Virtual Reality Experience of Mega Sports Events: A Technology Acceptance Study

Abstract

Digitalization has advanced to become an opportunity to spectate sports during the pandemic and its restrictions for traveling to competitions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the antecedents of using virtual reality technology for spectating mega sports events. Based on a literature review, the authors created a model of behavioral intention, built on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and technology acceptance model to examine the curiosity and self-construal of spectators. An online survey obtained empirical evidence from 339 sports enthusiasts. The research model was fitted using the partial least squares algorithm. The results show that all the antecedents significantly affected the intention to use a VR device to spectate mega sports events, which explains a significant variance. Surprisingly, influences arising from social norm predominated over those arising from curiosity and the hedonic exploration of VR (enjoyment, and experience). The social norm strongly influences a VR device’s perceived usefulness, implying that people believe using VR will enhance their position in society and that they will thus perceive the technology as being more beneficial. The novelty of this study arises from quantifying the importance of curiosity’s relationship to VR acceptance and pinpointing the relevance of self-construal for VR acceptance.