Investigating effects of IT functionalities of wearable devices on their users

Abstract: Smart wearable technology devices have facilitated self-monitoring that enables control of health and fitness through various metrics that are based on the collected data. Although wearable technology devices can be beneficial for health and well-being, their current level of adoption and commercialisation is still in the early phase, and researchers are attempting to identify the factors that impact the adoption of these devices. The predominant focus in the available litera-ture on the adoption and continuous use of wearable devices has been based on the overall view of such devices and did not consider specific IT functionalities that are available within them. In this study, eleven users of fitness trackers were interviewed to investigate how specific IT func-tionalities of wearable devices influence the usage of such devices. To investigate that two theo-retical frameworks were integrated, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 and the Health Information Technology Acceptance Model. The results show that the constructs of Effort Expectancy, Performance Expectancy, Hedonic Motivation, Facilitating Conditions, and Perceived Threat are confirmed to have an impact on the behavioural intention to adopt and use wearable devices, whereas there is no unambiguous confirmation for Social Influence and Habit.