Acceptance of mobile health services in emerging markets: a study of Egyptian consumers

Abstract

This research examines the predictors of consumer adoption intentions for mobile health (m-health) applications in the Middle East and North Africa region. The proposed model adopts four predictors from the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, assesses the roles of privacy and trust as two additional predictors, and examines the role of performance expectancy as a mediator. We test this model using survey data from 244 healthcare consumers in Egypt and structural equations modelling. Study findings confirm the importance of performance expectancy and its role as a mediator, especially for the effect of effort expectancy on adoption intentions, which is fully mediated by performance expectancy. In Egypt, a collective culture with high uncertainty avoidance, social influence and privacy are significant predictors of adoption intentions, and their effects are partially mediated by performance expectancy. Conversely, trust and facilitating conditions are not significant predictors of m-health adoption for Egyptian consumers.