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Technologies have had a positive impact on the construction industry. Technologies such as BIM, automation, augmented and virtual reality, Internet of Things and robotics have been adopted by construction firms to enhance productivity. However, not much research has been done on the awareness and adoption of wearable technologies for health and safety (H&S) management. This paper investigates the level of awareness and adoption of wearable technologies for H&S management in the Nigerian construction industry.

A quantitative research method was adopted for the study. An electronic questionnaire format was used as an instrument to collect the data. Both descriptive (mean score) and inferential statistics (Kruskal–Wallis test) were used to analyse the data.

The results indicate that organisations rarely use H&S wearable devices for H&S management although professionals within the construction industry are somewhat aware of the common H&S wearable devices. The findings further indicate that all 11 variables were perceived as “rarely adopted”, whereas 2 variables were perceived as “aware”, 3 variables as “slightly aware” and the remaining 6 variables as “somewhat aware”.

Data were collected from only construction professionals working in government agencies, consultancy firms and grade D contracting firms in Lagos and Abuja. For a broader perspective, a study that expands the number of states and categories of construction firms is recommended.

The construction industry in Nigeria can use the recommendations to improve H&S management on site. Moreover, the recommendations can contribute to the development of policies to promote the adoption of wearable technologies in construction sites.

Research on wearable technologies, particularly in the Nigerian construction industry, is at the developing stage. With this article, the authors contribute to the body of knowledge in this area of research.

This paper aims to investigate the key enablers and inhibitors that influence the intention to use fitness wearables using the value-based adoption model (VAM).

Data were collected using a structured online questionnaire from 323 respondents who had never used fitness wearables. A purposive sampling technique was used in this study. Smart PLS was employed to test the research framework and hypotheses using a two-step approach.

The findings support some of the hypotheses developed with R² values of 0.622 for perceived value (PV) and 0.567 for intention to use fitness wearable. Perceived enjoyment, perceived social image and perceived usefulness had a positive effect on PV. In addition, health information sensitivity (HIS) was positively related to perceived privacy risk and health information accuracy was positively related to perceived usefulness. Surprisingly, this study did not find any significant relationship between perceived fee, perceived privacy risk, perceived health increase and perceived design aesthetics with PV.

This study's findings can help designers and manufacturers design fitness wearables by considering factors that users find valuable, thus satisfying consumers' needs.

This study tries to model behavioural intention of fitness wearable usage of individual users by using the VAM with the addition of two new antecedences, HSI and health information accuracy, to better explain the behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to understand what dimensions consumers prefer to track using wearable technology to achieve a healthier lifestyle and how these tracking dimensions are related.

An online survey was conducted with potential consumers in the USA, and a series of Pearson’s correlation and regression analysis and multiple regressions was conducted.

The most preferred self-tracking dimensions, tracking dimensions on others, most private tracking dimensions, most variable dimensions, and the dimensions that need to be improved were identified. The results of this study showed positive relationships overall among similar types of tracking dimensions, such as among dimensions of physical health condition (disease and disorder symptoms and general vital signs), mental health condition (stress level and mood/feeling), healthy lifestyle (fitness, and pose and posture), and productivity and task management (work productivity, location, and time management).

Designers are encouraged to make wearable technology products that are durable, easy to care for, attractive in design, comfortable to wear and use, able to track preferred dimensions, appropriate for various consumers, unobtrusive, portable, and small. This research will guide wearable technology and fashion industry professionals in the development process of wearable technology to benefit consumers by helping them be more self-aware, empowering them to develop a healthier lifestyle, and ultimately increasing their quality of life and well-being.

Recent advancements in wearable computing offer opportunities for art galleries to provide a unique experience. However, to ensure successful implementation of this new technology in the visitor industry, it is essential to understand user requirements from a visitor’s point of view. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate visitors’ requirements for the development of a wearable smart glasses augmented reality (AR) application in the museum and art gallery context.

Interviews with 28 art gallery visitors were conducted and an affinity diagram technique was used to analyze the interviews.

The findings reveal that wearable AR is in its infancy and that technical and design issues have to be overcome for a full adoption. It reveals that content requirement, functional requirement, comfort, experience and resistance are important when developing and implementing the wearable AR application in the museum and art gallery contexts.

Mapping user requirements in the wearable smart glasses AR context using an affinity diagram is a new approach and therefore contributes to the creation of knowledge in the tourism domain. Practically, the area of wearable technologies and AR within the tourism and visitor industry context is still relatively unexplored, and the present paper provides a first foundation for the implementation of wearable smart glasses AR applications in the museum and art gallery context.

This paper aims to examine how metadata taxonomies in embodied computing databases indicate context (e.g. a marketing context or an ethical context) and describe ways to track the evolution of the embodied computing industry over time through digital media archiving.

The authors compare the metadata taxonomies of two embodied computing databases by providing a narrative of their top-level categories. After identifying these categories, they describe how they structure the databases around specific themes.

The growing wearables market often hides complex sociotechnical tradeoffs. Marketing products like Vandrico Inc.’s Wearables Database frame wearables as business solutions without conveying information about the various concessions users make (about giving up their data, for example). Potential solutions to this problem include enhancing embodied computing literacy through the construction of databases that track media about embodied computing technologies using customized metadata categories. Databases such as FABRIC contain multimedia related to the emerging embodied computing market – including patents, interviews, promotional videos and news articles – and can be archived through user-curated collections and tagged according to specific themes (privacy, policing, labor, etc.). One of the benefits of this approach is that users can use the rich metadata fields to search for terms and create curated collections that focus on tradeoffs related to embodied computing technologies.

This paper describes the importance of metadata for framing the orientation of embodied computing databases and describes one of the first attempts to comprehensively track the evolution of embodied computing technologies, their developers and their diverse applications in various social contexts through media archiving.

The purpose of this paper is to identify motivational factors for using wearable healthcare devices and examine the process by which these factors are integrated with the technology acceptance model (TAM) and contribute to the adoption of the devices.

An online survey assessed the proposed motivational factors for the adoption of wearable healthcare devices. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were conducted on collected data (n=877) to demonstrate the reliability and validity of the measurement and structural model.

Perceived control and interactivity of wearable healthcare devices as well as users’ innovative tendencies are positively associated with usage intention, while perceived cost has no significant effects on user intention to use the devices. The results also supported the explanatory strength and predictability of TAM.

Although the promising role of wearable devices in healthcare industries has gained much consumer attention, limited empirical investigations have been conducted on explicating how user attitude and usage intention are shaped regarding the devices. This study serves as one of the first attempts to empirically examine the adoption process, with implications for the future usage of wearable technology in the healthcare context.

The development of wearable technology has significantly changed the way people participate in physical activities. The purpose of this paper is to segment users of sports wearable devices based on technology readiness (TR).

Participants comprised a convenience sample of 356 participants using sports wearable devices in South Korea. Cluster analysis was performed to identify clusters of sports wearable users based on their TR (i.e. motivating and inhibiting beliefs regarding technologies). Analysis of variance and post hoc Tukey’s test were used to determine whether there were significant differences among the clusters.

Clustering identified three groups of users of sports wearable devices: Explorers (high motivation, low inhibition), Laggards (low motivation, high inhibition) and Pioneers (high motivation, high inhibition). Each group demonstrated significant differences in TR (i.e. optimism, innovativeness, discomfort and insecurity). It also found that Laggards are more likely to be female and older users (i.e. over 40 years old).

This study explores characteristics of possible market segments and provides a better understanding of user profiles of sports wearable devices. These findings provide insightful implications for marketers of sports wearable devices, who can tailor marketing strategies to each segment. Designers of sports wearable devices can benefit from the user profiles and develop more appropriate products for users.

This empirical study examines the drivers of consumer intention to adopt wearable technology for healthcare in a South American country. Specifically, it proposes and tests a model of nonuser consumer intention to adopt fitness trackers for healthcare purpose in Chile.

This study draws on the technology acceptance framework UTAUT2 to develop and test a conceptual model of wearable technology adoption. Data were collected through an online survey applied to 470 nonusers of wearable technology in Santiago, Chile.

Findings indicate that hedonic motivation, social influence and perceived usefulness have the strongest influence on intention to adopt fitness trackers in Chile for healthcare. In addition, health motivation is an indirect predictor of consumer's intention to adopt wearable technology through its effect on perceived usefulness.

The study contributes to a better understanding of consumer intention to adopt wearable technology for healthcare objectives in a less developed country in South America. Findings are useful for wearable technology managers, retail business and public policymakers.

Despite the vast growth and importance of wearable technology for healthcare purposes, academic research considering less developed countries is scarce, especially the South American region. The proposed model and findings can extend this research gap. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed as well as implications for public policy.

Commercial entities (e.g. health and life insurance, airlines and supermarkets) in different countries have recently begun to introduce wearable technology as part of the consumer journey and as a means of enhancing the business value chain. While a firm’s decision to adopt such new technologies as wearable devices is often based on financial factors such as return on investment, costs and impact on profits, consumers may hold a different attitude toward the value of using smart wearables and sharing their personal data as part of their business-client relationships. The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer perceptions of and reactions to persuaded self-tracking (PST) – a practice in which businesses actively encourage consumers to monitor, collect and share personal biometric data through wearable technologies in exchange for personalized incentives and rewards.

Using a qualitative research approach and a purposeful sampling method, the authors conducted personal in-depth interviews with 24 consumers (both users and non-users of wearable devices). Interviews were recorded and transcribed, resulting in 600 pages of transcripts comprising more than 203,000 words. Data coding and analysis were facilitated by using NVivo.

Consumers’ assessment of PST is based on perceived value-in-use, privacy/security concerns and perceived fairness/justice, resulting in four types of reactions to adopt or use PST (embracing, considering, debating and avoiding). Specifically, the authors identified two individual determinants (intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation) and four firm-related determinants (design of wearable device, assurance, transparency and controllability) that influence consumer perceptions of PST.

Results of this study have implications for both vendors of wearable devices and firms trying to leverage smart wearables in their value chains. Identifying consumers’ perceptions, as well as barriers and enablers of acceptance, will help firms to more effectively design and develop wearable device-based services, thus gaining consumer support for using fitness trackers. The primary limitation of the study is that using a thematic analysis method diminishes the generalizability of our findings.

This study addresses an under-researched area: the integration of wearable technologies in a firm’s value chain through the lens of the consumers. This study is one of the first, according to authors’ knowledge, to investigate consumer perceptions of PST.

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 developing countries. This study aims to explore factors that drive overall acceptance of wearable fitness devices in developing countries (India and the Philippines) and whether the impact of these factors on the intention to adopt (INT) differs by country and gender.

The study extends the existing body of knowledge by developing a model that integrates the impact of various perceived benefits (health, autonomy, social, hedonic, symbolic), health self-efficacy (HEALTHSE) and individual characteristics (technological innovativeness [TI]) on the INT wearable fitness devices and the moderating impact of country and gender. The analysis was carried out using partial least square and data of 343 respondents.

This study finds that the INT wearable fitness devices by consumers in developing countries are positively impacted by hedonic, health and autonomy, HEALTHSE and TI. Symbolic and social factors do not have any significant impact on the overall INT wearable fitness devices. However, there are country and gender-specific differences that are consequential to the development of marketing strategies.

The framework and results are specific to the two countries and limited by convenience sampling. Future research can focus on replication across different countries and extend the model with additional contextual factors such as perceived risks.

To the best knowledge of the authors, this is one of the few studies to examine and compare the drivers of adoption of wearable fitness devices in lesser researched developing countries. Also, it is one of the few studies to compare the moderating impact 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 fitness devices.