The Effects of the Need for Uniqueness and Cosmopolitanism on Innovation Adoption of Smartwatches

The adoption and use of wearable technology are highly increasing. Due to its significant differences with other new technologies, its consumer adoption needs further investigation. In the field of wearable technology products, the focus of the present research is on smartwatches. Therefore, the current study examines the impact of consumer's need for uniqueness and cosmopolitanism on innovation adoption of smartwatches, considering the mediator role of domain-specific opinion leadership, innate innovativeness, and domain-specific innovativeness. This research is applied in terms of purpose and is descriptive-survey in terms of collecting information method. Given that young people and especially educated ones make up the bulk of smartwatch users, students of public universities in Tehran are considered as the statistical population. Of these, 146 people were selected as the sample based on Jackson's (2003) definition to estimate the required sample size. The data gathering tool is the questionnaire that is collected through the available method from the sample. Data analysis which was performed by structural equation modeling using Smart-PLS software indicates that two personality traits, cosmopolitanism (through positive impact on innate innovativeness) and consumer's need for uniqueness (through positive impact on domain-specific opinion leadership), indirectly increase domain-specific innovativeness and this increase in domain-specific innovativeness subsequently increases consumers innovation adoption.