How Does Interactivity Impact User Engagement Over Mobile Bookkeeping Applications?

1. Introduction

With the advancement in information and communication technology and increasing penetration of mobile phones worldwide, all businesses, including bookkeeping service providers, are using mobile platforms to deliver their services (Gupta and Arora, 2017; Shankar and Datta, 2019; Shankar, 2021; Shankar et al., 2021a). Service providers are early adopters of advanced information technology in delivering services (Mullan et al., 2017; Shankar and Jain, 2021). Compared to other channels, the mobile application provides more convenient, flexible, and affordable services without geographical and time constraints (Tam and Oliveira, 2017; Shankar et al., 2021). The mobile application allows customers to perform different activities over mobile phones (Shaikh and Karjaluoto, 2015; Shankar et al., 2020). Similarly, accounting services providers are now providing services using mobile phone applications, and several applications have been introduced to provide accounting services, especially bookkeeping services, to enterprises. Quickbooks, Wave, Bench, Bill.com, and Khatabook are major bookkeeping applications for small business owners. Accounting management is a real challenge for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and they need a handy and straightforward digital solution to manage their accounts. Although users adopt mobile bookkeeping applications for availing bookkeeping services, the usage of mobile bookkeeping applications is a critical issue for them (Jebarajakirthy and Shankar, 2020). Hence, marketers put several efforts in enhancing user engagement over mobile bookkeeping platforms. As user engagement enhances the usage of mobile bookkeeping platforms, service providers are keen to know how they can enhance users' engagement.

Further, user engagement also helps in acquiring and retaining users. As in the mobile commerce context, marketers have limited resources to influence user engagement (Shankar et al., 2020). Along with the traditional service marketing mix, the interactivity of the mobile application plays a crucial role in enhancing user engagement (Bedi et al., 2017; Islam et al., 20121. Mobile application interactivity helps in improving user engagement, enhancing usability, and personalization (Lee et al., 2015). Mobile bookkeeping application interactivity includes interface navigation, content, user, control, and responsiveness which enhances user experience (Lee et al., 2015).