Predicting the Adoption of Wearable Health Tracking Devices : An Application of Diffusion of Innovation Theory

This study applied Everett Rogers’ innovation diffusion model to analyze the perceptions of customers in Turkish market toward using and adopting wearable technology. 210 voluntarily responses were collected via Likert type online designed questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 24 and AMOS version 23, through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation model (SEM). Basically, five hypotheses were investigated. It is assumed there are positive relationships between the dependent variable (The Adoption) and the other four independent variables (Relative advantage, Compatibility, Trialability and Observability). However, just one of the independent variable (Complexity) considered having a negative relationship with the Adoption. This study is a try to foresee whether the adoption of wearable health tracking devices is going to become a trend in the chosen market. Moreover, the finding was surprising and interesting comparing with previous studies. Where it revealed acceptance for two hypotheses and rejecting the rest, the supported factors were compatibility and complexity’s impact on adoption. Compatibility was confirmed to have a positive effect over the adoption, which reflects the importance of wearable health tracking devices (HTD) to be compatible with lifestyle, beliefs and values to Turkish market. Meanwhile, complexity was supported by having a negative effect on the adoption. In other words, simplicity is considered by Turkish market as a sensitive and critical point in term of use of wearables. In this study, the rejected factors are Relative advantage, Trialability and Observability. It is really essential for the results, to be understood while considering the market that has been studied, for example, wearable HTD in Turkish market is still considered young. Therefore, customers might not even think of trying it. Add to that, the benefits might not be clear enough to the target customers or they are not able to see and understand those benefits for some reasons, thus, it is very critical to explain the advantages that are the user is going to gain by adopting such devices