Global Journal of Management and Business Research, E: Marketing, Volume 23 Issue 1

Understanding the Age Differences in Adopting WFTs: An Extension of the UTAUT2 Model Mohammad Alauddin Correspondin g Author: Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing, University o f Chittagong, Chattogram, Bangladesh. e-mail: moh ammad_alauddin@cu.ac.bd Abstract- Though the use of Wearable Fitness Trackers (WFT) is advancing at an unprecedented pace in developed countries, Bangladesh is still fall behind far away to cope with the proliferate features of advanced technologies, whereas age differences play a vital role for technology adoption especially WFT devices in the context of developing countries. Thus, this study, based on the factors used in Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) along with an additional construct ‘Health consciousness’, explore the relationship among the endogenous and exogenous variables to develop a clear- foresightedness regarding the WFT adoption in Bangladesh. To achieve this, a survey was employed to collect primary data from 288 WFT users. The data were analyzed using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method, a statistical analysis technique based upon Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). However, this study explored that hedonic motivation, health consciousness, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, habit as well as performance expectancy (p< 0.05) are the most cardinal factors that have a strong influence on behavioral intention of the users to adopt WFT devices. Moreover, the impact of effort expectancy, habit, health consciousness on intention-to-use of WFT is further multiplied the usage behavior by the virtue of the moderating effect of the age differences. The study, however, revealed social influence and price value are trivial factors working as catalyst behind the acceptance of WFT devices (p > 0.05) Therefore, the findings can guide the WFT marketers and policymakers to make some fruitful decisions for encouraging the usage of WFT devices considerably among the target population. Keywords: WFT, adoption, UTAUT2 model, age, developing countries. I. I ntroduction he vast dissemination of smartphones and wearable devices has facilitated consumers to check, record and convey information about their physical pursuits, such as heart rate, temperature, calories incinerated and time elapsed while they were active physically (Talukder, Chiong, Bao, Malik, & Systems, 2018). A topic of global discussion is now centered on the impetuous inundation of technology and the continuous increase in the number of elderly people worldwide (Sharit & Czaja, 2017). According to data from World Population Prospects: the 2019 Revision, by 2050, one in six people in the world will be over age 65 (16%), up from one in 11 in 2019 (9%) (United Nations, 2021). For instance, world’s total elderly population aged 60 and above years is expected to rise by 56% from 1 billion in 2019 to 2.1 billion in 2050 (Keating, 2022)(United Nations, 2021), where in Bangladesh, the number of older people is projected to stand at 36 million in 2050, with an annual growth of 21.9% of the nation’s total population (Help Age International, 2019), which means that one in every five Bangladeshis will be an older adult. Moreover, 50% of world’s total senior citizen will reside in Bangladesh along with other four Asian countries, namely, China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan together by 2025 (Chaklader, Haque, & Kabir, 2003). As the number of older adults in the country increases, so does the amount of non-communicable chronic diseases like heart attacks (Powell, Thompson, Caspersen, & Kendrick, 1987; Waxman, 2004), hypertension (Waxman, 2004), stroke (Wendel-Vos et al., 2004), diabetes (Sigal, Kenny, Wasserman, & Castaneda- Sceppa, 2004; Waxman, 2004), certain cancer (Slattery et al., 2003; Waxman, 2004) and obesity (Hill & Wyatt, 2005; Waxman, 2004), but people of all age-group can augment the quality of life by engaging themselves in physical activity. The World Health Organization (World Health Organization, 2010) has echoed that every adult should put their endeavor in moderate-level outdoor activities at least 150 min per week to ameliorate the physical and mental health as well as control the prevalence of chronic diseases. Since one third adults reside in Bangladesh exhibits physical in-activeness (Moniruzzaman et al., 2016), there is a need for a continuous effort to motivate them for engaging in physical exercise by the help of technologies, which can assist elderly people to change their behavior (Połap, Winnicka, Serwata, K ę sik, & Wo ź niak, 2018) though the rate of technology adoption by Bangladeshi is very poor (Barua & Barua, 2021; Barua et al., 2018; Sagib & Zapan; 2014). For example, wearable fitness trackers (WFT) are seen as a promising tool for individuals to take responsibility of one’s own life and assist to self- monitor and self-regulate their fitness goals (Mercer et al., 2016). To achieve this, WFTs are designed to continuous keep tracking of physical activities such as steps walked, miles pedaled or traveled, number of calories intake or consumed, body temperature, heartbeat rate measurement, level of blood sugar, perspiration, sleeping pattern, floors climbed and sweat T 1 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXIII Issue I Version I Year 2023 ( )E © 2023 Global Journals