The Effects of Consumer Innovativeness on Sport Team Applications Acceptance and Usage

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of consumer innovativeness on sport fans' behavioral intention to adopt and use sport team apps. Combining the diffusion theory with the technology acceptance model, the current study proposed three extended technology acceptance models. The proposed models were tested with data collected from 233 sport team apps users in the United States. The findings indicate that consumer innovativeness has direct and indirect influences on behavioral intention through beliefs about sport team apps. The partially mediated model fits the data well, was more parsimonious, and had a greater proportion of the variance explained by intention than the other models and thus was chosen for further analysis. Consumer innovativeness and beliefs about the apps explained 55.4% and 42% of the variance in intention to adopt sport team apps, respectively. Empirical evidence also provides strong support for the integrative approach. The study suggests an extended model of technology acceptance model for the acceptance and use of the sport team apps, which can help scholars and marketers understand sport fans' media behaviors.