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Attitude towards Using
According to the empirical findings in this research German potential adopters of smartwatches overall had a neutral attitude towards using smartwatches (total mean = 2.97; total SD = 0.941). This indicates that there is an almost equal split between respondents who possessed negative and those who possessed positive attitudes towards using smartwatches. In addition to that, many respondents were indecisive about their attitude and therefore selected the no-choice option. The latter could potentially be attributed to the fact, that smartwatches still are relatively new on the market which might mean that not every German smartphone user has thought about the benefits and drawbacks those devices would entail for him-/herself.
Furthermore, the almost equal split between the respondents that provided positive and those that provided negative replies on the attitude questions demonstrates that smartwatches are a controversial issue in Germany. So, although prior market research found that smartwatches are increasingly more valued by Germans (Euromonitor International, 2018), the results of this study reveal that still the majority of German potential adopters of smartwatches does not have a positive attitude towards those devices. This means that although the smartwatch sales have strongly increased in Germany (Euromonitor International, 2018) according to the results of this thesis’ study still many Germans either do not like smartwatches or are indecisive about their attitudes towards them.
By receiving such low scores on the attitude dimension, the results obtained here differ substantially from those of previous smartwatch adoption studies (e.g. Chua et al., 2016; Kim & Shin, 2014; Wu et al., 2016) that obtained much more favorable total means for attitude. These differences could have emerged due to a variety of reasons. The study of Chua et al. (2016), for example, used only students rather than the total population as their sample. That could explain some of the difference in the results as sampling only students, i.e. young people, could result in more favorable total attitude scores because smartwatches and wearable technologies in general are especially popular among the 25-34-year-old people (Statista Global Consumer Survey, 2018b) whereas they are less popular in older demographic segments. In addition to that, the study of Kim and Shin (2015) only surveyed current smartwatch users.
It is obvious that people that have already purchased such a device are likely to possess a more positive attitude towards using smartwatches than non-users.
Furthermore, Wu et al.’s (2016) study, which focused on the consumer acceptance of smartwatches, also detected a much more positive total attitude score than the underlying study. Similar to the underlying research, this study also surveyed non-users of smartwatches and made use of almost the same survey questions. So, there were no major differences in the variables and demographics between both studies – which means that not so much possible explanations for this substantial difference in respondents’ perception remain. It is argued here that the discrepancy could have emerged due to the different methods of ensuring that respondents know about smartwatches. Whereas in the underlying study consumers were solely asked whether they know what a smartwatch is, Wu et al. (2016) showed their respondents a video about those devices that presented a full definition and functionality of the smartwatch and they also made sure that respondents had a showroom hands-on experience of those devices. It could therefore be argued that when exposed to the different functionalities of smartwatches, people might have more positive attitudes towards them as then they see all the benefits that these devices offer.
In addition to that, an explanation for the discrepancies in the attitude scores between the three previously mentioned and the underlying study could have also emerged due the cultural difference between Asian and European consumers. This can be argued as the three previous studies mentioned here all sampled Asian populations, indicating that the latter might have more favorable attitudes towards using smartwatches than the further.
Perceived Usefulness
According to the findings of the underlying study, overall, Germans did not perceive smartwatches as useful (total mean = 2.72; total SD: 0.865). This is, again, a substantial difference compared to previous smartwatch adoption research (Chua et al., 2016; Kim & Shin, 2015; Wu et al., 2016) where, on average, smartwatches had been seen as useful among respondents. Similar to the case of attitude, those findings could be attributed to three possible explanations. First, that the underlying research was applied on a European rather than on an Asian market (Chua et al., 2016; Kim & Shin, 2015; Wu et al., 2016), second, that the knowledge about smartwatches was ensured in a different manner (Wu et al., 2016) as well as, third, that those studies either sampled current smartwatch users (Kim & Shin, 2015) or students and thus young non-users (Chua et al., 2016). As explained earlier sampling current users or young non-user could have biased the results.
Apart from that, however, it has been found in this thesis that the utilitarian dimension of PU positively influences the attitude towards using smartwatches with a significant beta-value of 0.228 (p = 0.00). Therefore, the first hypothesis that was constructed in this thesis (H1) could be supported. This result was in line with the findings obtained by previous research on smartwatch adoption that also revealed a positive influence of PU on attitude (e.g. Choi & Kim, 2016; Chua et al., 2016; Wu et al., 2016).
1 INTRODUCTION .
1.1 Background
1.2 Problem Formulation
1.3 Purpose
1.4 Delimitations .
1.5 Contribution to Theory & Practice
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Approach to Literature review
2.2 Overview of Wearable Technologies
2.2.1 Benefits for Consumers
2.2.2 Benefits for Society .
2.3 Smartwatches.
2.4 Smartwatches on the German Market .
2.5 Theoretical Background & Research Model
3 METHODOLOGY .
3.1 Research Philosophy
3.2 Research Approach
3.3 Research Purpose
3.4 Research Design and Research Strategy
3.5 Data Collection Method
3.6 Survey Design
3.7 Population and Sampling
3.8 Analyses of Data
3.9 Limitations of Methodology .
3.10 Reliability and Validity
3.11 Ethical Considerations
4 EMPIRICAL FINDINGS
4.1 Demographic Sample
4.2 Descriptive Statistics
4.3 Reliability Analysis .
4.4 Factor Analysis
4.5 Hypotheses Testing
4.5.1 Correlation Analysis
5 DISCUSSION
5.1 Attitude towards Using
5.2 Purchase Intention
6 CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
