THE CONCEPT OF FLOW AS MEDIATING VARIABLES ON THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PERCEIVED USEFULNESS WITH REPURCHASE INTENTION

In the existing literature, studies rarely found in the context of mobile shopping incorporate the concept of flow in their research. This study aims to examine and analyze the role of the concept of flow in which three dimensions of flow are chosen, including flowconcentration, flow-control, and flow-enjoyment as an intervening variable to perceived usefulness and purchase intention through Shopee shopping services. The concept of flow related to studies with the context of mobile shopping is scarce. The type of this study is explanatory research. For this reason, this study had been examined 153 respondents who have used Shopee shopping services. Data were collected using a questionnaire and analyze for in-depth studies of related variables. The results show that the concept of flow from the three dimensions is proven to be an intervening variable between perceived usefulness and repurchase intention. Future exploration additionally can be applied to the business division with a bigger scope and more extensive topographical region. Cite this article as: Nurcholis, L. and S. Miftaqulkismay. 2021. The Concept of Flow as Mediating Variables on the Relationships between Perceived Usefulness with Repurchase Intention. Jurnal Aplikasi Manajemen, Volume 19, Number 1, Pages 187–197. Malang: Universitas Brawijaya. http://dx.doi.org/10.21776/ub.jam.2021.019.01.17. nected with one another to serve millions of users in the world. The internet can aim to meet business, education, and government needs. Almost all aspects of daily life can be supported through the internet. Internet is so popular in the world community because the internet has connections and a very broad range, flexible and easy, able to distribute knowledge quickly, and can reduce communication and transaction costs (Laudon and Laudon, 2014). Therefore, the internet is now an important requirement for most people. It is undeniable that the development of age is also increasingly developing information and communication technology. Nowadays technology is developing rapidly, especially developments in internet services. According to (O’Brien and Marakas, 2016), the internet or interconnection-networking is a network that is interconCorresponding Author: Lutfi Nurcholis. Faculty of Economics, Universitas Islam Sultan Agung, Semarang, Indonesia. E-Mail: lutfinurcholis@ unissula.ac.id DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21776/ub.j am. 2021.019.01.17

nected with one another to serve millions of users in the world. The internet can aim to meet business, education, and government needs. Almost all aspects of daily life can be supported through the internet. Internet is so popular in the world community because the internet has connections and a very broad range, flexible and easy, able to distribute knowledge quickly, and can reduce communication and transaction costs (Laudon and Laudon, 2014). Therefore, the internet is now an important requirement for most people.
It is undeniable that the development of age is also increasingly developing information and communication technology. Nowadays technology is developing rapidly, especially developments in internet services. According to (O'Brien and Marakas, 2016), the internet or interconnection-networking is a network that is intercon-MARCH 2021

Lutfi Nurcholis, Sita Miftaqulkismay
Utilization of the internet is getting higher in business terms one of which can be seen from the growing development of internet-based shopping services or which can be called e-commerce. According to (Corey and Wilson, 2009) E-commerce is a service concept that allows information and financial transactions to be done online. Through technology devices connected to the internet, people can search, compare, and buy the desired products and services without the need to go to a store or store directly (Groß, 2015). Now e-commerce is growing rapidly and is a mainstay service for most people in meeting their needs. Because the rapid development of the digital world makes e-commerce more easily accessed online (via the Web or Application) from increasingly sophisticated devices, so that information and financial transactions can be done anywhere and anytime (Holmes et al., 2014).
Based on a survey conducted by Hootsuite, We Are Social in 2019, among internet users around the world who use e-commerce that is equal to 75%. This survey shows that Indonesia is the first ranked country with the largest percentage of e-commerce users among internet users, which is 86%. People in Indonesia are very enthusiastic about technological developments, especially in terms of online shopping services. So many e-commerce sites have sprung up in Indonesia.
Shopee is a marketplace-based online trading service company from Singapore which was introduced in Indonesia in 2015. The company is led by Chris Feng and is a subsidiary of Garena, now known as the SEA Group (Wikipedia, 2019). Based on research conducted by iPrice on 50 e-commerce in Indonesia, it shows that three top e-commerce companies compete in Indonesia, including Shopee. The e-commerce company Shopee ranks third after Tokopedia and Bukalapak for the highest average number of visitors per month. And ranks the first most popular applications on the Appstore and Play store or can be said to be popular with iOS and Android users (iPrice, 2019).
From the theory developed by Davis (1989), the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to predict individual acceptance in using technology or systems supported by perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Shopee online shopping services through service offerings and features provided can provide benefits and convenience for its users. Also, this is felt to make users accept the existence of Shopee online shopping services by using the service. However, this is not in line with the results which show that active user of Shopee's online shopping service occupies the third-highest ranking, while this service ranks first in popularity for Android and iOS users. Kumar et al. (2013), explained that the perceived usefulness of technology had a more positive influence on cognitive attitudes toward acquisition intentions than the effect on perceived ease. Also, many previous studies have examined how the influence of perceived usefulness on consumer buyback intentions through increasingly evolving technology. Like research that has been done by Kahar et al. (2019), shows that the perceived usefulness of the technology users in their research that is online shopping services have a positive effect on repurchase intentions. Li (2016), in his research also explained that the perception of usefulness has a positive effect on repurchase intentions. Obtained the same results in research conducted by Pratiwi (2019). However, there are different results in research conducted by Sullivan and Kim (2018), which shows that perceived usefulness has no significant effect on repurchase intentions. Likewise in research Oroh and Rumokoy (2015), which found that perceived usefulness also did not have a significant effect on repurchases. So that this triggers researchers to be able to review the relationship of perceived usefulness to repurchase intention.
In the existing literature, studies rarely found in the context of mobile shopping incorporate the con-  cept of flow in their research (Chen et al., 2018). Though flow has been widely used in research with the scope of information technology (Huang, 2012;Lee and Tsai, 2010;Zhou, 2013b), including research on online shopping (Gao and Bai, 2014;Koufaris et al., 2001), and research that has been done by Hsu et al. (2012), revealed that flow can provide deeper insights about consumers. The concept of flow is described as a person's psychological experience wherein optimal circumstances, which makes a person will be fully focused on their activities (Novak et al., 2000). If users of information technology devices feel the usefulness of these devices, it is possible to experience a state of confidence accompanied by exploration in these activities (Chou and Ting, 2003). That way, researchers want to examine more deeply the effect of perceived usefulness on purchase intention with the concept of flow as an intervening variable. It is hoped that this research can provide benefits as information material and a guide for the development of science related to perceived usefulness, flow, and repurchase intention, especially in the dimension of flow and flow research on technological developments in the context of mobile shopping, a consideration for a Shopee company manager in innovating to increase repurchase intention, and support for further research related to consumer perceptions to increase repurchase intentions. This study aims to examine and analyze the role of the concept of flow in which three dimensions of flow are chosen, including flow-concentration, flow-control, and flow-enjoyment as an intervening variable to perceived usefulness and purchase intention through Shopee shopping services.

HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT Perceived Usefulness and Flow
Perceived Usefulness is a subjective measure of technology users that using technology can increase value when using it. Previous research shows that perceived usefulness has a significant effect on a person's flow experience when using technology in their activities. This is evidenced from the opinion that states that technological devices that are considered useful will make someone involved in exploration or can be said to be involved in a state of flow (Jarvenpaa and Todd in Hsu et al., 2013). Hsu et al. (2013) in their research said that perceived usefulness is one of the antecedents that gave rise to flow status. Harris and Fig in Chen et al. (2018), also said that perceived usefulness is the main factor that induces a person's flow experience. Thus, services that can increasingly be felt by users will be more likely to bring the user involved in a state of flow. Just as when a shopping service provides various kinds of information needed by consumers (for example, completeness of product description) will make users have control (flow-control) to be able to carry more concentrated (flowconcentration) explore the service and make it feel that it is so fun (flow-enjoyment) when browsing services. According to Csikszentmihalyi in Hsu et al. (2013), such conditions can be related to the concept of psychological flow. From the description can be developed the following hypotheses: H1a: Perceived usefulness significantly influences Flow-concentration. H1b: Perceived usefulness significantly influences Flow-control. H1c: Perceived usefulness significantly influences Flow-enjoyment.

Flow and Repurchase Intention
The concept of flow has been used in various studies. Among them research related to the experience of online consumers (Novak et al., 2000), intention and behavior of playing online games repeatedly (Hsu and Lu, 2004), intention to purchase virtual goods (Huang, 2012), and research related to information technology (Chen et al., 2018;Hsu et al., 2012;Lee and Tsai, 2010;Zhou, 2013a). Naturally, when someone is involved in a state of flow which is a situation where a person feels focused on his activities so that it feels exciting and psychologically pleasing, it will make someone develop their positive emotions. The development of positive emotions in question can be in the form of acceptance, intention to use, repeated use behavior, and can be in the form of purchase intention. Thus, when someone uses shopping services on their device, it will make him concentrate on activities with these services, and will be positively involved in a state of MARCH 2021 Lutfi Nurcholis, Sita Miftaqulkismay flow that can increase positive emotions, then gradually be able to influence the purchase intention of shopping service users. From the description can be developed the following hypotheses: H2a: Flow-concentration significantly influences Repurchase intention. H2b: Flow-control significantly influences Repurchase intention. H2c: Flow-enjoyment significantly influences Repurchase intention.

Perceived Usefulness and Repurchase Intention
Previous research shows that perceived usefulness has a significant effect on repurchase intention. This is evidenced by the results of the study Kahar et al. (2019), which shows that there are significant results from the perceived usefulness of repurchase intention in purchases through the internet. When consumers get useful information from a shopping service on the internet to support their knowledge of a product, it will increase the consumer's intention to repurchase. Lim et al. (2016), argue that perceived usefulness is one of the most important factors in its influence on one's intention in purchasing through a service. Perceived usefulness is considered as utilitarian-oriented or information-oriented which can explain that consumers with greater product involvement tend to shop technology-based and pay more attention to utilities (Chen and Teng, 2013). Perceived usefulness that arises when using a shopping service is felt to make users feel more maximize the activity of using the service. So that shopping service users will get more information so that it will increase the user's purchase intention. From the description can be developed the following hypothesis: H3: Perceived Usefulness has a significant effect on Repurchase Intention.

METHOD
The research uses a quantitative approach to explain the relationship between research variables. The important objective of this research is to identify the problem and test the variables that exist in the study, both the independent variable and the dependent variable. The relationships described include Perceived Usefulness (PU), Flow-concentra-tion (FCN), Flow-control (FCL), Flow-enjoyment (FE), and Repurchase Intention (RI) variables. Respondents of this study are Shopee online shopping service users in Semarang City with a sampling technique that is purposive sampling with sample criteria that is Shopee online shopping service users who have made transactions at least once. The number of samples is 153 Shopee online shopping service users. The measurement scale uses a score of 1 to 5, (1 = strongly disagree until 5 = strongly agree). The data obtained were processed using SPSS version 26. The operational definitions of variables can be seen in Table 2.

Validity and Reliability
The technique used in the validity test is Bivariate Pearson correlation, by linking each item's score to the total score. If the output shows the pvalue (sig) <0.05 then the question items produce a significant value to the total score or can be said to be valid (Ghozali, 2006). Table 3 shows the indicators of the variables perceived usefulness, flow-concentration, flow-control, flow-enjoyment, and repurchase intention produce p-values smaller than the 0.05 significance level. This means that all the questionnaires in this study have been tested with valid results. Table 3 shows that all indicators in this study produce Cronbach's Alpha greater than 0.6 so that it can be concluded that all indicators of the variables perceived usefulness, flow-concentration, flow-control, flow-enjoyment, and repurchase intention can be declared reliable. Table 4 shows that all independent variables produce VIF values <10 and tolerance values> 0.10. It can be concluded in the research model that there is no multicollinearity. Heteroscedasticity test on the SPSS output scatterplot graph between the predicted value of the dependent variable (ZPRED) and the residual (SDRESID). In Figure 2 the data (points) spread evenly above and below the zero lines (Yaxis), and do not form certain patterns so that the research model does not occur heteroscedasticity. test. In Table 4 that the output produces a sig value of 0.200> 0.05, so it can be concluded that the data is normally distributed.

RESULTS
As many as 153 respondents, most users of the online shopping service Shopee in Semarang City are female, seen 76% and the least male seen 24%. With the highest age range of 77% in the range of 21 to 25 years, and the smallest is 5% with an age range of more than 26 years. Most of them were students at 72%. This indicates that most users of the Shopee online shopping service in Semarang are still young. They have used this shopping service for a maximum of more than 1 year of use at 61%, less than 1 year by 25%, and only 1 year of use at 13%. From this data, it can be seen that most users of the Shopee online shopping service in Semarang City have been using it for a long time, but not a few also use it for a short time or less than 1 year. Table 6 shows the Perceived usefulness has a significant effect on Flow-concentration proven to produce p-value = 0.00 <0.05. So H1a is accepted, meaning that when users of online shopping services feel the benefits of its use, it will increase the flow of positive focus on the service. Perceived Usefulness has a significant effect on Flow-control proven to produce p-value = 0.00 <0.05. So H1b is  accepted, meaning that when users of online shopping services feel the benefits of their use, it will increase the flow of control over the service. Perceived Usefulness has a significant effect on the flow-enjoyment proven to produce p-value = 0.000 <0.05. So H1c is accepted, meaning that the perceived benefits of using online shopping services can cause a flow of pleasure. Flow-concentration has a significant effect on Repurchase Intention proven p-value = 0.003 <0.05. So H2a is accepted, meaning that the concentration of focused attention on online shopping services can increase repurchase intentions on the same service. Flow-control has a significant effect on Repurchase Intention proven p-value = 0.015. So H2b is accepted, meaning that the flow of mastery of online shopping services can increase repurchase intentions. Flow-enjoyment has a significant effect on Repurchase Intention proven p-value = 0.000. So H2c is accepted, meaning that the pleasure flow of using online shopping services can increase repurchase intentions. Perceived Usefulness has a significant effect on Repurchase Intention proven to produce p-value = 0.009. So that H3 is accepted, meaning that users of online shop-  ping services when they feel the benefits of using it will increase repurchase intentions on the same service. Table 7 shows the effect of perceived usefulness on repurchase intention through flow (concentration, control, and enjoyment). In model 1 it produces a Sobel test output of 2.9743 and p-value = 0.0029 <0.05 so that Flow-concentration can mediate the relationship between perceived usefulness and repurchase intention.
Model 2 produces a Sobel test output of 2.4146 and p-value = 0.0157 .050.05 so that Flow-control can mediate the relationship between perceived usefulness and repurchase intention. In model 3 it produces a Sobel test output of 4,034 and p-value = 0.0000 <0.05 so that Flow-enjoyment can mediate the relationship between perceived usefulness and repurchase intention.

DISCUSSION
Perceived usefulness has a positive effect on flow (concentration, control, and enjoyment). Perceived usability or benefits perceived by Shopee online shopping service users can drive the flow. This happens because Shopee gives a perception to its users about the usefulness of the use of the services provided. Like the ease of finding the product you want, the shopping process can take place quickly, which all of that can be felt effective for its use. Furthermore, the service will easily direct users to focus on service, full involvement of the service, and high enjoyment of usage. This is consis-  Chen et al. (2018), which revealed that when users of online shopping services assume that the service is useful it will create a flow of concentration, control, and pleasure. Hsu et al. (2013), also revealed that the perception of the benefits felt by users of online shopping services can promote the flow which will lead to high involvement and pleasure. Perceived usefulness has a significant positive effect on repurchase intention. When the user of Shopee's online shopping service enters a flow condition, including concentrating on the service provided, having control over the use of the service, and enjoying the use of the service, the user will lead to deeper into the service environment (Chen et al., 2018). Furthermore, for the flow experience, Shopee online shopping service users can lead to a continuing intention to use it. This is consistent with previous research, namely (Hsu et al., 2013) explain flow has a positive effect on the intention to return to the same service. And in research (Chou and Ting, 2003) found that flow can be related to repetitive continuity.
Perceived usefulness has a significant positive effect on repurchase intention. A user of Shopee's online shopping service feels that the service is useful or can benefit him. Consumers also feel that Shopee's online shopping services can provide convenience in transactions, speed in transactions, and can increase effectiveness. These perceived benefits are likely to lead to the intention of service users to use them again in the future. This is consistent with previous research, namely (Pratiwi, 2019) explains that perceived usefulness influences repurchase intention. In research (Kahar et al., 2019) also explained that the influence exerted when a person makes a transaction at a service provides benefits to the intention to transaction again at that service.
Flow (concentration, control, enjoyment) can mediate or become a bridge between perceived usefulness towards repurchase intention. A service user allows leads to a positive flow of their experience using the service (Hsu et al., 2013). Positive flow can be in the form of focused attention, full involvement in the process of using services, and pleasure in using a service (Landers et al., 2015). If they are involved in a positive flow, then most service users will lead to the intention to explore more often. Therefore, the three dimensions of the flow used in this study, namely concentration, control, and enjoyment can be intervening variables between perceived usefulness of repurchase intention.

CONCLUSIONS
The results in this study found that the perceived usefulness felt by users of Shopee's online shopping service can increase Repurchase Intention when supported by Flow in the form of concentration, control, and enjoyment. An online shopping service that can benefit from its use, becomes the basis for someone to intend to buy back the same service. That way, to increase Shopee users' intentions in making repurchases of the same service based on perceived usefulness, it can be through experience flow. Which in this study found that flowenjoyment and flow-concentration have a high influence on the intention to make repurchases on the same service based on perceived usefulness. Furthermore, it is the perceived usefulness itself that drives repurchase intentions of the same service.
The managerial implication of this research is that Shopee's online shopping service is expected to provide more pleasure to its users. So that users can feel the flow of pleasure which can then make the intention to make a repurchase appear. It can also increase the sense of interest in the service where the attention of users is more focused on enjoying the flow. Then it can also be through the creation of perceptions of usefulness from its users by providing a simpler series of transactions so that users can easily find the products they want or like. So that it can bring up repurchase intentions on Shopee's online services in the future.

RECOMMENDATIONS
This study has several possible limitations to be an improvement. In this study using the Technology Acceptance Model by Davis (1989), TAM focuses only on basic variables perceived usefulness. Meanwhile, TAM has more than one variable used in this study. So that future research is expected to use all the basic variables from TAM. Then in this study divides flow into three dimensions, namely concentration, control, and enjoyment. According to previous research, flow can be divided into more dimensions. Therefore, it is possible to research the future is expected to cover many more dimensions of flow.