 44.8 0.362
EMV 50.2 0.394
SOV 57 0.455
EPV 40.2 0.309
IA 80.8 0.661
Table III.
Path coefficients Notes: DA, design aesthetics; FUV, functional value; EMV, emotional value; SOV, social value; EPV,
and summary epistemic value; HAP, happiness; IA, intention to adopt mobile banking. The effects of happiness on all
of the results dimensions of value were significant

Besides the calculation of path coefficients and their significance, the f2 were computed.
This criterion assesses an exogenous construct’s contribution to an endogenous latent
variable’s R2 value (Hair et al., 2014). Since f2 values of 0.02, 0.15 and 0.35 indicate an
exogenous construct’s small, medium or large effect, respectively, on an endogenous
construct (Hair et al., 2014), the effect of functional value ( f2 ¼ 0.236) on intention to adopt
mobile banking f2 was here considered moderate, while the effect sizes of emotional value
( f2 ¼ 0.087), social value ( f2 ¼ 0.098) and epistemic value ( f2 ¼ 0.112) were smaller. Design
aesthetics had large effect sizes on the functional value ( f2 ¼ 0.554), emotional value
( f2 ¼ 0.782) social value ( f2 ¼ 0.962) and epistemic value ( f2 ¼ 0.516).
Furthermore, and turning to the test of the moderating role of happiness, results
revealed a significant positive interacting effect of design aesthetics and happiness on
functional value (β ¼ 0.199; t ¼ 3.604; p o 0.001), emotional value (β ¼ 0.144; t ¼ 4.667;
p o 0.001), social value ( β ¼ 0.177; t ¼ 2.504; p o 0.05) and epistemic value (β ¼ 0.136;
t ¼ 2.407; p o 0.05). Thus, H3a–H3d were all supported. Regarding the values of f2 for
moderating effects of happiness, values of 0.005, 0.01 and 0.025 represent small, medium
and large effect sizes (Aguinis et al., 2005). Hence, the effect sizes of the interaction term
between design aesthetics and happiness were all considered large on all different values,
with f2’s of 0.076, 0.045, 0.076 and 0.033 for functional value, emotional value, social value
and epistemic value, respectively.
Furthermore, a simple slope analysis was performed to visualise the two-way interaction
effect and to get a better understanding of the effects of design aesthetics on functional value,
emotional value, social value and epistemic value under different levels of happiness. As
indicated by Figure 2, a similar pattern is observed for different types of values, with positive
effects of design aesthetics for average (the red lines), high (green lines, MHappiness + 1 SD) and
low (blue lines, MHappiness − 1 SD) levels of happiness. Furthermore, the effects of design
 DA × HAP (FUV) DA × HAP (EMV) Mobile
0.75 0.75
banking
0.50 0.50

0.25 0.25

EMV
FUV

0.00 0.00
229
–0.25 –0.25

–0.50 –0.50

–0.75 –0.75

–1.00 –0.75 –0.50 –0.25 0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 –1.00 –0.75 –0.50 –0.25 0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00
DA DA
HAP at –1 SD HAP at Mean HAP at +1 SD HAP at –1 SD HAP at Mean HAP at +1 SD

DA × HAP (SOV) DA × HAP (EPV)

0.75
0.75
0.50
0.50
0.25
0.25
SOV

EPV

0.00
0.00

–0.25 –0.25

–0.50 –0.50

–0.75
–0.75

–1.00 –0.75 –0.50 –0.25 0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 –1.00 –0.75 –0.50 –0.25 0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 Figure 2.
DA DA The moderating role
HAP at –1 SD HAP at Mean HAP at +1 SD HAP at –1 SD HAP at Mean HAP at +1 SD of happiness in the
effects of design
Notes: DA, design aesthetics; FUV, functional value; EMV, emotional value; SOV, social value; aesthetics on values
EPV, epistemic value; HAP, happiness; and IA, intention to adopt mobile banking

aesthetics were stronger (βDA→Functional V. ¼ 0.577+0.199 ¼ 0.776; βDA→Emotional V. ¼ 0.649+

0.144 ¼ 0.793; βDA → Social V. ¼ 0.674+0.177 ¼ 0.851; βDA → Epistemic V. ¼ 0.579+0.136 ¼ 0.715)
for customers who are happy (+1 SD), as opposed to those who are less happy (−1 SD),
(βDA→Functional V. ¼ 0.577−0.199 ¼ 0.378; βDA→Emotional V. ¼ 0.649−0.144 ¼ 0.505; βDA→Social
V. ¼ 0.674−0.177 ¼ 0.497; βDA→Epistemic V. ¼ 0.579−0.136 ¼ 0.443). Moreover, the simple slope
plot analysis shows that the green lines – which represented high levels of happiness – have
steeper slopes than blue lines, which were associated with low levels of happiness. All in all,
the moderating effects of happiness are confirmed. That is, higher levels of happiness induce
stronger positive effects of design aesthetics than lower levels of happiness. Therefore, these
results further support H3a–H3d.
Turning to the test of the mediating role of perceived value, a mediation analysis was
performed to see whether values ( functional value, emotional value, social value and
epistemic value) fully or partially mediate the effects of design aesthetics on intention to
adopt mobile banking. We used the bootstrapping procedure which is more appropriate
than the Sobel test because it is less restrictive regarding the normal distribution (the
normal distribution is required by the Sobel test) (Hair et al., 2017; Preacher and Hayes, 2004,
2008). Table IV shows that all indirect effects are significant (βDA → FUV → IA ¼ 0.20, 95%
CI ¼ (0.140; 0.279); βDA → EMV → IA ¼ 0.12, 95% CI ¼ (0.067; 0.202); βDA → SOV → IA ¼ 0.18,
IJBM 95% CI ¼ (0.080; 0.289); and βDA → EPV → IA ¼ 0.13, 95% CI ¼ (0.070; 0.186)). In addition, the
38,1 direct effect of design aesthetics on intention is non-significant (β ¼ 0.07, 95% CI ¼ (−0.019;
0.150)). Accordingly, functional value, emotional value, social value and epistemic value
fully mediate the effects of design aesthetics on intention to adopt mobile banking.

6. Discussion
230 This research started by asking the question if design aesthetics could represent a
particular characteristic of mobile banking applications able to influence customer adoption
of such a device. As such, and more specifically, this research aimed to examine if design
aesthetics could determine intention to adopt mobile banking through the mediating role of
perceived value. An additional question pertained to the potential moderating role played by
happiness. To answer the first question and thus to examine the effect of design aesthetics
questions on perceived value, this research built upon the S–O–R model from environmental
psychology and the theory of consumption values. Then, this research relied on positive
psychology to examine the predicted moderating role of happiness. From a quantitative
empirical study, this research offers important theoretical and managerial implications,
which are presented below.

6.1 Contributions to literature on value, design aesthetics and happiness

Extant research has so far paid little attention to the effect of design aesthetics on
customers’ reactions (specifically, perceived value) in the context of mobile banking, with
the exception of Sahoo and Pillai (2017), who explore the effect of mobile banking service on
customer attitude and engagement. The current research posited that customers could
derive value from design aesthetics. A first contribution of this research thus relates to the
role played by design aesthetics in the process of value creation. Our results show that
design aesthetics strongly predict functional value, emotional value, social value and
epistemic value. The high f2 values lend further credence to the inclusion of design
aesthetics as a key factor in the determination of values and are consistent with previous
literature (Cai and Xu, 2011; Cyr et al., 2006; El-Adly and Eid, 2016; Liu and Jang, 2009).
Also, because value is shaped by design aesthetics and influences intention to adopt mobile
banking, this research study brings insight to the extant literature by explaining how
customers derive values from design aesthetics of mobile banking applications.
Additionally, this work provides a better understanding of the role played by design
aesthetics in the pre-adoption stage.
A second theoretical implication relates to our results showing that customers’
intention to adopt mobile banking is strongly shaped by customers’ perceived value. This
notion is evidenced by the substantial variance in intention that is explained by
customers’ functional value, emotional value, social value and epistemic value. These
results are consistent with previous research emphasising the importance of values in

IE 95% CI of IE Sig DE 95% CI of DE Sig S M

DA → FUV → IA 0.20 (0.140; 0.279) Yes FM

DA → EMV → IA 0.12 (0.067; 0.202) Yes
DA → SOV → IA 0.18 (0.080; 0.289) Yes
DA → EPV → IA 0.13 (0.070; 0.186) Yes
DA → IA 0.07 (−0.019; 0.150) No +
Notes: DA, design aesthetics; FUV, functional value; EMV, emotional value; SOV, social value; EPV,
Table IV. epistemic value; IA, intention to adopt mobile banking; IE, indirect effect; CI, confidence interval; Sig,
Mediation analysis significance; DE, direct effect; S, sign of IE×DE; M, mediation; and FM, full mediation
customers’ decision making (Berraies et al., 2017; Mathwick et al., 2001, 2002; Sweeney and Mobile
Soutar, 2001). In addition, the use of a multidimensional conceptualization sheds light on banking
how each value individually contributes to the variance observed in intention to adopt
mobile banking. Although mobile banking could be seen as predominantly utilitarian, this
research highlights that besides functional value, other types of values (emotional value,
social value and epistemic value) can also shape customers’ choice, as suggested in
previous research (Berraies et al., 2017; Carlson et al., 2019; Roig et al., 2006; Sweeney and 231
Soutar, 2001).
An additional important theoretical contribution is related to the identification of
happiness as an individual difference that explains why customers are more or less sensitive
to design aesthetics. While extant research assumes that all customers value design (e.g.
Bloch, 1995), our research shows that happiness moderates the effects of design aesthetics
on values bringing further support to the notion that individuals vary in their responses to
design aesthetics (Celhay and Trinquecoste, 2015; Holbrook, 1986). We, therefore, question
the notion that attractive stimuli (e.g. persons, places, atmospherics, products, and services)
should convey strong and favourable internal processes in everyone, and as such always
induce adoption and approach behaviour. Such a halo effect is widely accepted without
explicit criticism (Dion et al., 1972). By identifying the moderating role of happiness, we
provide evidence that attractiveness – even though it has positive effects – can also trigger
less pronounced effects.

6.2 Managerial contributions

This research shows that functional value, emotional value, social value and epistemic value
shape intention to adopt mobile banking. In addition, it demonstrates that customers derive
those values from design aesthetics. Accordingly, the latter concept arises as a crucial factor
to encourage banks to be value providers. Thus, bank engineers and designers should strive
to improve the aesthetic appeal of mobile banking applications so as to enhance customers’
values. In other words, banks should take advantage of design aesthetics as a seduction
tactic. To this end, designers can embed dynamic pictures and other entertaining cues in
banking applications.
The integration of happiness as a moderating variable makes this research unique.
Indeed, high levels of happiness are found to amplify the effects of design aesthetics on
customers’ values, while high levels of happiness tend to weaken such effects. Thus,
banks should use aesthetics with caution, in line with previous research (Cyr et al., 2018;
Lunardo and Roux, 2015). In some cases, moderately or normally attractive stimuli are
more effective than highly attractive design elements among some individuals (Bower and
Landreth, 2001; Dommeyer, 2008). Other studies demonstrated that attractive stimuli may
produce adverse effects (Buunk and Dijkstra, 2011; Lunardo and Roux, 2015).
Consequently, to be most effective, banks should consider tailoring the level of design
aesthetics in banking applications according to the levels of their customers’ happiness.
In this way, happiness acts as a segmenting variable (Sandy et al., 2013). More specifically,
banks should use highly attractive mobile banking application for customers who are
happy. In this case, designers are encouraged to include highly attractive screen features
such as colours, menus and animations in order to get strong customer responses.
For example, previous research found that colour appeal was a significant determinant of
website trust and satisfaction (Cyr et al., 2010). In addition, perceived interactivity
resulted in user perceptions of efficiency, effectiveness, enjoyment and trust (Cyr, Head
and Ivanov, 2009). Alternately, banks may best please their customers who are less
happy if they use a normally attractive mobile banking application. In this instance, the
banking application may use fewer colours and images, static (not animated) menus and
classical icons.
IJBM 7. Limitations and future avenues
38,1 This research has limitations that call for future research on the topic of design aesthetics in
mobile banking. First, the results here derive from a convenience sample, which may limit the
generalisability of the findings. In addition, this study is undertaken in Tunisia, a country
with a specific banking context. Specifically, offering attractive mobile banking applications
can be seen as original compared to other countries where customers are already familiar with
232 attractive mobile banking applications. Considering that differences as to how users perceive
websites vary across cultures (Cyr, Head, Larios and Pan, 2009), further research may gain
examining the effects of design aesthetics in other countries. Specifically, examining how the
effects of design aesthetics differ across countries that contrast in terms of customer
familiarity with such applications appear appealing to provide banks with more tailored
guidelines as to how design effective mobile applications for specific countries or cultures.
Second, this research employed a cross-sectional investigation, while adopting a
longitudinal survey may shed some lights on the dynamics that are likely to occur between
constructs over time. For example, the effects of design aesthetics on social value and
epistemic value may vanish through ongoing use. Also, this cross-sectional study focused
on design aesthetics, while other characteristics of mobile application applications – such as
navigational design and information content – may be integrated to better understand what
contributes to create value for customers (Ganguly et al., 2010). Along with this comment,
other moderators that may strengthen or alleviate the effects of design aesthetics on values
should be addressed, such as need for cognition and persuasion knowledge. Related to this
latter point, Cyr et al. (2018) found differences between users with higher and lower
knowledge of a topic and whether website design elements resulted in attitude change. In
addition, an attractive design may stimulate customers’ persuasion knowledge and thus
generates less pronounced or even counterproductive effects (Lunardo and Roux, 2015).

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Appendix 1

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 Total scorea Mean rank Overall rank

b
A
Freq. 2 15 53 5 1 – – 392 2.84 3 (S)
% 2.63 19.74 69.74 6.58 1.31 – –
B
Freq. – – – 1 2 24 49 107 6.59 7
% – – – 1.31 2.63 31.58 64.48
C
Freq. 62 8 6 – – – – 512 1.26 1 (S)
% 81.58 10.52 7.9 – – – –
D
Freq. – – – 15 44 9 8 218 5.13 5
% – – – 19.74 57.9 11.84 10.52
E
Freq. – – – – 19 42 15 156 5.95 6
% – – – – 25 55.26 19.74
F
Freq. 1 2 5 53 10 1 4 292 4.16 4
% 1.31 2.63 6.58 69.74 13.16 1.31 5.27
G
Freq. 11 51 12 2 – – – 451 2.07 2 (S)
% 14.48 67.1 15.79 2.63 – – –
Table AI. Notes: R, rank; Freq., frequency; %, percentage; (S), selected as stimuli for the main study; and A, B, C, D, E, F
The rankings of the and G refer to mobile banking applications (anonymously displayed). aThe score is a weighted calculation;
mobile banking items ranked first are given a higher value or “weight”; the score, computed for each answer option/row
applications header, is the sum of all the weighted values. bdue to ethical and confidential issues, this research uses Latin
(pilot study) letters to keep the banks and their mobile applications anonymous
Appendix 2 Mobile
banking

Items Frequency Percentage

Gender
Male 143 50.9 239
Female 138 49.1
Age
18–29 57 20.4
30–39 83 29.5
40–49 74 26.3
50–59 58 20.6
60+ 9 3.2
Education
High school degree 62 22.1
Undergraduate degree 164 58.4
Postgraduate degree 55 19.5
Occupation
Public sector 89 31.7
Private sector 140 49.8
Others 52 18.5
Monthly income
o499 TND 71 25.2
500–999 TND 87 31 Table AII.
1,000–1,499 TND 77 27.4 The sample
1,500TND+ 46 16.4 characteristics
IJBM Appendix 3
38,1

Constructs Items Sources

Design aesthetics DA1: the screen design (i.e. colours, boxes, menus, etc.) is Cyr et al. (2006)
240 attractive
DA2: this MBA looks professionally designed
DA3: the graphics are meaningful
DA4: the overall look and feel of this MBA is visually appealing
Functional value FUV1: this MBA would always deliver superior quality Karjaluoto et al.
FUV2: the offerings of this MBA would be of high quality (2012)
FUV3: this MBA would have consistent quality
Emotional value EMV1: this MBA would entertain me Carlson et al. (2019)
EMV: this MBA would be very enjoyable
EMV3: I would have fun when I use this MBA
Social value SOV1: this MBA would improve the way I am perceived Karjaluoto et al.
SOV2: this MBA would help me make a good impression on (2012)
other people
SOV3: this MBA would give me social approval
Epistemic value EPV1: this MBA would allow me to experiment with new ways of Pura (2005)
doing banking transactions
EPV2: this MBA would be an opportunity to test a new
technology
EPV3: this MBA would be out of curiosity
Intention to adopt IA1: I intend to adopt this MBA in the next few months AbuShanab and
mobile banking IA2: I predict that I would adopt this MBA in the next few months Pearson (2007)
IA3: I plan to adopt this MBA in the next few months
Happiness HAP1: in general, I consider myself (not a very happy person/a Lyubomirsky and
very happy person) Lepper (1999)
HAP2: compared with most of my peers, I consider myself (less
happy/more happy)
HAP3: some people are generally very happy. They enjoy life
regardless of what is going on, getting the most out of everything.
To what extent does this characterisation describe you? (not at
all/a great deal)
HAP4: some people are generally not very happy. Although they
are not depressed, they never seem as happy as they might be. To
what extent does this characterisation describe you? (not at all/a
Table AIII. great deal) (R)
The measures used Notes: MBA, mobile banking application; (R), reverse coded. Further, the original items for happiness as used
in the study in this research from Lyubomirsky and Lepper (1999) do focus on happiness as a trait rather than an outcome

About the authors

Walid Chaouali held a Doctorate Degree from the Faculty of Economics and Management of Sfax,
University of Sfax, Tunisia. He is Member of the Applied Research in Business Relationships and
Economics at the High Institute of Management, Tunis University, Tunisia as well as Member of a
Research Group on Customers’ Experience and Social Media at Laval University, Canada. His research
interests include customer adoption of information technology, online consumer behaviour and
services marketing. His main publications have appeared in Journal of Retailing and Consumer
Services, International of Journal of Bank Marketing, Telematics and Informatics and Journal of High
Technology Management Research.
Renaud Lunardo is Associate Professor of Marketing at KEDGE Business School (Bordeaux) since
2011. He has been Visiting Scholar at Louisiana Tech, HEC Montreal and Duke University.
His expertise is in retailing and focuses on the influence on atmospherics on consumer behaviour.
His research has received numerous awards and has been published in international journals including
Journal of Retailing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Mobile
Psychology & Marketing, European Journal of Marketing and Journal of Marketing Management. banking
Renaud Lunardo is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: renaud.lunardo@kedgebs.com
Dr Imene Ben Yahia is Associate Professor in marketing at the High School of Commerce of Tunis.
She is Member of the Applied Research in Business Relationship and Economics at the High Institute
of Management in Tunis, Tunis University, Tunisia. She holds her PhD Degree from Paris Dauphine
University in 2009. Dr Imene has held academic positions in France, Qatar and Tunisia. Her research
interests include social media, knowledge management and consumer empowerment. His main 241
publications have appeared in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Journal of Decision Systems,
Management & Avenir, The Journal of High Technology Management Research, International Journal
of Customer Relationship Marketing and Management, Recherches en Sciences de Gestion, International
Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, Management International and Recherches en Sciences
de Gestion.
Dr Dianne Cyr is Professor in the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University in
Vancouver, Canada. Her research is focused on how trust, satisfaction and loyalty are built in online
business environments through website design. Unique elements of this research concern how design
preferences differ across cultures or related to gender. She is the author of four books and over 100
research articles. Collectively, these works have been cited over 6,000 times on Google Scholar. Journal
publications appear in MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of MIS, Information &
Management and International Journal of Human Computer Studies among others. Dr Cyr has received
numerous awards for her publications including Best MISQ paper for 2009 and IS Senior Scholars Best
Paper for 2009 (across all IS journals). Website: www.diannecyr.com.
Abdelfattah Triki obtained a PhD Degree in Marketing from the University of Northumbria at
Newcastle in 1998. He is Member of the Academy of Marketing (GB) science 1997. He is presently
Senior Lecturer of Marketing and of Research Methodology at the Alkamil Business School of the
University of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. As director of ARBRE (Applied Research in Business
Relationships and Economics), he supervised more than 20 theses in the areas of marketing, consumer
behaviour and business strategies like PPP (Public Private Partnerships). In the meantime, he is
involved in consulting and in-company training. His main publications have appeared in The Journal of
High Technology Management Research, Qualitative Market Research, European Journal of Innovation
Management, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Management & Avenir, La Revue des
Sciences de Gestion and Journal of Consumer Behaviour.

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