“The Illusion of Convenience” : Intrusive Digital Nudging and Discontinuance Intention among Generation Z in SVOD Services.

Sammanfattning

The primary purpose of this explanatory study is to quantitatively evaluate both the psychological strain and the subsequent behavioral outcomes generated by automated retention tactics in the Subscription Video-on-Demand (SVOD) industry. Drawing on the StressorStrain-Outcome (SSO) framework, the study investigates how intrusive digital nudges trigger autonomy threat and subscription fatigue, leading eventually to the behavioral outcome of voluntary discontinuance intention among Generation Z. Adopting a deductive, quantitative research design, empirical data were collected through an internet-mediated survey, resulting in a final sample of 156 Generation Z SVOD users. The theoretical model was subsequently tested using IBM SPSS Statistics and the PROCESS macro (Model 6). The findings support a full sequential mediation across all four proposed hypotheses, suggesting that intrusive digital nudges are not directly associated with discontinuance intention once autonomy threat and subscription fatigue are included in the model. Instead, the results suggest a conditional pathway: intrusive digital nudges are linked to discontinuance intention mainly when they first reduce perceived user autonomy and then increase mental fatigue. By empirically mapping the dark side of digital choice nudges, this thesis contributes primarily to the service marketing and consumer behavior literature by demonstrating how algorithms can shift from helpful personalization to coercive control. Managerially, the thesis provides streaming executives with statistical evidence that aggressive, frictionless retention tactics may increase users’ intention to discontinue the service, highlighting the critical need for ethical interface designs that actively preserve user agency.