Predicting subjective well-being among mHealth users: a readiness – value model

Abstract

• The study predicts subjective well-being among users of mHealth applications (MHA). • It integrates value perspective and technology readiness in MHA context. • The value-readiness model is validated empirically using survey and structured equation modeling. • Males and females demonstrate different approaches toward subjective well-being when using MHA. • These results have essential implications for theory and practice of MHA. mHealth applications (MHA) have recently attracted great attention from various stakeholders as they are indeed important means to enhance users’ subjective well-being. While prior research has mainly focused on intention or adoption phase, little work has empirically examined the post-adoption effects of MHA with scarce attention given to the well-being outcome. Actual users are likely to conceive the values of MHA based mainly on their direct experience with it. In this paper, the dimensions of users’ technology readiness are regarded as major impetuses for perceived utilitarian and hedonic values, which in turn influence subjective well-being among MHA users. The proposed readiness-value model is analyzed using survey data collected from 731 users of MHA. The findings show that the model significantly predicts users’ subjective well-being considering that utilitarian value is more important for male users, whereas hedonic value has a more salient effect for female users. It also reveals that enablers of technology readiness (i.e., innovativeness and optimism) exert a stronger influence than that of inhibitors (i.e., discomfort and insecurity) on the perceived values of MHA. These results have essential implications for theory and practice.