Abstract

The study aimed at identifying the causes of the high level of health application but the low level of use. In other words, the effects of user's innovation resistance (use barrier, value barrier, risk barrier, traditional barrier, image barrier, etc.) were examined. For this study, 378 valid responses were collected by conducting surveys with college students. Findings indicated the higher the level of image barrier of the user, the higher the degree of innovation resistance for the health application, and the higher the degree of innovation resistance, the lower intention of continuous use and recommendation. In addition, the level of use barriers, value barriers and traditional barriers did not have a significant effect on the degree of innovation resistance, suggesting that users familiar with smartphones have low resistance to health applications. The study deepens the theoretical discussion about the adoption and continuous use of new technologies by explaining the use of health applications in the theory of innovation resistance. The findings of the study provide the practical implications that lowering the image barriers rather than the usage barriers, value barriers and traditional barriers will be effective for the adoption and continuous use of health applications.