Understanding the Adoption of Fitness Applications in China

Master's Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Communications - Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, grade: 1, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Antai College), course: Master of International Business, language: English, abstract: Understanding the adoption of fitness applications is a complex process as it is closely linked with people's health behaviors and under the influence of manifold of influential forces. This research is focusing on the social perspective on motivation while not neglecting an adoption driven by the need that is concentrated on the mere functionality of an app. The main objective of the research is to discover the underlying social motivation and propensity of users to adopt fitness applications in China. The central question is whether the willingness to adopt a fitness app is being influenced solely by the need to track one's activities with the help of a tool or if social motivation is playing an essential role in influencing a person's inclination to adopt this kind of applications. The problem this thesis is trying to understand better is the propensity of people in the initial adoption phase of a fitness application. So, it can be said that the scope of the study is narrowing down the general idea of health to the specific scenario of fitness applications.

The main idea and assumption is that social motivation in the adoption of fitness apps is playing the essential role and has to be given great consideration by marketers and businesses. The findings can be adapted to business practices and marketing efforts. The 532 answers gathered in the survey have been looked at from an approach that stays close to the theories leveraged in the development of the variables as well as a model-approach that constructed the possible relationship between the variables. The variables constructed are based on the theories of the lazy user (Need N), social status (SS), social influence (SIN) as well as social impact (SIM).

Need N is trying to minimize efforts in an adoption process in order to gain the required functions of an application. Following social status (SS) as a motivator, a person is intrinsically motivated to pursue a goal-directed behavior, in this case, the adoption of a fitness application, in order to adjust, maintain or obtain a perceived social status by others. On the other hand, social influence (SIN) focuses on the external influential stimulusthat is being exerted on the individual and can be separated into the two modes of identification and internalization.