Potential adoption factors for location-based services among Croatian students with IT skills

Location-based services (LBSs) provided by mobile phone operators are being adopted at a much slower pace than expected, especially in Europe. LBS technology can be utilized for tracking services, as well as for location-sensitive information services, marketing based on customer location, location-based games and for other purposes. In this paper the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was used to investigate the potential for the acceptance of such services. A set of LBSs that may be of interest to young adults was identified and a survey based on the UTAUT was designed. This survey was applied on college students of information systems who were mobile phone users and experienced in the use of computers and the Internet. This paper presents an empirically derived model of the adoption of LBSs developed from the results of the reported survey.