The sustainability of enterprise mobility in pandemic – Do usage location, device type and device ownership matter?

Abstract

With the trend of consumerization of IT and technology advancement, enterprise mobility or corporate mobile IT is becoming a necessity for companies to stay competitive and agile. This is especially the case during Covid-19 pandemic period, where employees usually have no choice but to use either their own mobile devices or devices provided by the company to complete daily tasks anytime and anywhere convenient for them. This study explores the effects of usage location (e.g., home/office), device type (e.g. smartphones, tablets, laptops) and device ownership (personal owned/company owned) on productivity and work-to-life conflict. A pilot test was conducted with 114 working employees, and a three-way MANOVA test was used to assess the effects. The results showed that there are significant differences in ownership and device in terms of their effects on work-to-life conflict and productivity; location, however, does not have the same effect on the two dependent variables.