Commitment Devices as Behavior Change Support Systems: A Study of Users’ Perceived Competence and Continuance Intention

Abstract

The design principles of persuasive systems and the corresponding software features have been shown to have a positive effect on individuals' behavior and systems use. This study continues along the same line by analyzing the effects of these design principles on users' perceived competence and intention to continue to use an online commitment device. A structural equation modelling approach is used to identify the factors that affect the intention to continue to use the system. Data (N = 173) collected from the system's users is tested against the proposed research model. The results show that 37% of users' continuance intention is explained by the implemented persuasive software feature categories (computer-human dialogue support, primary task support, perceived credibility, and social support) and perceived competence. Of these categories, primary task support has the strongest effect on perceived competence and continuance intention. The study concludes with a discussion and recommendations for future research.

Influence on Intention to Adopt Green IS: Boosting Endogenous Motivations with Persuasive Systems Design

“…Results of the PLS-SEM analysis support a half of the hypotheses about relationships among the constructs. As expected, the persuasive system categories presented in the PSD model [46] interact in the predicted manner supported by findings of the previous studies [28,34,35,36,44]. Additionally, we discovered that dialog support impacts social support suggesting that the user's interaction with the system influence the user's interaction with the other users of the system.…”

“…H1a: Primary task support influences internal PLOC H1b: Primary task support influences external PLOC H1c: Primary task support influences introjected PLOC Dialogue support assists with keeping the user active and motivated to use the system, helping to perform target behavior. Ideally, dialogue support promotes users' positive affect, which will likely influence users' confidence in the source (credibility) [28,34,35,36,44]. Moreover, people tend to react to IT artefacts as if they are interacting in social situations [2].…”

“…Moreover, people tend to react to IT artefacts as if they are interacting in social situations [2]. Additionally, because people's social relationships are being increasingly maintained through technology-mediated communications, dialogue support is likely to influence social support [34,44]. Therefore, we predict that as a result of the effective system-human interaction, the users' motivation to participate in sustainable behavior is likely to increase.…”

“…Therefore, we predict that as a result of the effective system-human interaction, the users' motivation to participate in sustainable behavior is likely to increase. Furthermore, communication with the system has been shown to impact features that support engaging in the primary task, system's credibility [28,35,36,44], and social interaction with the other users of the system [34,44]. H2a: Dialogue support influences internal PLOC H2b: Dialogue support influences external PLOC H2c: Dialogue support influences introjected PLOC H2d: Dialogue support influences primary task support H2e: Dialogue support influences credibility support H2f: Dialogue support influences social support…”

Thinking About Persuasive Technology from the Strategic Business Perspective: A Call for Research on Cost-Based Competitive Advantage

“…Primary task support. Oduor and Oinas-Kukkonen [28] found that primary task support has the strongest effect on users' continuance intention of using BCSSs among other persuasive feature categories. In health BCSSs, for example, self-monitoring supports a user's primary task and it has been proven to be an effective persuasive feature [4] [9].…”