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Consumers with different lifestyles often have distinctive needs for the same type of technology products. Previous studies have focused mostly on the characteristics and pricing of these products but there is lack of a comprehensive study on the effect of internal demands from consumers and the sources of external information on intentions to purchase. This study proposes a hybrid decision-making model that integrates product characteristics, consumers’ internal demands and sources of external information for the exploration of behavioural patterns of consumers with different lifestyles when purchasing technology products. The empirical results suggest that lifestyle plays a significant role in moderating consumers’ purchase intentions. Among various consumers, early adopters’ purchase intention is motivated by features that highlight self-personality, while those of the pragmatists and the majority are mainly motivated by ease of contact, work need and sense of group. In addition, both the early adopters and the majority are influenced by the introduction of network and magazines, while the pragmatists are mainly affected by the introduction of retailers.

Recent mobile phones known as smartphones offer a variety of applications, such as Web browsing, entertainment tools, and personal calendar and contact management applications of the type that traditionally run on desktop computers. Some of the reasons why smartphones became popular rapidly in Korea may be related to the adoption by the type of user known as the early adopter. Because the early adopter group played a more crucial role in the area of mass consumption and because the mass market is changing more rapidly than before, this study examines mobile phone purchase and usage behaviours of early adopter groups in Korea in order to gain vital insights into establishing marketing strategies for early adopter groups. In this study, segmentation by means of a factor analysis and cluster analysis is conducted to classify early adopter groups in accordance with their activities, interests, and opinion. Specifically, factor analysis is employed to identify the common characteristics among lifestyle variabl...