Coping with COVID-19 using contact tracing mobile apps
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-05-2022-0293 |
| Published date | 28 February 2023 |
| Date | 28 February 2023 |
| Pages | 1440-1464 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
| Author | Chenglong Li,Hongxiu Li,Shaoxiong Fu |
Coping with COVID-19 using
contact tracing mobile apps
Chenglong Li and Hongxiu Li
Department of Information and Knowledge Management, Tampere University,
Tampere, Finland, and
Shaoxiong Fu
College of Information Management, Nanjing Agricultural University,
Nanjing, China
Abstract
Purpose –To cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing mobile apps (CTMAs) have been developed
to trace contact among infected individuals and alert people at risk of infection. Todisrupt virus transmission
until the majority of the population has been vaccinated, achieving the herd immunity threshold, CTMA
continuance usage is essential in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. This study seeks to examine what
motivates individuals to continue using CTMAs.
Design/methodology/approach –Following the coping theory, this study proposes a research model to
examine CTMA continuance usage, conceptualizing opportunity appraisals (perceived usefulness and
perceived distress relief), threat appraisals (privacy concerns) and secondary appraisals (perceived response
efficacy) as the predictors of individuals’CTMA continuance usage during the pandemic. In the United States,
an online survey was administered to 551 respondents.
Findings –The results revealed that perceived usefulness and response efficacy motivate CTMA continuance
usage, while privacy concerns do not.
Originality/value –This study enriches the understanding of CTMA continuance usage during a public
health crisis, and it offers practical recommendations for authorities.
Keywords COVID-19, Contact tracing, Mobile application, Continuance usage, Coping theory
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries deployed contact tracing mobile
apps (CTMAs) to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (Rowe et al., 2020;Trang et al., 2020).
Installed on smartphones, these apps use Bluetooth or GPS signals to detect when two users
come into close contact with each other (such as within two meters for 15 min) (Ferretti et al.,
2020;Trang et al., 2020). Once an individual has tested positive for infection, these apps can
report their case anonymously and alert all other users who had been in close contact with the
infected person, allowing exposed users to quarantine or arrange a test and, thus, preventing
further transmission (Ferretti et al., 2020). However, such apps’success in controlling the
spread of COVID-19 depends on their use by individuals. To sufficiently disrupt coronavirus
infection, at least 56% of a country’s population, as Hinch et al. (2020) estimated, should use
such apps. Many European countries (e.g. Germany, Finland and France) and the United
States have deployed CTMAs on a voluntary basis (Rowe et al., 2020;Trang et al., 2020). It is
IMDS
123,5
1440
© Chenglong Li, Hongxiu Li and Shaoxiong Fu. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article
is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce,
distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial
purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence
may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-
for-profit sectors.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0263-5577.htm
Received 10 May 2022
Revised 15 October 2022
19 December 2022
Accepted 2 February 2023
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 123 No. 5, 2023
pp. 1440-1464
Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-05-2022-0293
necessary for authorities to understand how to motivate individuals to keep using CTMAs
during the pandemic, which is vital for achieving the goal of a high rate of CTMA use in a
country’s population to disrupt coronavirus infection, especially if the CTMA use is on a
voluntary basis. Therefore, understanding the factors that may facilitate or obstruct citizens’
CTMA continuance usage is crucial.
Recent studies have examined individuals’CTMA usage from different theoretical
perspectives, such as privacy concerns and diffusion of innovation theory (Lin et al., 2021),
unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) (Ojo and Rizun, 2021;Walter Thi
ee
et al., 2021), privacy calculus model and herding heuristics (Wagner et al., 2021), app specifications
(Trang et al.,2020) and critical social theory (Rowe et al.,2020). However, these studies focused
only on adoption and largely ignored continuance usage, which –unlike adoption’sfocusonthe
first-time use of apps –emphasizes the long-term use (Bhattacherjee, 2001). The initial adoption
does not always guarantee continuance usage (Bhattacherjee, 2001;Yan et al., 2021). Individual
users may stop using CTMAs after using it for some time. For instance, a Corsair study on
National Health Service (NHS) COVID-19 App in the United Kingdom has reported that 2% of
users deleted the app and 72% of users switched off the contact tracing function in the first two
months since the app was launched in September 2020 (Potts, 2020). The reasons for CTMA
continuance usage could be different from the ones explaining initial adoption. Users’
continuance usage could be influenced by their prior information systems (IS) use experience
such that their use experience could lead to their perception change on IS use, such as post-
expectation regarding usefulness, confirmation of pre-expectations following actual use and
satisfaction with prior IS use (Bhattacherjee, 2001). Thus, recent research findings on the
antecedents of CTMA adoption cannot fully explain the continuance usage of CTMA. To disrupt
virus transmission until the majority of the population has been vaccinated, achieving the herd
immunity threshold, people’s continuance usage of CTMA is essential in managing the COVID-
19 pandemic (Wymant et al.,2021).Moreover, since global COVID-19 infections keep spreading in
the world (WorldHealthOrganization,2021a), und erstanding how to promote CTMA
continuance usage is paramount to managing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additionally, prior studies have examined CTMA adoption from the view of benefits and
threats and highlighted privacy concerns as a threat inhibiting individuals’adoption of
CTMA (Chan and Saqib, 2021;Lin et al., 2021) but largely ignored the role of users’
assessment of coping options available to respond to privacy issues related to CTMA in
explaining their CTMA continuance usage during the public health crisis. The significance of
privacy protection regarding CTMA has been highlighted in the literature (Riemer et al.,
2020). Privacy-preserving techniques have also been applied in CTMA development to
protect CTMA users’privacy, such as anonymity and decentralization (Apple and Google,
2021). However, it is not clear how CTMA users’assessments regarding the coping resources
for privacy protection in their CTMA use will affect their continuance usage of CTMA in the
public health crisis. Hence, it is necessary to investigate whether users’assessments of coping
resources related to privacy protection can predict their continued usage of CTMA, in
addition to users’perceived benefits and threats of using CTMAs.
Furthermore, IS researchers have developed an extensive body of knowledge on IS
continuance (Bhattacherjee, 2001). Their research contexts mainly focus on normal daily life
or work environments. Mobile app continuance usage during a public health crisis might
have different causes than IS continuance usage in daily life or work-environment contexts.
CTMA continuance usage during the pandemic may be influenced by CTMA as a public good
(Rehse and Trem€
ohlen, 2022;Riemer et al., 2020). A public good is non-rivalrous and non-
exclusive; everyone can benefit from it, and one person’s use does not obstruct another’s
(Riemer et al., 2020). Therefore, some individuals may consider more about the social impact
of CTMA use rather than their personal costs, thus continuing to use CTMAs during a public
health crisis to contribute to the public goods (Campos-Mercade et al., 2021;Riemer et al.,
Continuance
usage of
contact tracing
apps
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