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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.

Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, the purpose of this paper was to posit an industry-wide technological intervention for hotel housekeeper safety and health through the advancement of wearable technology.

Using the task-technology fit (TTF) model and examples of successful safety and health applications of wearable technologies in the health-care and construction management industries, interventions and future research directions are presented to address workplace hazards experienced by hotel housekeepers.

The fit between a variety of hotel housekeeper user requirements, task demands and wearable functions are explored with justification for the use of wearable devices to improve safety and health-related outcomes.

A research agenda is proposed for the adoption and use of wearables in the hospitality industry with the intention to generate meaningful interventions beyond corporate wellness, and the mitigation of employee privacy concerns to enhance wearable adoption.

Given the importance of consumer safety and health assurance in a post-pandemic business environment, hospitality and tourism organizations should place greater emphasis on protecting front line employees who will be essential in regaining economic viability.

Theoretical and practical foci should move beyond a simplistic view of hospitality and tourism worker safety and health that generally centers on wellness initiatives and other baseline strategies, toward a more holistic view benefitting the hospitality industry.

Extant concerns about hotel housekeeper safety and health, in addition to new concerns and threats in a post-pandemic work environment, are largely understudied and worthy of investigation.

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.

There are two-fold objectives to this research. First is to analyse the importance of technology readiness (TR) for the users in using sports and fitness wearable devices in India. And second is to explore if gymnasium (gym) users are much more technologically ready as compared to non-gym users to use sports and fitness wearable devices.

The study uses technology readiness and acceptance model (TRAM) to examine the users' intention to use sports and fitness wearable devices. Data from a survey of 907 respondents from India were collected and partial least squares (PLS)-structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was used to empirically examine it.

The outcomes reveal that innovativeness and optimism have a positive influence on perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU), and insecurity and discomfort have a negative influence on PEOU and PU. Both PEOU and PU act as important determinants in the user's intention to use sports and fitness wearable devices. The multi-group analysis (MGA) suggests that gym users tend to exhibit more positive intention towards using sports and fitness wearable devices and show higher probability of using the wearable devices relative to non-gym users.

There are hardly any studies on intention to use sports and fitness wearable devices in India. The current research tries to understand the intention behind the gym users and non-gym users to use sports and fitness wearable devices. The outcomes of the research will help the marketers to align their promotional campaign based on the new segmentation variable “gym-user/non-gym user”. The research also highlights the importance of TR in the use of sports and fitness wearable devices in India.

The purpose of this paper is to expand current knowledge about the recent trend of wearable technology to assess both its potential in the work environment and the challenges concerning the utilisation of wearables in the workplace.

After establishing exclusion and inclusion criteria, an independent systematic search of the ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect and Web of Science databases for relevant studies was performed. Out of a total of 359 articles, 34 met the selection criteria.

This review identifies 23 categories of wearable devices. Further categorisation of the devices based on their utilisation shows they can be used in the work environment for activities including monitoring, augmenting, assisting, delivering and tracking. The review reveals that wearable technology has the potential to increase work efficiency among employees, improve workers’ physical well-being and reduce work-related injuries. However, the review also reveals that technological, social, policy and economic challenges related to the use of wearable devices remain.

Many studies have investigated the benefits of wearable devices for personal use, but information about the use of wearables in the work environment is limited. Further research is required in the fields of technology, social challenges, organisation strategies, policies and economics to enhance the adoption rate of wearable devices in work environments.

Previous studies indicate that occupational stress and injuries are detrimental to employees’ health; this paper analyses the use of wearable devices as an intervention method to monitor or prevent these problems. Introducing a categorisation framework during implementation may help identify which types of device categories are suitable and could be beneficial for specific utilisation purposes, facilitating the adoption of wearable devices in the workplace.

The subject of this paper is wearable computing technology. The purpose of this paper is to determine its potential in libraries to meet the needs of both users and librarians. The specific goals include: description of the main features of wearable computing from the perspective of its potential usefulness in libraries; analysis of areas of wearable computing use in public institutions; discussion of the potential of wearable computing for library users; and discussion of the potential of wearable computing for librarians to determine its potential in libraries to meet the needs of users and librarians.

The method of subject literature overview was used. The state of research from the period 2008 to 2018 on the use of wearable computing in libraries was established based on a search of selected sources Web of Science, Scopus, Elsevier and Emerald databases and LISTA database.

Wearable computing can be used in many areas of library activities to serve the needs of users and librarians. In the context of services for users, wearable computing can be used, among others, to help users navigate the library, to provide resources in new and interesting forms, and in education and entertainment. For the needs of librarians, additional data provided via wearable devices can accelerate the process of cataloguing resources and increase motivation to work via gamification options and features that make it possible to measure personal work efficiency. Librarians can also use the data obtained wearable computing devices to more quickly track, identify, select and organize resources. As with users, librarians can also use wearable computing in their education.

The paper is a viewpoint based on subject literature. It presents only a sketch of potential wearable computing applications in libraries. The aim of the paper is to initiate further discussion on the possibilities of using wearable devices to improve both services for users and internal library processes. The author’s hope is that the concepts presented here will be tested in practice by librarians, which will allow further development of research on this subject.

The results can be widely used in practice as a framework for the implementation of wearable computing solutions in libraries.

The paper can help to facilitate the debate on the role of the implementation of new technologies in libraries.

The issue of the use of wearable computing has not yet been widely discussed in library and information science journals. In the very few publications on similar topics, only the perspective on the application of new solutions in services for users is presented. This paper also shows the potential for improving libraries’ internal processes with the use of wearable computing.

This study aims to examine the wearable devices market as an essential representative of the digital age using a framework based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and the context of sports wearables.

411 people, are both users and non-users of this technology were surveyed online, and the obtained data analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results support the effects of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, and social influence on attitude toward sports wearables and attitude of usage intention. Further, technophobia moderates the relationship between performance expectancy and attitude. However, a moderating effect of technophobia on the relationship between effort expectancy and attitude was not observed.

Due to innovative technologies in the digital age we live in, the devices we use in everyday life have gained intelligence. As more developments take place, and related products enter the market, understanding how people react to these products becomes an important issue. While investigating this issue in the context of sports wearables in this study, an important psychological construct, technophobia, was included in the research model in order to explore the usage intention of individuals through the effects of psychological constructs, such as paranoia, fear, anxiety, cybernetic revolt and cellphone avoidance, and the strong combination of important constructs of phobia to go against technology.