Towards Explaining Continous Use of Self Tracking Devices

Self-tracking, life-logging, quantified-self, personal analytics, and personal informatics are terms for the current trend to collect and analyze specific features of the life on a regular basis through mobile and wearable digital devices. Users of digital self-tracking devices benefit from information about themselves. Thereby, the explanatory power of this information heavily depends on post-adoption continued usage of these devices.

The aim of a recent research project is to empirically analyze the factors that lead to continuous use of self-tracking devices. So far, research has largely focused on phases until IS adoption in a work environment and little on post-adoption use in a consumer context which centers on either continuance or discontinuance. To advance research in this area, we developed a conceptual model that combines both in one comprehensive model by building on established post-adoption theories.

Conceptual Model of Self-Tracking Usage

While research on the individual-level continuance/discontinuance of IS is yet scarce, our study is one the first that further explores this promising path and suggests a comprehensive, yet parsimonious model. We will continue our research with a quantitative-empirical evaluation of the developed model. With our research, we aim at contributing to both a better theoretical understanding in the field of IS post-adoption in a consumer context and giving practical implications for producers of self-tracking devices.

The research results have recently been accepted for publication:
Buchwald, A., Letner, A., Urbach, N. and von Entress-Fürsteneck, M. (2015) Towards Explaining the Use of Self-Tracking Devices: Conceptual Development of a Continuance and Discontinuance Model, Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2015), December, 13-16, Fort Worth, Texas, USA. (Link)