Digital Connectedness Expectancy: Construct Development and Scale Validation

Widespread digitalization across societies is rendering digital connectedness relevant for more and more individuals. Being connected is not merely seen as something individuals do – it has become part of their personality. Furthermore, individuals have built personal digital ecosystems in recent years, i.e., assemblages of heterogeneous digital technologies, products, and services that they heavily draw upon when interacting with others and performing everyday activities. As these digital ecosystems progressively fuse with personal lives, identities, and personalities, connectedness to them is becoming increasingly valuable and significant for individuals’ decisions of technology adoption and use. Therefore, in this study, we conceptualized and operationalized the construct of digital connectedness expectancy (DCE) using an established and rigorous construct development approach and validated our scales drawing on a sample of 470 U.S. consumers. The results indicate a significant influence of DCE on behavioral intention and provide important implications for IS research and managerial practice