IIT Mandi researchers analyse factors affecting adoption of wearable health monitors

NEW DELHI: The researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi analyse different factors that affect the adoption of wearable technologies for personal healthcare. The researchers used a mathematical model to analyse data collected by a survey to give insights into the role of online reviews and marketing.

The research paper was led by IIT Mandi, school of social sciences, assistant professor, Saumya Dixit and was was published in the Journal of Marketing Communications and co-authored by PhD student, Anjani Pathania and Central University of Jammu, school of business studies, Gowhar Rasool.

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The aim of the study was to understand the drivers of herding in adoption of wearable technologies in health care. according to the research, there has been an increase in use of such devices since the pandemic began. Previously, reviews by other users was the main factor that affected the sale of a product. However, in recent times, online reviews also referred to as electronic word-of-mouth influences "herding" or group behavior of individuals in buying a product for healthcare.

Researchers at IIT Mandi surveyed 434 wearable technology users and analysed the data using a method of partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with Smart PLS. This method showed that the online reviews by users who are similar to oneself can help in furthered the herding of potential customers.

The platforms that encourage consumers to leave reviews must also ask them to share information such as gender, age, religion health value facets (e.g., related to exercise, diet, rest, and usage of personal healthcare tools) along with their experiences of how wearable technology products have helped them achieve related health goals.

While speaking about the other recommendations based on the results of their analysis, IIT Mandi, PhD scholar, Anjali Pathania, said: “Online review community managers should encourage consumers to provide homophilous details while writing reviews along with semi-guided information related to wearable technology’s ease of use, usefulness and company reputation. Further, filters based on homophilous information along with review management system/algorithms should be provided on online platforms to reduce information overload and improve herding in adoption of wearable devices for personal healthcare by potential"