User's Adoption of Free Third-Party Security Apps

Abstract

Although multiple security applications (apps) are offered by third-party developers for free, only a small portion of smart device users have adopted these apps. The lack of relevant research urgently requires an in-depth investigation of influential factors of the user's adoption of the new cyber security countermeasures. In this study, we introduce a theoretical model by integrating factors from the user's awareness perspective and the user's trust perspective. We find that the user's technology awareness and trust in security apps both have significant positive effects on their adoption intention. The user's trust in security apps also has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between their threat awareness and their adoption intention. These findings do not only provide a theoretical foundation for future mobile security app adoption research, but also offer several implications for developers to push the diffusion of their software in the promising app based cyber security market.