Exploring consumers’ intention to accept smartwatch

With the growing smartwatch market over the past few years, smartwatch acceptance in consumer markets has become an important topic for both researchers and designers. Identification of factors that influence consumers to accept a smartwatch can improve user-centered design. This study explores the intentions of using a smartwatch from the consumer perspective, combining innovation diffusion theory (IDT), the technology acceptance model (TAM), the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), and perceived enjoyment. It presents an integrated method empirically tested with data from 212 participants in Taiwan. Partial lease squares (PLS) were used for models and hypotheses tests. We find several interesting results greatly different from previous studies: (1) Attitude, often identified as a weak mediator, is significant; (2) Ease of use was not significant, which implies that it should be the basic specification of smartwatches; (3) Gender has no significant effect on acceptance of smartwatches; and (4) Individuals 35–54 years old exhibit a significant demand for enjoyment in their use of smartwatch. This study contributes to the technology acceptance research field, and identifies the characteristics that influence smartwatch acceptance. Our methods and results should benefit both academics and managers with useful suggestions for research directions and product strategies.     

Understanding consumers’ continuance intention towards mobile advertising: a theoretical framework and empirical study

While issues regarding mobile advertising have captured the interest and attention of both practitioners and academics, in practice success stories are rare. An understanding of the continuance intention to use such services can provide insights into failed mobile marketing campaigns, and help to improve the implementation of future ones. Therefore, it is important to examine the underlying drivers of loyalty with regard to mobile advertising. This study uses the expectation–confirmation model in conjunction with the perspectives of value and trust to derive an integrated model to better understand the motivations behind consumers’ continued use of mobile advertising. We conducted an empirical study consisting of an online survey of 508 consumers who had experience with mobile advertising. The results show that perceived value, perceived usefulness, and satisfaction all directly influence continuance intention. Furthermore, consumer satisfaction has a crucial intervening role in the relationships that perceived value, perceived usefulness, and confirmation have with continuance intention. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. One key limitation of this research is that the majority of respondents were students, although this group is the chief user of mobile advertising. Future research could be extended to consider other drivers of loyalty in this context, such as cultural differences and personal behavioural characteristics.     

The role of perceived information practices on consumers’ intention to authorise secondary use of personal data

We are living in an era where data lead to opportunities, especially customer data. According to privacy laws, however, without customers’ authorisation, organisations face many limitations in using identifiable information for secondary purposes. Consequently, organisations are missing out on many potential business opportunities to capitalise on customer data. Privacy concerns have become the biggest roadblock to gain customer consent because of the potential risks associated with the use of personal information. This situation underscores the importance of devising effective information practices and strategies in dealing with the use of customer data. Privacy literature suggests that information practices may influence individuals’ intentions to participate in situations requiring the collection and use of personal data. Yet, existing research has not systematically analysed the role of these strategies in influencing intention. Also, previous studies focus primarily on the disclosure of personal data. Issues surrounding ‘authorisation of personal data for secondary use’ remain unexplored. The purpose of our study is to examine the role of information practices on intention to authorise secondary use of personal data. The results show that privacy concerns and trusting beliefs significantly affect individual perceptions of information practices. Perception of information practices in turn exerts significant effect on intention to authorise secondary use of personal data. Both theoretical and managerial implications of the results are discussed.     

Cognitive predictors of consumers’ intention to comply with social marketing email appeals

Email is used increasingly by social marketers to appeal to consumers, however, relatively little is known regarding the cognitive processes which lead consumers to comply with actions that marketers request in email messages. This exploratory study tests the direct effects of five cognitive factors that characterize the message receiver on intention to comply with an email appeal. These cognitive factors are benefit goals and cost goals related to the message, trusting beliefs in the message sender, involvement with the message, and perceived effort of complying with the appeal. We find four of the five factors are significant predictors of intention to comply, jointly explaining 70% of variance in this measure.     

The impact of mobility,risk, and cost on the users’ intention to adopt mobile payments

Information Systems and e-Business Management - With the development of mobile communication technology and the wide application of intelligent devices, mobile payments with great commercial...     

Determinants of consumers’ attitudes toward mobile advertising: The mediating roles of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations

Mobile advertising is booming, due to the popularity of mobile devices. Drawing on motivation theory, this study examines the factors that influence consumers’ attitudes toward mobile advertising. The authors identify timeliness, localization, and personalization of the advertisement message as antecedents of extrinsic motivation, as well as consumer innovativeness and perceived enjoyment as antecedents of intrinsic motivation. Using structural equation modeling, the study analyzes the conceptual model with a sample of 218 mobile phone users. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations mediate the effects of the advertising message’s characteristics on mobile phone users’ attitudes toward mobile advertising.     

Understanding consumers’ continuance intention towards mobile purchase: A theoretical framework and empirical study – A case of China

Although mobile purchase is convenient in the age of mobile commerce, many consumers still do not utilize mobile purchase to its full potential. From the mobile vendor’s perspective, retaining current customers and facilitating their continued purchase are crucial to create profitability and achieve a sustainable development. An understanding of the continuance intention towards mobile purchase can provide insights into mobile vendors’ marketing campaigns. Therefore, it is important to examine the determinants that impact continuance intentions of consumers for mobile purchase. Drawing upon information success model, flow theory and trust, this study proposed and empirically tested an integrated model to better understand the determinants of consumers’ continued intention to purchase on mobile sites. Empirical data from 462 users who had experience with mobile purchase were tested against the proposed research model by using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results indicated that information quality, and privacy and security concerns are the main factors affecting trust, whereas service quality is the main factor affecting flow. System quality, and privacy and security concerns affect satisfaction. Trust affects flow, which in turn affects satisfaction. These three factors together affect continued intention towards mobile purchase. The findings of this study provide several important implications for mobile commerce research and practice.     

Exploring seniors’ continuance intention to use mobile social network sites in China: a cognitive-affective-conative model

Universal Access in the Information Society - With the rapid increase of senior users in mobile social network sites (MSNS), how to attract and maintain seniors’ continuous usage is more and...     

The effects of perceived relevance of travel blogs’ content on the behavioral intention to visit a tourist destination

The tourism industry is characterized by ever-increasing competition, causing destinations to seek new methods to attract tourists. Traditionally, a decision to visit a destination is interpreted, in part, as a rational calculation of the costs/benefits of a set of alternative destinations, which were derived from external information sources, including e-WOM (word-of-mouth) or travelers’ blogs. There are numerous travel blogs available for people to share and learn about travel experiences. Evidence shows, however, that not every blog exerts the same degree of influence on tourists. Therefore, which characteristics of these travel blogs attract tourists’ attention and influence their decisions, becomes an interesting research question. Based on the concept of information relevance, a model is proposed for interrelating various attributes specific to blog’s content and perceived enjoyment, an intrinsic motivation of information systems usage, to mitigate the above-mentioned gap. Results show that novelty, understandability, and interest of blogs’ content affect behavioral intention through blog usage enjoyment. Finally, theoretical and practical implications are proposed.     

MGC,consumers’ engagement with MGC,WOM and consumers’ purchase intention: the case of Weibo platform

Information Systems and e-Business Management - Nowadays, consumers spend more time on and pay more attention to information on social media. Thus, firms are constantly concerned if...     

The role of perceived e-health literacy in users’ continuance intention to use mobile healthcare applications: an exploratory empirical study in China

ABSTRACT

In recent years, mobile healthcare applications (MHAs) have boomed, providing several new kinds of health services and methods of information transmission. However, MHA vendors face a significant challenge in attracting users to adopt software continuously. Some recent studies recognized users’ perceived e-health literacy (PEHL) as a critical factor in continuance intention, but its influence was still unclear. In this paper, based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we investigated how the users’ PEHL affects their continuance intention when adopting MHAs. We distributed convenience sample questionnaires by Wechat (similar to WhatsApp) in China, where hundreds of MHAs can be downloaded, and 273 valid samples were collected. The result shows that ELM works well in this model, with six of the eight hypotheses supported. The moderating effect of PEHL is largely significant for the peripheral route but not significant for the central route. The most interesting finding is that, with regard to continuance adoption, PEHL has a positive relationship with users’ satisfaction. Possible reasons are discussed, such as there could be a moderator on this relationship. Limitations, future studies and implications for theory, practice and policy are also given.     

Effects of the design of mobile security notifications and mobile app usability on users’ security perceptions and continued use intention

The explosive global adoption of mobile applications (i.e., apps) has been fraught with security and privacy issues. App users typically have a poor understanding of information security; worse, they routinely ignore security notifications designed to increase security on apps. By considering both mobile app interface usability and mobile security notification (MSN) design, we investigate how security perceptions of apps are formed and how these perceptions influence users’ intentions to continue using apps. Accordingly, we designed and conducted a set of controlled survey experiments with 317 participants in different MSN interface scenarios by manipulating the types of MSN interfaces (i.e., high vs. low disruption), the context (hedonic vs. utilitarian scenarios), and the degree of MSN intrusiveness (high vs. low intrusiveness). We found that both app interface usability and the design of MSNs significantly impacted users’ perceived security, which, in turn, has a positive influence on users’ intention to continue using the app. In addition, we identified an important conundrum: disruptive MSNs—a common approach to delivering MSNs—irritate users and negatively influence their perceptions of app security. Thus, our results directly challenge current practice. If these results hold, current practice should shift away from MSNs that interrupt task performance.     

The antecedents of consumers’ loyalty toward Internet Service Providers

Internet popularity is growing at an impressive rate. Sooner or later, every consumer comes face to face with the decision of choosing an Internet Service Provider (ISP). This study developed and empirically tested a model examining the antecedents of consumer loyalty toward ISPs. It incorporated the concept of expected technology change into the model to examine its effects on the formation of ISP loyalty intention. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement model, and the structural equation modeling techniques were used to evaluate the casual model. Based on an internet survey in Taiwan, this study showed that perceived value is very important in generating overall customer satisfaction and loyalty intention toward an ISP, and that perceived trust of an ISP enhances perceived value, overall satisfaction, and loyalty intention. However, the study demonstrated that future ISP technology expectancy exerted a negative influence on a consumer’s overall satisfaction and loyalty intention toward their ISP.     

Clerk agent promotes consumers’ ethical purchase intention in unmanned purchase environment

This study examined the effect of the presence of an artificial individual in a purchase environment on purchase intention for products with fair-trade labels among Japanese consumers. By manipulating the presence of an artificial individual, we assessed consumers’ intentions to purchase fair-trade products under two different experimental unmanned purchase environments: the agent condition, in which task instructions were given by a female clerk-like computer graphic agent throughout the task (N = 118), and the control condition in which task instructions were given through a text box (N = 106). Results demonstrated that participants under the agent condition valuated fair trade higher than those under the control condition, although participants in both the agent and the control conditions were instructed that their responses would remain anonymous. These findings suggest that the implication of the presence of an artificial individual, such as a clerk-like agent in an unmanned purchase environment, enhances the ethicality of purchase intentions as with manned purchase environments.     

Physicians’ motivations to use mobile health monitoring: a cross-country comparison

While mobile device receives increasing attention as a practical tool to remotely check patients’ health, little research has shed light on physicians’ acceptance of this information and communication technology. This study attempts to fill this research gap by examining how Japanese and Spanish physicians perceive a series of factors associated with mobile diabetes monitoring acceptance, and whether any differences exist in these perceptions between the countries due to different levels of physician scarcity, which is operationalised as the number of physicians available per 10,000 population. The hypotheses were tested by empirical surveys in Japan and Spain. In total, 471 and 497 usable responses were obtained from Japanese and Spanish physicians, respectively. In both countries, physicians were likely to embrace clinical expectations (perceived value) and appreciate the ability to check patients’ health remotely (ubiquitous control) as the main benefits of mobile diabetes monitoring. In terms of cross-country comparison, the influence of personal innovativeness on perceived value and ubiquitous control was stronger in Japan (greater physician scarcity), compared with Spain (less physician scarcity).     

Determinants of users’ intention to adopt m-commerce: an empirical analysis

The fast-growing penetration of mobile devices and recent advances in mobile technologies have led to the development of increasingly sophisticated services such as m-shopping for goods or services and m-payment. However, although the number of mobile subscribers is increasing, levels of actual m-commerce activities in many cases remain low. Determining what influences users’ intention to use m-commerce is therefore of growing importance. The purpose of this study was to investigate possible factors. To this aim, we developed a conceptual user adoption model based on technology acceptance model variables and on specific factors such as social influence, personal innovativeness, customization, and individual mobility. The empirical results show that social influence and customization significantly affect perceived usefulness; mobility, customization, and personal innovativeness significantly affect perceived ease of use; and perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have a direct positive effect on behavioral intention.     

Calibration and validation of and results from a micro-simulation model to explore drivers’ actual use of acceleration lanes

This study investigates the actual use of acceleration lanes by means of traffic micro-simulations in proximity to the convergence between the main and the secondary traffic streams.The data needed to develop the micro-simulation model were collected videotaping two acceleration lanes of an Italian highway, near the village of San Liberato. The relevant microsimulation model has been developed utilizing a commercial software, the TransModeler traffic simulation package, while the calibration and validation phases have been realized based on real-life data.Thanks to the microsimulation model, six different scenarios based on various presentation speeds have been analyzed, in a less expensive, quicker and more secure way compared to field observations. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results has been discussed to examine both geometric and kinematic aspects of the merging maneuvers and to compare road users' behaviors with theoretical road design guidelines. The analyses have been focused on vehicles coming from the on-ramp, in terms of entrance points dispersion into the main traffic stream along the acceleration lanes, merging speeds, and reached acceleration rates. The mutual influence between the two flows (main and secondary traffic streams), combined with vehicle performances and characteristics of drivers, led to a first assessment of the main variables from which the required length of the specialized lanes depends.     

Modeling the stimulators of the behavioral intention to use mobile entertainment: Does gender really matter?

This research aims to empirically examine the stimulators that influence consumers’ behavioral intention to use (IU) mobile entertainment (ME) in Malaysia. The proposed stimulators are perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), social influence (SI), perceived self-efficacy (PSE) and perceived enjoyment (PE). PU and PEOU were derived from TAM, SI was taken from the TRA, TPB and DOI model, PE was obtained from the extended-TAM model and PSE was taken from Bandura’s theory. This is among the first study that uses a model consisting of integrated constructs from TAM, extended-TAM, TRA, TPB, DOI and Bandura’s theory in predicting acceptance of ME. Empirical data were analyzed by employing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis. Gender moderating effect was examined via multiple group analysis (MGA). The findings revealed that PU, PEOU, SI and PE are positively associated with consumer IU of ME. Surprisingly, there were no significant moderating effects of gender. The control variables (i.e. age, marital status, education level, number of mobile phone and experience) were found to have no confounding effects on the ME adoption. The findings have contributed theoretical and managerial implications to ME providers, mobile phone manufacturers, the music, movie and gaming industry players.     

Effect of display of YOLO’s object recognition results to HMD for an operator controlling a mobile robot

Artificial Life and Robotics - An operator feels a burden when he/she controls a rescue robot remotely because he/she has to keep watching camera images to find the target object. We think that...     

Determinants of employees’ intention to exert pressure on firms to engage in web accessibility

Web accessibility can help reduce the digital divide between persons with disabilities and the web by providing easy access to information on the Internet. Providing web accessibility can be an important element that manifests a firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employees can play a vital role in this process. This paper examines how employees can impact a firm's decision to fulfil their CSR regarding web accessibility. We propose that employees’ intention to exert pressure on a firm is primarily influenced by three psychological needs, namely need for control, need for belonging, and need for meaningful existence. Additionally, perceived importance of CSR moderates the relationship between need for meaningful existence and intention. We empirically test the research model using data collected from 106 Chinese employees. The results suggest that for employees to pressure their firms to improve the accessibility of their websites, it is imperative to enhance their perceived importance of web accessibility, and their need for belonging and for a meaningful existence. We present the theoretical and managerial implications arising from our findings.