TY - JOUR
T1 - What gets measured gets done: Can self-tracking technologies enhance advice compliance?”
AU - Wittkowski, Kristina
AU - Klein, Jan F.
AU - Falk, Tomas
AU - Schepers, Jeroen J. L.
AU - Aspara, Jaakko
AU - Bergner, Kai N.
PY - 2020/2/13
Y1 - 2020/2/13
N2 - Self-tracking technologies (STTs) in the form of smart devices and mobile applications enable consumers to monitor, analyze, and interpret personal performance data on health and physical or financial well-being. As a result of self-tracking, consumers are not only expected to check their personal performance more actively but also to implement service professionals’ advice to improve their well-being more accurately. Despite the growing popularity of STTs, empirical evidence on the extent to which STT use enhances advice compliance remains scant. A field experiment with 538 participants in a health-care setting suggests that STT use does not increase advice compliance per se. Rather, the effectiveness of STTs depends on consumers’ self-efficacy. For consumers low in self-efficacy, STT use can even undermine advice compliance. A lab experiment with 831 participants replicates and generalizes the findings to a nonmedical professional service (i.e., fitness training). As assessments of self-efficacy might be difficult in practice, service providers in health care can use consumers’ body mass index as an easy-to-measure proxy to predict STT effectiveness. Finally, the lab experiment also identifies perceived empowerment and personalization as psychological mechanisms mediating the influence of STT use on advice compliance.
AB - Self-tracking technologies (STTs) in the form of smart devices and mobile applications enable consumers to monitor, analyze, and interpret personal performance data on health and physical or financial well-being. As a result of self-tracking, consumers are not only expected to check their personal performance more actively but also to implement service professionals’ advice to improve their well-being more accurately. Despite the growing popularity of STTs, empirical evidence on the extent to which STT use enhances advice compliance remains scant. A field experiment with 538 participants in a health-care setting suggests that STT use does not increase advice compliance per se. Rather, the effectiveness of STTs depends on consumers’ self-efficacy. For consumers low in self-efficacy, STT use can even undermine advice compliance. A lab experiment with 831 participants replicates and generalizes the findings to a nonmedical professional service (i.e., fitness training). As assessments of self-efficacy might be difficult in practice, service providers in health care can use consumers’ body mass index as an easy-to-measure proxy to predict STT effectiveness. Finally, the lab experiment also identifies perceived empowerment and personalization as psychological mechanisms mediating the influence of STT use on advice compliance.
KW - 512 Business and Management
KW - Quantified Self
KW - advice compliance
KW - field experiment
KW - self-efficacy
KW - self-tracking technology
KW - smart devices
KW - technology adoption
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85079403728&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/ff8a5cae-7a89-3a41-b853-90a21fbafd84/
U2 - 10.1177/1094670520904424
DO - 10.1177/1094670520904424
M3 - Article
SN - 1094-6705
VL - 23
SP - 281
EP - 298
JO - Journal of Service Research
JF - Journal of Service Research
IS - 3
ER -