This study assessed students’ dependence on smart phones and its impact on their
purchase behaviour. All in all, with regard to the relationship between social needs,
social influences and convenience of smart phones and dependence on smart phones,
through multiple regression analysis, two hypotheses were supported (i.e. social needs,
and social influence). Social needs have the strongest effect on the students’ dependence
on smart phones, followed by social influences. However, convenience was found
to be insignificant to students’ dependence on smart phones. It is worthy to note that a
very strong relationship exists between dependence on smart phones and students’
purchase behaviour. Prior research by Woodcock et al. (2012) indicated that most
students have not made strong connections for themselves between their personal
smart phone technology, their needs as learners and the way they learn. One factor
that affects convenience is the speed of the internet connection at the university
and the availability of Wi-Fi services which are important for smart phone
applications. Nevertheless, academics and educational developers need to encourage
the students’ use of personal technologies such as smart phones and tablet PCs to
enhance their learning process. On the smart phone provider side, it is recommended
to continuously increase the smart phone functionality to be more relevant to students.