Antecedents and Consequences of Subscription Fatigue in Streaming Services: An Empirical S-O-R Investigation

Subscription fatigue describes the growing sense of overwhelm and exhaustion consumers experience when managing an increasing number of subscriptions with recurring payments. This study examines the causes and consequences of this phenomenon among users of streaming services, applying a stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model. Various streaming specific stimuli are examined in relation to internal organism states in order to investigate how these factors ultimately influence consumers’ behavioral intentions. A quantitative survey is conducted among users of streaming services and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results of the study show that dark patterns, in particular, have a significant impact on subscription fatigue. This indicates that manipulative interface designs especially cause users to feel a heightened sense of exhaustion on streaming platforms. Furthermore, the study reveals that subscription fatigue has a highly significant influence on streaming users’ intentions to cancel their subscriptions.