What Explains Smartwatch Adoption? A comparative study of South Korea and Indonesia

Identifying factors that influence consumers’ intentions to adopt a smartwatch has become a major research interest in marketing literature, yet little is known about it in dissimilar cultural settings. The current research employs a comparative study of South Korea and Indonesia, which differ in location and cultural heritage, smartwatch penetration rate, geographic size, level of income, and developmental stage as a country. An extended model of TAM is proposed, and PLS-SEM is employed to test the model on data collected from 262 respondents. The findings indicate that complementary goods and healthtology have positive influences on perceived usefulness and visibility has a positive influence on social image; these, together with perceived price value, lead to the behavioral intention to adopt a smartwatch in both countries. Perceived cost was only significant for Indonesia. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are further discussed.