Understanding Determinants of End-User’s Continuance Intention on Fitness Wearable Technology

Abstract

With more and more people adopting wearable fitness devices to help them carry out physical activities more regularly, the market analysis reports a relatively high abandonment rate after six months of usage. This article aims to contribute to consumer study in fitness wearable technology by understanding the underlying determinants of consumer’s continuance intention to use wearable fitness devices (e.g., fitness trackers), and proposing a few suggestions to fitness wearable companies and designers for further product development. This research article consists of two empirical studies. In the first study, we propose a research model that is based on the expectation-confirmation model and integrates two extra factors, which are 'technology innovativeness’ and 'eHealth literacy’. The data collection is done via online surveys. The second study is intended to design upon the findings from the first study, during which we did arrange an offline education intervention for student participants and conduct a 2 × 2 experimental study. For both studies, we use quantitative methods to analyse data and draw conclusions. From the first study, we found that users’ technology innovativeness and eHealth literacy will indirectly influence their continuous intention to use wearable fitness devices. The second study reveals that male consumers tend to increase their continuance intention to use wearable fitness devices when their eHealth literacy has been enhanced by training. To sum up, the value of this article lies in two aspects. First, it is the first study in the field of fitness wearable technology (FWT) to learn how consumer behaviour will be influenced by a person’s eHealth literacy. Second, our study goes further to investigate to what extent the improvement of eHealth literacy will influence consumer’s continuous intention.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hanchu Sun

Hanchu Sun received the bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design from the University of Liverpool. Currently, he is a master’s student studying Strategic Product Design at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. His research interest includes user behaviour, strategic design and social design.

Chao Gu

Chao Gu received the bachelor’s degree from Fujian Normal University and the master degree from the Taiwan Tatung University. Now he is studying for his doctorate in department of culture and arts management at Honam University in South Korea. His research interest includes user behaviour and interaction design.