Ren Zongwei, Zhou Guangmin
School of Management, Harbin University of Commerce, Harbin 150028, China.
Healthcare (Basel). 2023 Aug 17;11(16):2329. doi: 10.3390/healthcare11162329.
As a unique form of mobile health service (m-Health) for elderly care in China, the virtual nursing home is considered a reliable alternative to the traditional model of home-based care, but services from virtual nursing homes are infrequently used by the elderly in practice. Thus, this study aims to measure the driving factors affecting the behavioral intention to use the virtual nursing home by designing a research framework that combined the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) with the technology acceptance model (TAM). Furthermore, a new variable, conformist mentality, is proposed as a moderator. In order to validate the model, a well-structured questionnaire using mature scales was used, and the linear regression analysis method was conducted on 200 valid data samples collected during a field study in Harbin, China. The results show that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence significantly affect behavioral intention. However, the effect of facilitating conditions is not significant. Moreover, performance expectancy and effort expectancy have a positive effect on attitude toward use, and attitude toward use not only affects behavioral intention but also plays a mediating role in the effect of performance expectancy and effort expectancy on behavioral intention. This study also innovatively proposes and confirms conformist mentality as a moderator to strengthen the driving effect of social influence on behavioral intention. This is the first time that conformist mentality is introduced as a moderator in a study on the behavioral perception and acceptance of virtual nursing homes among Chinese older adults. Based on these findings, this study offers theoretical contributions and management implications that are conducive to the sustainable development of virtual nursing homes, thereby making extensive contributions to this field. Additionally, it also aids in the contextual expansion of the UTAUT model.
作为中国老年护理中一种独特的移动健康服务（m-Health）形式，虚拟养老院被视为传统居家护理模式的可靠替代方案，但实际上老年人对虚拟养老院服务的使用率并不高。因此，本研究旨在通过设计一个将技术接受与使用统一理论（UTAUT）和技术接受模型（TAM）相结合的研究框架，来衡量影响使用虚拟养老院行为意向的驱动因素。此外，还提出了一个新变量——从众心理作为调节变量。为了验证该模型，使用了一份采用成熟量表的结构良好的问卷，并对在中国哈尔滨进行实地研究期间收集的200个有效数据样本进行了线性回归分析。结果表明，绩效期望、努力期望和社会影响对行为意向有显著影响。然而，便利条件的影响并不显著。此外，绩效期望和努力期望对使用态度有积极影响，使用态度不仅影响行为意向，还在绩效期望和努力期望对行为意向的影响中起中介作用。本研究还创新性地提出并证实了从众心理作为调节变量，以增强社会影响对行为意向的驱动作用。这是首次将从众心理作为调节变量引入关于中国老年人对虚拟养老院行为认知和接受度的研究中。基于这些发现,本研究提供了有利于虚拟养老院可持续发展的理论贡献和管理启示，从而为该领域做出了广泛贡献。此外，它还有助于UTAUT模型的情境扩展。
