From traditional wristwatch to smartwatch: Understanding the relationship between innovation attributes, switching costs and consumers' switching intention

Bölen M. C.

TECHNOLOGY IN SOCIETY, cilt.63, 2020 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 63
  • Basım Tarihi: 2020
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101439
  • Dergi Adı: TECHNOLOGY IN SOCIETY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Communication & Mass Media Index, Compendex, EBSCO Education Source, Geobase, INSPEC, Political Science Complete, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Smartwatch, Traditional wristwatch, Switching intention, Switching costs, Perceived product lifetime, Innovation of diffusion theory, MOBILE PHONES GENERATION, INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY, CONTINUANCE INTENTION, ADOPTION, BEHAVIOR, PRODUCT, MODEL, EXPERIENCE, SERVICES, LOYALTY
  • Atatürk Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Smartwatches are one of the most disruptive innovations of the past decade. However, these hi-tech gadgets fail to attract interest in the same way as smartphones, or tablet PCs. Despite optimistic market growth forecasts, smartwatches have not taken the place of traditional wristwatches until today, and the number of people who use traditional wristwatches outnumbered those who use smartwatches. This study is thus motivated to examine the factors that affect traditional wristwatch users' intentions to switch to smartwatches. Based on the Diffusion of Innovations Theory, a research model was developed involving perceived product lifetime, financial switching costs, and procedural switching costs. The proposed model was then empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 234 actual traditional wristwatch users about their perception of switching intentions to smartwatches. The findings revealed that relative advantage and financial switching costs significantly influence traditional wristwatch users' behavioral intentions to switch to smartwatches. Furthermore, financial switching costs mediated the effects of relative advantage and perceived product lifetime on the switching intention. Surprisingly, perceived product lifetime, complexity, and procedural switching costs do not have direct impacts on switching intention.