What Determines Consumers’ Intention for Hotel Bookings through Smartphone Apps?

In the emerging market, the usage of smartphone apps is playing an imperative role and supporting travelers in their online hotel bookings. This study aims to examine the various determinants that affect travelers’ behavioral intention regarding hotel booking through smartphone apps. Data was collected from 379 hotel guests who used smartphone apps for hotel bookings. The respondents for this study are taken from Delhi. Further, the hypotheses of this study were validated with the help of structural equation modeling (SEM) using partial least squares (PLS). The results of this study found all dimensions significant except for effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, and habits. A newly added dimension, perceived trust was also found a significant predictor of consumers’ behavioral intentions for hotel booking through smartphone apps. The study provides implications for hotel managers that the information provided on apps must be accurate, up-to-date, and reliable regarding hotel services. By incorporating relevant information in the system, travelers’ will feel the hotels are trustworthy and thus their tendency to use smartphone apps for hotel bookings will increase.  As well as hotel apps must be easy to operate which reduces travelers' extra efforts and time while using them

Patient adherence to smartphone weight loss applications: A dietitian perception study

Background: Dietitians play an important role in weight management. Self-monitoring of food intake is an effective tool for weight management. As smartphones gain popularity, many individuals are using smartphone apps for diet tracking to lose weight. Objective: To determine the dietitians’ perception on whether their involvement with the use of smartphone weight loss apps results in increased patient/client adherence and increased weight loss. Methods: An online survey was completed by 2,532 weight management dietitians. Paired t-tests were used to determine dietitians’ perceptions on patient/client adherence and weight loss using smartphone apps with dietitian intervention compared to without dietitian intervention (p\u3c.05). Results/Conclusion: Eighty-three percent of weight management dietitians recommended smartphone weight loss apps. Dietitians’ perceive adherence with smartphone apps to be significantly greater with dietitian feedback than without dietitian feedback (p=.000). Dietitians also perceive weight loss with smartphone apps to be significantly greater with dietitian feedback than without dietitian feedback (p=.000)

The Need for Culturally-Tailored Smartphone Applications for Weight Control

Background: Approximately 35% of U.S. adults are obese, and this rate is expected to increase by almost 50% by 2030. New media such as smartphone applications (apps) provide a useful and low-cost way to disseminate weight control information. For many culturally distinctive population subgroups, however, there is currently an absence of research-tested smartphone apps for weight control. Methods: In this commentary, we highlight the need for culturally tailored smartphone apps for weight control and offer recommendations for further research by providing two specific examples: 1) the characteristic dietary patterns and absence of smartphone apps for weight loss for Hispanic Americans, in English and Spanish, and 2) and need for smartphone apps for weight loss for Brazilian Americans, including those who speak Portuguese. Results: Smartphone apps can be an effective intervention for improving diet and nutrition, encouraging physical activity, and reducing obesity, but few randomized controlled trials have been conducted of stand-alone smartphone apps for weight loss that focus primarily on self-monitoring of diet and physical activity. Further, there have been no published studies of apps for promoting healthy diet, better nutrition, increasing levels of physical activity, and weight loss among Hispanic Americans or Brazilian Americans. Conclusions: Low-cost, effective e-Health interventions (healthcare practices supported by electronic processes) are needed to promote physical activity, healthy eating, and weight control in culturally distinctive subgroups of the population. For weight loss, apps should be developed by use of evidence-based approaches that relate to behavioral theories. Additional public health research is needed to identify low-cost, effective strategies for weight loss for people who have varying levels of health literacy, and for non-English speakers. Culturally tailored e-Health interventions for weight control are more likely to address the needs of individuals and increase their motivation to engage in health promoting behaviors

THE IMPACT OF SMARTPHONE APPLICATION TECHNOLOGY ON FOOD ORDERING BY USING NEW VENTURE CREATION THEORY (A Comparative Case Study with Two Restaurant Enterprises Bebek Garang and Pecel Lele Lela in Bandung City)

The development of information technology is currently increasing rapidly which could influence the mindset and behavior of a company. Due to the development of new technologies adopted in such mobile communication as smartphone application technology, the growth of smartphone users is increasing in term of lifestyle and its role in supporting daily activity. Many businesses took it as the opportunity for them by making and developing smartphone apps for their business since it has great potential to develop, market, differentiate, compete and make them become accessable for the customers. This research is conducted in order to analyze the impact smartphone apps technology in food ordering. It is expected to become innovation and unique value-added for restaurant business when ordering can be done through smartphone apps particularly for delivery and take-away services. This is meant to analyze what are the opportunity, obstacles, chances, and aspects that an entrepreneur must consider if this typical technology would be applied. This research took place in Bandung, where there are already two smartphone apps that exist for food ordering-foodpanda and pesanaja, and Bandung also has a nickname “food-heaven” where many kind of restaurants and foods that established and available in Bandung. The type of this research is exploratory qualitative method, because there is not much information known regarding smartphone apps in restaurant business and it conducted to clarify ambiguous situations or discover idea that may be potential business opportunities. Primary data are gathered through interviewing four respondents, the first one Manager of Bebek Garang, the second one Manager of Pecel Lele Lela, Marketing of Pesan Aja and last Mobile Application Developer.. This research is comparative study between two objects of study with the business that has adopted smarphone and the one that has not adopted. The result shows that the smartphone apps would be adding more value for business, it could help service improvement; faster accessable, reduce error that waiters might make and bcome interactive marketing. And it could also become opportunity for business to sustain and compete by realizing the trend. Nevertheless, there are several aspects that must be considered to apply smartphone apps in the restaurant; those are organizational readiness, customer behavior, and other aspects such as product and service quality. Keywords: Smartphone Application, restaurant, information technology, innovation, value-added, culinary busines

Marketing to the digital self - assessing the variables affecting the adoption and retention of branded Smartphone applications in relation to the theory of self-concept

This research explores the extent to which Smartphones and Smartphone apps can be viewed as an extension of ourselves. Digital technology allows us to shape who we are (our actual self) and re-invent who we want to be (our ideal self), yet little research has explored how a consumer’s self-concept effects their brand engagement with Smartphone apps. Drawing on research from Marketing Communications, Psychology and Human-computer interaction, the relationship between consumers’ digital selves and adoption, usage and retention of branded Smartphone apps will be analysed. A longitudinal exploratory study taking a mixed methods approach, will use questionnaires and netnography to examine whether a users’ self-concept affects their app usage behaviour. Expected outcomes from the research include contribution of academic knowledge to the neglected area of app usage as well as mobile marketing and digital brand engagement. The variables identified will also provide recommendations for the creation of Smartphone applications as a marketing communications tool

Encouraging Privacy-Aware Smartphone App Installation: Finding out what the Technically-Adept Do

Smartphone apps can harvest very personal details from the phone with ease. This is a particular privacy concern. Unthinking installation of untrustworthy apps constitutes risky behaviour. This could be due to poor awareness or a lack of knowhow: knowledge of how to go about protecting privacy. It seems that Smartphone owners proceed with installation, ignoring any misgivings they might have, and thereby irretrievably sacrifice their privacy

Moderating effects of cross-cultural dimensions on the relationship between persuasive smartphone application's design and acceptance-loyalty

Applying persuasive system design to different cultures has been a focus of many researchers as the global medium of communication has been centered within Smartphone via applications (apps). This is due to the vast proliferation of the Smartphone and the personal attachment of users to this device in various cultures. This led designers to search for ultimate ways to target users in specific regions of the world. The basic purpose of this study was to determine the relevance of cross-cultural factors to persuasive technologies, and the acceptance and loyalty of Smartphone apps. This was achieved by examining the moderating effects of Hofstede’s six cross-cultural dimensions on the relationship between Oinas-Kukkonen and Harjumaa’s Persuasive System Design (PSD), and acceptance and loyalty. By evaluating elements of persuasive systems design and cross-cultural dimensions, from user’s perspective, against a globally popular application like WhatsApp, an instrument was devised to investigate the cross-cultural adoption and continued use of Smartphone apps. Using this instrument, surveys were conducted for this research study to identify the influencing factors that have motivated the users from Malaysia, Netherlands, Germany, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to adopt and continue using this application on a daily basis. These surveys, which included responses from 488 participants, further investigated if there is one cross-cultural dimension that has more moderating effects per country. The findings indicate an agreement among WhatsApp users from all four countries about their reasons for adopting and using this app, namely: social influence (93.7 percent), reliability (83.4 percent), dialog-support via feedback (76.4 percent), ease of use (90.5 percent) and small cost (87.7 percent). The results put new perspective that the gap among cultures is narrowing. Persuasive design strategies are particularly relevant to cultures across the globe. This study can aid the research community in investing efforts into enhancing the persuasive design framework for Smartphone apps

Smartphone Apps in the Context of Tinnitus: Systematic Review

Smartphones containing sophisticated high-end hardware and offering high computational capabilities at extremely manageable costs have become mainstream and an integral part of users' lives. Widespread adoption of smartphone devices has encouraged the development of many smartphone applications, resulting in a well-established ecosystem, which is easily discoverable and accessible via respective marketplaces of differing mobile platforms. These smartphone applications are no longer exclusively limited to entertainment purposes but are increasingly established in the scientific and medical field. In the context of tinnitus, the ringing in the ear, these smartphone apps range from relief, management, self-help, all the way to interfacing external sensors to better understand the phenomenon. In this paper, we aim to bring forth the smartphone applications in and around tinnitus. Based on the PRISMA guidelines, we systematically analyze and investigate the current state of smartphone apps, that are directly applied in the context of tinnitus. In particular, we explore Google Scholar, CiteSeerX, Microsoft Academics, Semantic Scholar for the identification of scientific contributions. Additionally, we search and explore Google’s Play and Apple's App Stores to identify relevant smartphone apps and their respective properties. This review work gives (1) an up-to-date overview of existing apps, and (2) lists and discusses scientific literature pertaining to the smartphone apps used within the context of tinnitus

A review of the current use of commercial wearable technology and smartphone apps with application in monitoring individuals following total hip replacement surgery

The advent of commercially available wearable activity monitors and smartphone apps allows objective digital monitoring of daily activities of patients before and after THR surgery. A wide variety of wearable activity monitors and smartphone apps are being marketed to assist with enhancing physical activity following surgery. A systematic review of commercial wearable tech- nology and smartphone apps was undertaken to assess the evidence supporting their efficacy in assisting rehabilitation and patient monitoring following THR. A search was conducted using the electronic databases including Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane, PsycARTICLES and PubMed of studies from January 2000 to January 2019. Five studies met the eligibility criteria. A review of the studies found very little evidence to support long term efficacy of the technology in enhancing rehabilitation and patient monitoring post THR. Future work is required to establish which commercially available monitoring technology is most valuable to patients, which ones improve clinical outcomes post THR, and what are the best economical models for their deployment