Navigating Human-Technology Dynamics: Exploring Innovation Resistance to Smartphone Apps in Amusement Parks

This paper offers a novel exploration of the factors influencing users' rejection of smartphone apps, focusing on the context of amusement parks. This study introduces a unique and broader framework grounded in the Innovation Resistance Theory (IRT), which includes hedonism and utilitarianism, for understanding technology resistance. Notably, this research highlights the distinct leisure dynamics impacting technology adoption in amusement parks, unlike previous studies focusing on acceptance in sectors like banking and healthcare. A mixed-method sequential design was employed to achieve the research aim: qualitative data from online focus groups informed the conceptual model, which was tested by quantitatively analyzing 362 survey responses. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was run to assess the model's reliability, validity, and structural relationships. The results confirmed the positive relationship between value, amenability, information, and functional risk barriers, along with perceived utilitarianism and app rejection, while perceived hedonism is negatively associated with rejection. Differently, complexity, usage, and physical risk barriers do not significantly affect the rejection of smartphone apps in amusement parks. These findings help to understand human-technology interactions in the leisure context, suggesting effective interventions that park managers can undertake to enhance the visitors' experience and the users' digital service adoption.