Understanding the Adoption of Quantified Self-Tracking Wearable Devices in the Organization Environment: An Empirical Case Study

Prior research on wearable devices has focused heavily on the consumer market. This study makes a unique empirical contribution to wearables research by extending the knowledge on factors that contribute to the adoption of quantified self-tracking wearable devices in an organizational environment. A wearable acceptance model (WAM) and factors that can influence the individual's decision to adopt quantified self-tracking wearable devices and self-monitoring practices were tested with an online survey of 129 university employees (faculty, administration) and students. Partial least squares path modeling was applied in an analysis to test nine hypotheses to validate the WAM. The factors in the individual context i.e. attitude plays a significant mediating role between the intention to use and the other influential factors of technology, implementation and risk context. The factors of the fashnology (wearability, aesthetic/design), individual (attitude) and risk context (privacy concern) tend to have strong and direct effects on the intention to use the devices, whereas factors of risk context (privacy concern) and technology context (performance expectancy) have a moderate influence on the intention to use through attitude. Organizational facilitating conditions have a significant negative influence on the intention to use. Surprisingly, effort expectancy does not have any effect on attitude.