An Experimental Study to Examine Relationships Between IT Identity and Users’ Post-Adoption Behaviors for Different Types of Health Applications

ABSTRACT

This study investigates whether types, purposes, and contexts of using an app affect the relationships between Information technology (IT) identity and post-adoption behaviors. We designed four experiments to examine the effects of IT identity on positive use behaviors for four groups of health-apps (i.e. managing chronic physical diseases, health-related habits, mental disorders, and diet/fitness). Results suggest that these relationships vary by the interaction between the purpose of using a health app and seven moderating factors.

KEYWORDS:

• Health apps
• IT identity
• post-adoption behaviors
• experiments
• moderating effects

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mahed Maddah

Mahed Maddah is an assistant professor in the Information Systems and Operations Management Department of the Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University. Mahed obtained his Ph.D. from the Information Systems and Business Analytics department at Florida International University. His work has been published in several journals including MIS Quarterly, International Journal of Medical Informatics, and the Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, as well as leading information systems and business conferences. His research interests include data quality, user-generated content, healthcare IT, design science research, and cognitive psychology.

Pouyan Esmaeilzadeh

Pouyan Esmaeilzadeh is an assistant professor at Florida International University (FIU) and a visiting assistant professor at McMaster University. His research interests include technology management, decision support systems, and health informatics. His articles have been published in several journals, such as Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Journal of Medical Internet Research, Information Systems Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Biomedical Informatics, International Journal of Medical Informatics, Computers in Human Behavior, Health Policy and Technology, JMIR Medical Informatics, BMC Medical Informatics and Decision-Making, International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, International Journal of E-Health and Medical Communications, and Health Communication.

Tala Mirzaei

Tala Mirzaei is an associate professor in the Information Systems and Business Analytics Department at Florida International University College of Business. Dr Mirzaei’s research interests include business intelligence, health analytics, and healthcare IT. Her articles have been published in several journals, including International Journal of Medical Informatics, Journal of Medical Internet Research and Health Policy and Technology. She earned her PhD in Information systems with a minor in measurement and evaluation from University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She teaches courses in healthcare quality and outcome issues, health analytics, and business analytics.