Understanding Audiobook Apps’ Consumption Values and Their Implications for Promoting Audiobooks in Vietnam

Abstract

Audiobooks have recently become more prevalent in the publishing industry. Vietnam is a potential market for audiobook companies, and audiobook apps are soaring in popularity in this country. This study examines how consumers perceive audiobook apps’ consumption values, including functional value, social value, emotional value, epistemic value, and conditional value. Data were obtained from 1041 Vietnamese consumers using an online survey method. Results show that conditional value had the highest mean score, followed by epistemic value and emotional value. Notably, consumers hold negative perceptions of audiobook apps’ functional value, especially regarding their reliability and consistency. The findings also suggest that consumers will use audiobook apps more if there are more discounts, promotional benefits, and books available in the apps. This study is the first to explain how consumers perceive the different consumption values of audiobook apps, which have important implications for audiobook companies, publishers and app developers to promote audiobooks.