Determinants of social and institutional beliefs about internet acceptance within developing country’s context: A structural evaluation of higher education systems in Pakistan

This study aims to extend a model of technology acceptance to suit in developing country’s context. The model attempts to identify relationship between social and institutional factors over behavioural intention and usage. Recently, ‘acceptance and adoption of information technology (IT) in multicultural setting’ is becoming topic of interest for IS researchers. In this line, numerous theories and models are proposed to contribute in examining factors of IT acceptance and reluctance. It is argued that the models in published literature are found culturally biased, which successfully present results in only American and European context, however, their validity became questionable when they were tested in south Asian countries context. Additionally, lack of research is observed to predict individual’s cognitive behaviour of acceptance, which are influenced by social factors (i.e. peer influence and superior influence, voluntariness, experience) and institutional factors (i.e. local institutional management influence and top-level governmental policies influence). This study used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) based on Partial Least Square (PLS) method to analyse the data. The results reveal that the proposed conceptual model achieves acceptable fit and the hypothesised paths are valid

What Drives Fitness Apps Usage? An Empirical Evaluation

Part 3: Creating Value through ApplicationsInternational audienceThe increased health problems associated with lack of physical activity is of great concern around the world. Mobile phone based fitness applications appear to be a cost effective promising solution for this problem. The aim of this study is to develop a research model that can broaden understanding of the factors that influence the user acceptance of mobile fitness apps. Drawing from Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), we conceptualize the antecedents and moderating factors of fitness app use. We validate our model using field survey. Implications for research and practice are discussed

Designing Culture-Tailored Persuasive Technology to Promote Physical Activity

Physical inactivity has been recognized as one of the leading risk factors that account for cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, stroke, hypertension, etc., with the World Health Organization labeling it as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality. Research has shown that persuasive technology (PT) can be leveraged as a motivational/supportive tool in tackling the physical-inactivity problem. In particular, research shows that persuasive health applications (PHAs) are more likely to be effective if they are theorydriven and tailored to the target audience. Yet, most existing PHAs on the market are neither theory-driven nor tailored to the target audience. Rather, their designers often employ a one-size- fits-all approach. This makes it difficult to know what design decisions are effective or ineffective among a given target audience. To bridge this gap, I proposed a framework, called the "EMVE-DeCK Framework," grounded in Bandura's Triad of Reciprocal Determinism, for designing, implementing and evaluating tailored PT interventions. Basically, the EMVE-DeCK Framework employs "Theory" and "Technology" to explain and change "Behavior." Moreover, research shows that culture can be leveraged as a personalization mechanism for tailoring PHAs to the target users to make them more effective. However, there is limited cross-cultural research|grounded in theory and empirical evidence|on the effectiveness of culture-based tailoring, especially comparative studies involving understudied populations in the PT research landscape. Hence, using the Hofstede's cultural framework (individualism vs. collectivism), Social Cognitive Theory, Technology Acceptance Model and the EMVE-DeCK Framework, I conducted a number of comparative studies to understand the culture-speci c determinants of physical-activity behavior and the acceptance of a proposed PHA. I used the ndings to inform the design, implementation and evaluation of two versions of a tness app called BEN'FIT - personal version (PV) and social version (SV) - aimed to motivate bodyweight exercise at home. In this dissertation, using the EMVE-DeCK Framework and Canada/United States (individualist culture) and Nigeria (collectivist culture) as a case study, I describe: (1) the cross-cultural user studies and empirical f indings that informed the PT intervention; (2) the design and implementation of the culture-tailored PHA; (3) the evaluation of the overall and culture-tailoring e ectiveness of the PHA in a eld setting. Finally, based on empirical evidence, I present a set of validated PT design guidelines in the eld for designing and tailoring PHAs to users in the individualist and collectivist cultures. This dissertation makes three major contributions to PT research in the Human-Computer-Interaction domain. Firstly, it demonstrates how theory and culture can be employed in the design and development of PT interventions to motivate behavior change. Secondly, it reveals and validates in the eld how the individualist and collectivist cultures fundamentally differ in their motivational mechanism of behavior change. Thirdly, it provides an in-the- field validates PT design guidelines for developing tailored PHAs for the two main types of culture. In the physical-activity domain, the dissertation is the rst to conduct a theory-driven, in-the-fi eld cross-cultural PT research that focuses on an understudied population from Africa (Nigeria) and compare its ndings with those of a widely studied population from North America (Canada/United States)

Designing Culture-Tailored Persuasive Technology to Promote Physical Activity

Physical inactivity has been recognized as one of the leading risk factors that account for cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, stroke, hypertension, etc., with the World Health Organization labeling it as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality. Research has shown that persuasive technology (PT) can be leveraged as a motivational/supportive tool in tackling the physical-inactivity problem. In particular, research shows that persuasive health applications (PHAs) are more likely to be effective if they are theory-driven and tailored to the target audience. Yet, most existing PHAs on the market are neither theory-driven nor tailored to the target audience. Rather, their designers often employ a one-size-fits-all approach. This makes it difficult to know what design decisions are effective or ineffective among a given target audience. To bridge this gap, I proposed a framework, called the “EMVE-DeCK Framework,” grounded in Bandura’s Triad of Reciprocal Determinism, for designing, implementing and evaluating tailored PT interventions. Basically, the EMVE-DeCK Framework employs “Theory” and “Technology” to explain and change “Behavior.” Moreover, research shows that culture can be leveraged as a personalization mechanism for tailoring PHAs to the target users to make them more effective. However, there is limited cross-cultural research—grounded in theory and empirical evidence—on the effectiveness of culture-based tailoring, especially comparative studies involving understudied populations in the PT research landscape. Hence, using the Hofstede’s cultural framework (individualism vs. collectivism), Social Cognitive Theory, Technology Acceptance Model and the EMVE-DeCK Framework, I conducted a number of comparative studies to understand the culture-specific determinants of physical-activity behavior and the acceptance of a proposed PHA. I used the findings to inform the design, implementation and evaluation of two versions of a fitness app called BEN’FIT—personal version (PV) and social version (SV)—aimed to motivate bodyweight exercise at home. In this dissertation, using the EMVE-DeCK Framework and Canada/United States (individualist culture) and Nigeria (collectivist culture) as a case study, I describe: (1) the cross-cultural user studies and empirical findings that informed the PT intervention; (2) the design and implementation of the culture-tailored PHA; and (3) the evaluation of the overall and culture-tailoring effectiveness of the PHA in a field setting. Finally, based on empirical evidence, I present a set of validated PT design guidelines in the field for designing and tailoring PHAs to users in the individualist and collectivist cultures. This dissertation makes three major contributions to PT research in the Human-Computer-Interaction domain. Firstly, it demonstrates how theory and culture can be employed in the design and development of PT interventions to motivate behavior change. Secondly, it reveals and validates in the field how the individualist and collectivist cultures fundamentally differ in their motivational mechanism of behavior change. Thirdly, it provides an in-the-field validated PT design guidelines for developing tailored PHAs for the two main types of culture. In the physical-activity domain, the dissertation is the first to conduct a theory-driven, in-the-field cross-cultural PT research that focuses on an understudied population from Africa (Nigeria) and compare its findings with those of a widely studied population from North America (Canada/United States)

What facilitates consumers accepting service robots? A conceptual framework

Confronting with an increasing number of robots swarming into service industries to replace human personnel, studies regarding what drives consumers to use service robots leave to be, unfortunately, still fragmented. Motivated by this, based on a content analysis of the existing studies, this paper establishes a conceptual framework to comprehend the current literature for in-depth understanding concerning customer attitude and their intention to use service robots. Drawing upon a triangulation of perspectives on end-user (i.e., technology user, consumer, and network member) in adoption research, this framework adopts technology acceptance theories, service quality, and expectancy-value theory to set up the skeleton. Furthermore, the antecedents impacting customer acceptance of service robots are subdivided into robot-design, consumer-oriented, relational components, as well as exogenous factors. This paper not only elaborates on the present situation of service robot acceptance research but also promotes it by developing a comprehensive framework regarding the effect factors

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Investigating the Relationship between Effectiveness of App Evolution and App Continuance Intention: An Empirical Study of the U.S. App Market

App evolution has been shown to continuously lead to app success from the developer perspective. However, few studies have explored app success from the user perspective, which limits our understanding of the role of app evolution in app success. Building on app evolution literature and the technology acceptance model (TAM), the authors investigate the influence of the effectiveness of app evolution on users’ perceived app usefulness and ease of use and their app continuance intention, which is a proxy of app success from the user perspective. Survey data were collected from 299 app users on both the Google Play and AppStore platforms in the U.S. The findings indicate that the effectiveness of strategic evolution and effectiveness of evolution speed directly affect a user’s perceived app usefulness, while effectiveness of operational evolution and effectiveness of evolution speed directly affect a user’s perceived app ease of use. In addition, perceived app usefulness and perceived app ease of use are two keys that lead to users’ app continuance intention. A user’s perceived app ease of use affects app continuance intention both directly and indirectly through perceived app usefulness. This study enhances our understanding of the relationship between effectiveness of app evolution and app continuance intention. This is especially important in helping app developers that are small firms or startups with limited resources understand how to retain app users. Limitations and directions for future research are also discussed

Online users' behaviours and behavioural intentions with reference to live streaming : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 26 March 2023.

Embargoed until 26 March 2023Live streaming, as a new medium, allows users to participate in real-time interaction. It has attracted a large number of online users, and become a new social commerce venue and lucrative business, especially in China where the live streaming industry is growing explosively and is the largest in the world. This thesis aims to comprehensively investigate users’ behaviours and behavioural intentions in live streaming through both qualitative and quantitative approaches using the Chinese live streaming as an example. This thesis contains four studies to investigate from both streamers’ and viewers’ aspects. Firstly, we conducted two qualitative studies to investigate users’ online behaviours in the social commerce practice in live streaming by exploring how streamers attract viewers (Chapter 2) and encourage gifting (Chapter 3). Novel multiple triangulation was used, including data source triangulation and methodological triangulation. Through multiple triangulation, three behaviours for viewer attraction and four behaviours for gifting encouragement were identified. These two chapters help to comprehensively understand streamers’ online behaviours in this new form of social commerce. Next, we conducted two quantitative studies to explore why viewers continue to watch streams (Chapters 4 and 5). Based on expectation-confirmation theory (ECT), in Chapter 4, we modified the post-acceptance model of information system continuance and re-defined the constructs in a structural equation model of predictors of continuance intention of watching live streams. Chapter 4 successfully connects intention and continuance intention of watching, and integrates disparate understandings of viewers’ watching behaviours. To solve the deficiencies identified in current ECT-based models and further increase the explanation of variance in continuance intention of watching, in Chapter 5, we proposed a value-based continuance intention model (V-ECM), which theoretically extends ECT-based studies by including a process of overall practical assessment between users’ perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices. V-ECM appears to be a better model for explaining users’ continuance intention in the stream-watching context. Also, V-ECM could be used broadly in online and/or technology-related fields. Overall, this thesis comprehensively investigates both streamers’ and viewers’ behaviours and behavioural intentions in live streaming. Insights from this thesis can improve the design, functions and marketing within live streaming platforms. Also, this thesis provides strong foundations for further online behaviour studies, for example, stream-watching addiction

A predictive model for the acceptance of wearable ubiquitous activity monitoring devices

Acceptance of wearable ubiquitous activity monitoring devices that track activity has been a hot topic for the last decade. Several theories have been made, particularly how to think about the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). These theories have been used in different situations to learn more about how people and organizations accept new technology. Even though the TAM is mature and works in different situations, there is not much published research that tries to expand its ability to predict how people will react to wearable ubiquitous activity monitoring devices. One reason for this gap could be that the TAM is based on the idea that people's acceptance behavior can only be predicted by two beliefs: Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Perceived Usefulness (PU). Literature shows that PU and PEOU beliefs are not enough. This means that they may not be able to explain why people accept new things, like Activity Trackers (AT). Because of this, it is important to include any other factors that can help predict how likely people are to use activity trackers. As an extension of research on the TAM, this study created and tested two models of how people accept and use wearable ubiquitous activity monitoring devices, with two questionnaires with more than 200 respondents that shield light on the subject. The proposed models added key concepts from the research stream on how people accept information systems to the theoretical framework of the TAM and Health Information Technology Acceptance Model (HITAM). The resulting models were analyzed using a variety of statistical techniques including Structural Equation Analysis. The first model was reanalyzed via qualitative analysis with 20 interviews, and reanalyzed via another quantitative method of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). The most significant contributions of this dissertation are: 1. The construction of two models that predict activity tracking adoption and usage. 2. Guidelines for designing activity trackers. These contributions can help promote activity trackers as an essential piece of equipment that helps monitor progress during workouts as well as other times, such as when the user is at rest or sleeping. We will see that by being continually reminded to walk about and avoid sitting for extended periods of time or doing nothing at all, this helps a person build healthy behaviors. Additionally, activity trackers should be designed to maintain a person's motivation to finish the daily activity routine, which is necessary for people to accomplish their health and fitness objectives. This thesis contributes with two quantitative models for the acceptance and use of activity trackers, and creates recommendations for different types of users.A aceitação de dispositivos ubíquos vestíveis de monitorização de atividade que rastreiam a atividade tem sido um tema cálido na última década. Várias teorias foram concebidas, principalmente como pensar o Modelo de Aceitação de Tecnologia (TAM). Essas teorias têm sido usadas em diferentes situações para aprender mais sobre como as pessoas e as organizações aceitam novas tecnologias. Conquanto o TAM seja maturo e funcione em diferentes situações, não há muitas investigações publicadas que tentem expandir a sua capacidade de prever como as pessoas reagirão a dispositivos ubíquos vestíveis de monitoramento de atividade. Uma razão para essa lacuna pode ser porque o TAM é baseado na ideia de que o comportamento de aceitação das pessoas só pode ser previsto por duas asseverações: Facilidade de Uso Percebida (PEOU) e Utilidade Percebida (PU). A literatura mostra que as asseverações nas PU e PEOU não são suficientes. Isso significa que essas duas asseverações podem não ser capazes de explicar o porquê de as pessoas aceitarem coisas novas, como monitores de atividade (AT). Por isso, é importante incluir quaisquer outros fatores que possam ajudar a prever a probabilidade de as pessoas usarem monitorizadores de atividade. Como extensão da pesquisa sobre o TAM, esta investigação criou e testou dois modelos de como as pessoas aceitam e usam dispositivos ubíquos vestíveis de monitorização de atividade, com dois questionários com mais de 200 repostas cada, que clarificam o assunto. Os modelos propostos agregaram conceitos-chave da pesquisa sobre como as pessoas aceitam os sistemas de informação ao referencial teórico do TAM e do Modelo de Aceitação de Tecnologia da Informação em Saúde (HITAM). Os modelos resultantes foram analisados usando uma variedade de técnicas estatísticas, incluindo Modelação de Equações Estruturais. O primeiro modelo foi reanalisado por meio de uma análise qualitativa com 20 entrevistas, e de novo reanalisado por meio de outro método quantitativo com Redes Neurais Artificiais (RNA). A construção de dois modelos que predizem a adoção e uso do monitorização da atividade é a contribuição mais significativa que pode ser retirada deste trabalho, juntamente com as diretrizes para o design de monitorizadores de atividade. Essas contribuições podem ajudar a promover os monitorizadores de atividade como um equipamento essencial que ajuda a monitorizar a evolução durante os treinos e em outros momentos, como quando o utilizador está em repouso ou dormindo. Ao ser continuamente lembrado para andar e evitar ficar sentado por longos períodos de tempo ou não fazer nada, isso ajuda o utilizador a construir comportamentos saudáveis. Além disso, os monitorizadores de atividade devem ser projetados para manter a motivação de uma pessoa em concluir a rotina diária de atividades, o que é necessário para que as pessoas atinjam seus objetivos de saúde e condição física. Esta tese contribui com modelos quantitativos para a aceitação e uso de monitorizadores de atividades e cria recomendações para diferentes tipos de utilizadores