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The dark side of elderly acceptance of preventive mobile health services in China

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Abstract

Mobile health services have become increasingly important for people, especially for the elderly. Despite the potential benefits, there are challenges and barriers for the elderly in adopting mobile health services. Drawing upon the dual factor model, we investigate the enablers and the inhibitors of the elderly mobile health service adoption behaviour. We also address two typical characteristics of elderly users—technology anxiety and dispositional resistance to change—to understand the antecedents of the enablers and the inhibitors. The hypothesized model is empirically tested using data collected from a field survey of 204 customers of a large elderly service providing company in China. The key findings include: (1) resistance to change influences perceived usefulness but does not influence perceived ease of use and adoption intention; (2) technology anxiety is negatively associated with perceived ease of use but positively associated with resistance to change; (3) dispositional resistance to change is negatively associated with perceived ease of use but positively associated with resistance to change. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

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Notes

  1. http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjshujia/tjzl/t20101221_402692078.htm

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Acknowledgements

This study was partially supported by the Hong Kong Scholars Program and the National Science Foundation of China Grant (71201118, 71101037, 71201058), Self-dependent Research Project for Social and Humanity Science of Wuhan University (274130), and Wuhan University Academic Development Plan for Scholars after 1970s (“Research on Network User Behavior”).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 92, West Da-Zhi Street, 150001, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China

    Xitong Guo

  2. School of Information Management, Wuhan University, 299, Bayi Road, 430072, Wuhan, Hubei, China

    Yongqiang Sun

  3. USTC-CityU Joint Advanced Research Center, University of Science and Technology of China, 166 Ren’ai Road, 215123, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China

    Nan Wang

  4. School of Business, East China University of Science and Technology, 130# Meilong Road, 200237, Shanghai, China

    Zeyu Peng

  5. Faculty of Business, Information Systems Department, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, 310027, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR

    Ziyu Yan

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  1. Xitong Guo
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Correspondence to Yongqiang Sun.

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Responsible editor: Doug Vogel

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Guo, X., Sun, Y., Wang, N. et al. The dark side of elderly acceptance of preventive mobile health services in China. Electron Markets 23, 49–61 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-012-0112-4

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