Investigating Adoption Factors of Wearable Technology in Health and Fitness

Since the mid 2000's wearable technology (WT) has been available for consumers to use for health and fitness purposes. WT fitness devices are small, easily portable and can be worn on clothing or any part of the body. These devices have an interactive display which allows its users to track and record their physical activities. With the advancement in technology for WT devices and the exponential consumer adoption rate, it is important to understand the various factors that would lead a consumer to adopt these devices for health and fitness purposes. There are many international studies, focusing on using smart watches and smart wristbands, to test the devices' features during physical activities. However, there is minimal research conducted from a South African consumer perspective around adoption of these devices. This research study uses the second generation of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model to investigate the factors of adoption which would influence an individual's behavioural intention towards using a wearable device, focusing on health and fitness purposes. The results from the study identify Performance Expectancy and Habit as important factors of adoption of wearable devices for health and fitness purposes. An important outcome of the results however, indicates that individuals did not enjoy using their wearable devices during physical activity and therefore Hedonic Motivation was not shown as an important contributing factor for the intention to adopt these devices.