Wearable Technology Acceptance in Health Care Based on National Culture Differences: Cross-Country Analysis Between Chinese and Swiss Consumers

Background

The advancement of wearable devices and growing demand of consumers to monitor their own health have influenced the medical industry. Health care providers, insurers, and global technology companies intend to develop more wearable devices incorporating medical technology and to target consumers worldwide. However, acceptance of these devices varies considerably among consumers of different cultural backgrounds. Consumer willingness to use health care wearables is influenced by multiple factors that are of varying importance in various cultures. However, there is insufficient knowledge of the extent to which social and cultural factors affect wearable technology acceptance in health care.

Objective

The aims of this study were to examine the influential factors on the intention to adopt health care wearables, and the differences in the underlying motives and usage barriers between Chinese and Swiss consumers.

Methods

A new model for acceptance of health care wearables was conceptualized by incorporating predictors of different theories such as technology acceptance, health behavior, and privacy calculus based on an existing framework. To verify the model, a web-based survey in both the Chinese and German languages was conducted in China and Switzerland, resulting in 201 valid Chinese and 110 valid Swiss respondents. A multigroup partial least squares path analysis was applied to the survey data.

Results

Performance expectancy (β=.361, P<.001), social influence (β=.475, P<.001), and hedonic motivation (β=.111, P=.01) all positively affected the behavioral intention of consumers to adopt wearables, whereas effort expectancy, functional congruence, health consciousness, and perceived privacy risk did not demonstrate a significant impact on behavioral intention. The group-specific path coefficients indicated health consciousness (β=.150, P=.01) as a factor positively affecting only the behavior intention of the Chinese respondents, whereas the factors affecting only the behavioral intention of the Swiss respondents proved to be effort expectancy (β=.165, P=.02) and hedonic motivation (β=.212, P=.02). Performance expectancy asserted more of an influence on the behavioral intention of the Swiss (β=.426, P<.001) than the Chinese (β=.271, P<.001) respondents, whereas social influence had a greater influence on the behavioral intention of the Chinese (β=.321, P<.001) than the Swiss (β=.217, P=.004) respondents. Overall, the Chinese consumers displayed considerably higher behavioral intention (P<.001) than the Swiss. These discrepancies are explained by differences in national culture.

Conclusions

This is one of the first studies to investigate consumers’ intention to adopt wearables from a cross-cultural perspective. This provides a theoretical and methodological foundation for future research, as well as practical implications for global vendors and insurers developing and promoting health care wearables with appropriate features in different countries. The testimonials and support by physicians, evidence of measurement accuracy, and easy handling of health care wearables would be useful in promoting the acceptance of wearables in Switzerland. The opinions of in-group members, involvement of employers, and multifunctional apps providing credible health care advice and solutions in cooperation with health care institutions would increase acceptance among the Chinese.

Technology Addictions and Technostress

In today's technology-centric world, people are becoming increasingly dependent on the Internet. The most common use of the Internet is through social media, which is used to communicate, share, collaborate, and connect. However, continued usage of a hedonic system can be linked with compulsion or addiction. Since problematic usage/behaviors can lead to negative outcomes, this study aims to determine differential effects of Internet and social media addictions on social media-related technostress. This is examined in two different cultures: The U.S. and China. The results support the association between the Internet and social media addictions with increases in social media-related technostress. Additionally, these effects are moderated by culture. Implications for research and practice are discussed along with future directions for this stream.

Understanding the Role of Cultural Orientations in the Formation of Entrepreneurial Intentions in Iran

The purpose of the present study was to examine how cultural orientations influence students’ entrepreneurial motivations and intentions in a developing country, namely Iran. Two cultural orientations, namely independent and interdependent self-construal, were incorporated into a model of entrepreneurial intention that draws upon the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and self-construal theory. In total, 290 final year undergraduate agricultural students from four public Iranian universities participated in the study. Questionnaire data were gathered. Using the partial least squares structural equation model, independent self-construal significantly and directly related to entrepreneurial intentions. Interdependent self-construal positively related to subjective norms, and independent self-construal positively related to perceived behavioral control. Both independent and interdependent self-construal helped explain the attitudes of individuals toward entrepreneurship with interdependent self-construal playing a greater role. The present results and their implications can help both policy makers and educators develop effective strategies for promoting entrepreneurship.

Uncertainty Avoidance and Consumer Cognitive Innovativeness in E-Commerce

This article describes how despite the extensive academic interest in e-commerce, an investigation of consumer cognitive innovativeness towards new product purchase intention has been neglected. Based on the stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) model, this study investigates the consumer cognitive innovativeness and the moderating role of the individual consumer-level uncertainty avoidance cultural value towards new product purchase intention in business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce. Structural equation modelling, such as partial least squares (PLS) path modelling was used to test the model, using a sample of 255 participants in Australia who have had prior online shopping experience. The findings show that the online store web atmosphere influences consumers' cognitive innovativeness to purchase new products in countries with diverse degrees of uncertainty avoidance such as Australia. The results provide some guidance for a B2C website design based on how individual's uncertainty avoidance and cognitive innovativeness can aid the online consumer purchasing decision-making process.

I Know I Can, But Can We?

Given the growing use of global virtual teams, one important factor to consider when examining team performance is the cultural backgrounds of the dispersed team members. Two hundred forty-three team members from universities in the United States and Hong Kong were administered three survey questionnaires during a series of virtual team projects. Results revealed that regardless of cultural background, team members reported less confidence in their ability to work in virtual team environments than traditional face-to-face environments and that team members from individualistic cultures reported higher self-efficacy beliefs (both group self-efficacy and virtual team self-efficacy) than team members from collectivist cultures. Furthermore, when the reference for efficacy beliefs changed from the individual to the group, the magnitude of change was greater for the collectivist versus individualistic team members. Implications and future research are also discussed.

Comparing Dutch and British high performing managers

National cultures have a strong influence on the performance of organizations and should be taken into account when studying the traits of high performing managers. At the same time, many studies that focus upon the attributes of successful managers show that there are attributes that are similar for managers across countries. This article reports on the development of empirically validated profiles of Dutch and British high performing managers. Based on a sample of 808 Dutch and 286 British managers and using the cross-cultural framework of Excellent Leadership by Selvarajah et al., the profiles of excellent Dutch and British managers was derived. The profiles of Dutch and British high performing managers can be described by a four-dimensional factor structure consisting of Managerial behaviours, Environmental influences, Personal qualities and Organizational demands. Based on these validated profiles, the similarities and differences in attributes for managerial success between Dutch and British high performing managers can be identified.

Antecedents of attitudes toward the website

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to analyze the moderating role of the cultural dimensions of long-term orientation (LTO) and individualism (IND) on the relationships between satisfaction online, message involvement (MI) and perceived usefulness (PU) of the web site on attitude toward the web site.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors chose a between-subjects experimental design, using culture (Spanish vs British) as the independent variable. Two versions of a web site for a fictitious tourist destination were created – one written in Spanish and the other in English. The sample comprised 491 users.

Findings

– The findings indicate that the LTO dimension moderates the relationship between satisfaction online and PU on attitude toward the web site. The relationships between MI and attitude toward the web site could not be confirmed.

Research limitations/implications

– The main limitation of this study is the comparison of only two cultures, Spain vs the UK.

Practical implications

– The key implication is that if marketers and web site designers can better understand how national cultural differences moderate the attitude formation and change process among tourists, this will enable them to market their destinations and services more effectively. National cultural differences explain the differences found in the effect of satisfaction and PU on attitude toward the web site.

Originality/value

– This study is one of the few analyzing the moderating effect of LTO and IND on three antecedents of attitude toward the web site. The original cultural values established by Hofstede (2001) were tested among the present sample to establish the extent to which they remain true today. To create an authentic browsing scenario for the experiment, a web site was specially designed for a fictitious tourist destination, with its own domain name (buyada.org). Subjects were invited to browse the site freely while carrying out the task assigned to them. This approach contributed added value to the research by simulating the real behavior of tourists who are faced with a range of choices when putting together a tourism package for a given destination.

Influence of culture on priority-setting of high performance activities

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there are common conceptions of high performance organizations (HPOs) among business in South Africa and Tanzania. This is important to know because their perceptions will not only influence the nature and scope of topics, syllabi and course materials used in teaching, but will also influence the priority of organizational decisions which are going to be made by the students when they are managers.

Design/methodology/approach

– Data were collected by means of a questionnaire from a sample of 357 second and third year business students who were asked to rate the 35 items contained in the HPO Framework (Waal, 2012) on a seven-point Likert-scale.

Findings

– Factor analysis revealed that South African and Tanzania business students put priority on three of the original five HPO factors: continuous improvement and renewal, long-term orientation, high quality management, comprising 16 of the original 35 HPO characteristics. A bivariate correlation between the HPO factors and Hofstede’s dimensions of cultural values revealed a significant relationship between the HPO factor long-term orientation and three of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, for both cultures.

Originality/value

– The value of the study is that it adds to the HPO literature by focussing on cultural implications and Hofstede’s dimensions. The answer to the research question are there similarities or differences among business students from South Africa and Tanzania in their perceptions of what the priority should be in regard to strengthening specific characteristics in the HPO Framework? is affirmative: yes, there are differences in high performance priority-setting per country and these differences can be explained by cultural differences. The findings of this study thus form a basis for the understanding of the effects of national cultures on the creation of HPOs.

Examining media effectiveness across cultures and national borders: A review and multilevel framework

We explore the ways that perceptions of media effectiveness are affected by the societal culture, organizational culture, occupational (professional) culture, individual characteristics, and technology acceptance. This is an important subject to explore, as communication is essential to organizational functioning. The continuous drive for communication to individuals in different national and organizational situations around the world, due in part to globalization, leads us to ask: which medium is perceived as the most effective for each of the tasks a manager may be called upon to perform, particularly in different cultures? In other words, is the receiver getting the message that we intend, when the receiver is not in the same situation (societal, organizational, professional, etc.) as the sender? There are contexts of shared values, rules, and experiences that affect communication; words do not have the same meaning and value across languages and cultures (Macnamara, 2004). This means that the message sent from one context may not be the message received in another. If we are not communicating the messages we intend, then our method of communicating may be efficient, but it is certainly not effective. However, there is little research on the effectiveness of media types. We develop a framework highlighting the intersection of variables salient to effectiveness: societal, organizational, and occupational culture, individual characteristics, and technology the sender? In the conclusion, we suggest future work that might be appropriate, given the increasing interest in global communication.

A Comparative Case Study of Indonesian and UK Organisational Culture Differences in IS Project Management

Information Systems (IS) Project Management (PM) is fundamental to the modern, constantly changing and upgrading business world and is impacted by culture on many levels. This research shows the extent to which organisational culture in international IS projects is impacted by culture found on a national level. Current data contributing to IS PM knowledge is provided by investigating two Information Technology (IT) firms in the telecommunications sector based in Indonesia and the United Kingdom undergoing system upgrade projects using a survey and interviews. Differing trends between these organisational cultures are identified (and a third international control group) in regard to hierarchical structures and managing conflict employing a version of Hofstede’s cultural survey as a basis.

The Value of TAM Antecedents in Global IS Development and Research

Theoretical models are often conceived and tested in western countries. However, culture influences theoretical models, and the importance of evaluating models in non-western cultures has grown with the accelerating pace of globalization. The technology acceptance model (TAM) is no exception, and more TAM research is being conducted in non-western countries. TAM constructs of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are difficult to act on, which has led to several studies that identified valid antecedents to these constructs that make the model more practically actionable. These antecedents were conceived and tested in a western country but have yet to be evaluated in the context of a non-western country. In this paper, the authors evaluate these antecedents in Saudi Arabia and find that they function in the specific context of general computer use by Saudi knowledge workers.

The Influence of National and Organizational Cultures on Technology Use

This article presents the results of an exploratory study examining the influence of national and organizational cultures on technology use in a multinational organizational (MNO) context. Data were collected from 121 respondents of a multinational organization in the Asia Pacific with headquarters in Australia and three subsidiaries in Asia: Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand. Even though significant differences were found between respondents from headquarters and subsidiaries in terms of perceived media richness and preference for telephone and written documents, very similar media preference patterns for face-to-face and e-mail between the headquarters and subsidiaries were identified. Furthermore, face-to-face and e-mail were two primary media used for most communication activities in this MNO. Follow-up interviews revealed that the universal organizational culture of this MNO may explain media use consistency between the headquarters and subsidiaries. Implications of the findings are discussed and future research considered.