INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTS OF NEGATIVE HEALTH MOOD ON ACCEPTANCE OF MOBILE HEALTH SERVICES

The public's slow acceptance of mobile health (mHealth) services significantly impedes mHealth providers' performance gains. Therefore, these providers devise persuasive strategies to motivate more individuals to use their services. However, the relationship between persuasion cues and motivational factors remains largely unknown. This study integrates the elaboration likelihood model and motivational model to investigate individuals' mHealth services use intention by considering the effect of negative health mood. A questionnaire survey was conducted, with 270 responses collected to validate our research model and hypotheses. The results indicate that mHealth service matching and mHealth source credibility are positively associated with both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, which in turn affect use intention. While negative health mood has no significant direct effects on intrinsic motivation and use intention, it positively influences extrinsic motivation. In addition, negative health mood moderates the relationship between two critical persuasive cues and motivational factors. Specifically, negative health mood strengthens the effect of mHealth source credibility but weakens the effect of mHealth service matching on extrinsic motivation. Limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed.