Purpose

Despite the enormous potential of mobile health (mHealth), identifying the asymmetric relationship among the predictors towards intention to use (ITU) of mHealth tends to remain unresolved. This study aims to investigate the predictors and their asymmetric effects on ITU of mHealth through patients and healthcare professionals.

Design/methodology/approach

An integrated information systems (IS) model with four additional constructs has been developed to analyze symmetric and asymmetric effects on ITU of mHealth. An exploratory survey on 452 mHealth users with prior experience was conducted to evaluate the model using a mixed-method approach including partial least squares-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) technique.

Findings

The findings show that facilitating conditions, personal awareness building, perceived enjoyment, effort expectancy and perceived usefulness have predictive power for ITU of mHealth. In contrast, fsQCA reveals four more alternative solutions, including the main drivers explored by PLS-SEM. The results indicate that various conditions that were not crucial in PLS-SEM analysis are shown to be sufficient conditions in fsQCA.

Research limitations/implications

This study contributes to theory by integrating self-actualization factors (i.e. personal awareness building, patients as decision support unit) into the IS model. And practically, this study makes an essential contribution to users' ITU of mHealth, enabling relevant stakeholders to build strategies to implement mHealth successfully.

Originality/value

While mHealth has revolutionized healthcare and the prior literature only showed linear relationships, this empirical study revealed asymmetrical relationships among the determinants of ITU of mHealth. Thus, this study extends to the growing body of literature on the use of mHealth technology in the least developing nation.

中文翻译：

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使用 PLS-SEM 和 fsQCA 评估用户使用移动健康 (mHealth) 意图的混合方法

目的

尽管移动健康 (mHealth) 具有巨大的潜力，但确定 mHealth 使用意向 (ITU) 预测因子之间的不对称关系往往仍未得到解决。本研究旨在通过患者和医疗保健专业人员调查预测变量及其对 mHealth 的 ITU 的不对称影响。

设计/方法/方法

已经开发了具有四个附加结构的集成信息系统 (IS) 模型，以分析移动医疗对 ITU 的对称和非对称影响。对 452 名具有先前经验的移动医疗用户进行了探索性调查，以使用混合方法评估模型，包括基于偏最小二乘的结构方程建模 (PLS-SEM) 和模糊集定性比较分析 (fsQCA) 技术。

发现

调查结果表明，便利条件、个人意识建设、感知享受、预期努力和感知有用性对移动医疗的国际电联具有预测能力。相比之下，fsQCA 揭示了另外四种替代解决方案，包括 PLS-SEM 探索的主要驱动因素。结果表明，在 PLS-SEM 分析中不重要的各种条件在 fsQCA 中被证明是充分条件。

研究限制/影响

本研究通过将自我实现因素（即个人意识建设、患者作为决策支持单位）整合到 IS 模型中来为理论做出贡献。实际上，这项研究对用户的移动医疗国际电联做出了重要贡献，使相关利益攸关方能够制定成功实施移动医疗的战略。

原创性/价值

虽然移动医疗彻底改变了医疗保健，并且先前的文献仅显示线性关系，但这项实证研究揭示了移动医疗的国际电联决定因素之间的不对称关系。因此，这项研究延伸到越来越多的关于最不发达国家使用移动医疗技术的文献。