Acceptance of wearable fitness devices in developing countries: exploring the country and gender-specific differences
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-11-2020-0456 |
| Published date | 13 August 2021 |
| Date | 13 August 2021 |
| Pages | 676-692 |
| Subject Matter | Strategy,International business |
| Author | Shweta Pandey,Deepak Chawla,Sandeep Puri,Luz Suplico Jeong |
Acceptance of wearable fitness devices
in developing countries: exploring the
country and gender-specific differences
Shweta Pandey, Deepak Chawla, Sandeep Puri and Luz Suplico Jeong
Abstract
Purpose –Notwithstanding the novelty and importance of wearable fitness devices, few studies have
focussed on comparing the drivers of adoption and usage of wearable fitness in the context of
developingcountries. This study aims to explore factorsthat drive overall acceptance of wearablefitness
devicesin developing countries (India and the Philippines)and whether the impact of these factors on the
intentionto adopt (INT) differs by country and gender.
Design/methodology/approach –The study extends the existingbody of knowledge by developing a
model that integrates the impact of various perceived benefits (health, autonomy, social, hedonic,
symbolic), health self-efficacy (HEALTHSE) and individualcharacteristics (technological innovativeness
[TI]) on the INT wearablefitness devices and the moderating impact of countryand gender. The analysis
was carriedout using partial least square and data of 343 respondents.
Findings –This study finds thatthe INT wearable fitness devices by consumersin developing countries
are positively impacted by hedonic, health and autonomy, HEALTHSE and TI. Symbolic and social
factors donot have any significant impact on the overallINT wearable fitness devices. However,there are
country and gender-specific differences that are consequential to the development of marketing
strategies.
Research limitations/implications –The framework and resultsare specific to the two countries and
limited by conveniencesampling. Future research can focuson replication across different countries and
extendthe model with additional contextual factorssuch as perceived risks.
Originality/value –To the best knowledge of the authors,this is one of the few studies to examine and
compare the drivers of adoptionof wearable fitness devices in lesser researched developing countries.
Also, it is oneof the few studies to compare the moderatingimpact of country and gender in the context of
the INT wearable devices. The study provides a theoretical and methodological foundation for future
research, as well as practical implications for global companies developing and promoting wearable
fitnessdevices.
Keywords India, Philippines, Usage, Intention to adopt, Wearable fitness devices
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The worldwide shipments of wearable devices reached 444.7 million in 2020 and it is
estimated to grow to overall 1 billion connected wearable devices by 2022 (Statista,
2020a). The data obtained from these devices can be used by consumers for self-health
management (Beh et al.,2019). Hence, usage of wearable devices assumes great
importance in the context of reduced medical costs and is consequential to national and
consumer health-care service savings (Bekhami and Daim, 2012). This study focusses
on wearable fitness devices that are small wrist-worn devices that measure body
movement and function and track health and activity information (Lupton, 2013;Ryan
et al., 2019).
Shweta Pandey is based at
De La Salle University,
Manila, Philippines and
National Taiwan University,
Taipei, Taiwan.
Deepak Chawla is
Professor Emeritus from
International Management
Institute, New Delhi, India.
Sandeep Puri is based at
the Asian Institute of
Management, Makati City,
Philippines.
Luz Suplico Jeong is based
at the Marketing and
Advertising Department,
College of Business, De La
Salle University, Manila,
Philippines.
Received 24 November 2020
Revised 6 April 2021
18 June 2021
Accepted 27 June 2021
The authors would like to
acknowledge and thank the
reviewers for their valuable
suggestions.
Funding: This research did not
receive any specific grant from
funding agencies in the public,
commercial or not-for-profit
sectors.
PAGE 676 jJOURNAL OF ASIA BUSINESS STUDIES jVOL. 16 NO. 4 2022, pp. 676-692, ©EmeraldPublishing Limited, ISSN 1558-7894 DOI 10.1108/JABS-11-2020-0456
Current research has mainly explored the medical context of the adoption of these devices
with a focus on markets such as the USA, Australia, Germany, Taiwan and Korea
(Dehghani, 2018;Jeong et al., 2017;Karapanos et al., 2016;Lunney et al.,2016;
Marakhimov and Joo, 2017;Ryan et al., 2019;Shin et al.,2019). These markets belong to
upper-middle/high-income groups with well-developed health-care systems and a high
percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) spent on health care with the governments
providing quality health care coverage (Gao et al.,2016;Jeong et al., 2017;Wait and Nolte,
2005;WHO, 2020). In contrast, lower/middle income developing countries have expensive
health-care facilities, higher density of traffic, low air quality and high pollution levels and
limited affordable options such as exercise gyms and sports facilities, therefore, the
environmental and health-care infrastructure conditions also discourage outdoor activities
(Nanda, 2017;Papa et al.,2020). Health-care research also finds that developing countries
have insufficient fitness levels (Gastaldi et al., 2019;WHO, 2020). In such circumstances,
wearable fitness devices offer an alternative option for consumers to exercise preventive
health care and reduce their health care expenses (Papa et al., 2020). The limited research
on wearable fitness devices in the context of developing countries that have varied
environmental and infrastructure conditions as compared to developed countries
necessitates research to examine the factors driving the adoption and continued usage of
wearable fitness devices across these countries (Cheung et al.,2019;Lupton, 2013). Also,
there is a dearth of studies that have explored cross-country research in the domain of
wearable devices (Dutot et al., 2019;Meieret al., 2020).
This research focusses on the lesser-studied developing countries in Asia–India and the
Philippines, which have a low percentage of GDP spent on health care (WHO, 2020). The
revenue in the wearables segment reached US$132m in 2020 in the Philippines, with
average revenue per user of US$32.10 (Statista, 2020b), as compared to US$1,923m in
2020 in India, with average revenue per user of US$24.66 (Statista, 2020c). There are
differences in the culture, health-care facilities and beliefs across the twocountries that may
impact the impact of the perceived benefits, self-efficacy and technological innovativeness
(TI) across the two countries.Further, there is a dearth of research focussing on whether the
impact of predictors on the intention to use wearable fitness devices varies by gender
(Mielke et al.,2018).
Given the above research gaps, this study has the following objectives. Firstly, it aims to
explore the drivers of wearable fitness devices on the intention to adopt (INT) and actual
usage of these devices in developing countries (scoped to be India and the Philippines for
purpose of this study); explore if the impact of the predictors on the INT differs across India
and the Philippines; explore if the impact of predictorsin the INT wearable fitness devices is
moderated by gender?
Our paper is structured as follows. In Section 2, we discuss the relevant theoretical
foundations and the conceptual model. Based on these foundations, we develop our
hypotheses in Section 3. In Section 4, we outline the research methodology. In Section 5,
we report the results of the analysis. Subsequently, we discuss the implications and
conclusions in Section 6. Finally, in Section 7, we discuss the limitations and outline our
suggestions for future research.
2. Literature review
2.1 What are wearable fitness devices?
Wearables fitness devices entail electronic devices, such as watches and bracelets,
incorporated into items of clothing and accessories (Spil et al.,2017). Consumers wear
these devices to track physical activities and fitness-related metrics. They are a particular
form of internet of things with a machine to a human interface (Canhoto and Arp, 2017).
Commercially available wearable fitness devices made by Fitbit, Xiaomi, Garmin, Jawbone
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