Wearable technology has quietly become one of the most visible faces of the Internet of Things, strapping sensors, connectivity and computing power to the wrists of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Yet despite their commercial success, researchers have continued to ask a fundamental question: what actually drives people to adopt and keep using these devices? A new study from Portugal offers one of the most detailed answers to date, and its findings carry important implications for manufacturers, app developers and anyone hoping to understand the psychology of the connected body.
The research, conducted by Joana Martins, Bráulio Alturas and Inês Messias at the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL) and Santarém Polytechnic University, set out to determine which factors most strongly influence Portuguese consumers’ intention to use smartwatches and smart bands. Published in the Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing, the study builds on one of the most influential frameworks in technology adoption research, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2, commonly known as UTAUT2, and extends it with constructs specifically relevant to wearables.
UTAUT2, first formulated by Venkatesh and colleagues in 2012, consolidated decades of technology acceptance research into a model tailored to consumer contexts. It proposes that usage intention is shaped by performance expectancy, the belief that a technology will help achieve useful outcomes; effort expectancy, how easy the technology seems to use; social influence, the perception that important others expect one to use it; hedonic motivation, the pleasure derived from using it; price value, the balance of benefits against monetary cost; and habit, the extent to which use has become automatic. Intention, in turn, predicts actual usage behaviour, often moderated by factors such as age and gender. The Portuguese team adapted this model and added three constructs of particular relevance to devices that continuously collect intimate personal data: Perceived Security, Perceived Privacy and Brand Name.
The addition of security and privacy constructs reflects a growing body of literature documenting consumer unease about wearables. Smartwatches and smart bands track heart rate, sleep patterns, physical location and sometimes more, streaming this data to smartphones and cloud services. Previous research has shown that privacy concerns can act as a significant barrier to adoption of health-related wearable devices, and that perceived security—the belief that data is protected from unauthorized access—shapes willingness to transact and interact with networked technologies. Brand Name was included on the rationale that established brands serve as quality signals, reducing uncertainty in purchase decisions involving consumer durables, a mechanism long documented in marketing research.
Methodologically, the study followed a quantitative, survey-based design grounded in the research framework adopted by the authors. Data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to Portuguese consumers, yielding 305 valid responses. This sample size satisfies commonly cited thresholds for structural equation modelling, including criteria from Krejcie and Morgan’s classic sampling tables and Westland’s lower-bound estimates for statistical power in covariance-based and variance-based SEM. The researchers analysed the data using SmartPLS 4, a leading software package for partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), complemented by IBM SPSS for descriptive and preliminary analyses.
PLS-SEM is well suited to exploratory technology acceptance research because it handles complex models with multiple latent constructs, does not require normal distribution assumptions, and performs robustly at moderate sample sizes. The authors evaluated the measurement models by assessing indicator reliability, internal consistency, convergent validity and discriminant validity—following contemporary reporting standards such as those set out by Hair, Ringle and Sarstedt—before examining the structural paths linking the constructs to intention to use and usage behaviour. The results confirmed the validity of the extended model, allowing the team to dissect which levers actually move Portuguese consumers toward these devices.
The headline finding is strikingly clear: Performance expectancy and Habit emerged as the strongest determinants of intention to use smartwatches and smart bands. In other words, Portuguese consumers adopt these devices first and foremost because they believe the devices deliver real, tangible benefits—fitness tracking, health monitoring, notifications, navigation—and because repeated use has turned the devices into an automatic part of daily routines. This dual emphasis on usefulness and habituation mirrors findings from earlier wearable studies across diverse markets, from fitness wearables in Asia to healthcare devices elsewhere, but the Portuguese study is notable for confirming these dynamics within a southern European consumer population that had been comparatively under-studied.
Perhaps equally significant is what the study found about the factors that did not dominate. The added constructs of Perceived Security, Perceived Privacy and Brand Name, while theoretically grounded, were not the strongest drivers of intention in this sample. This does not mean privacy and security are irrelevant—prior literature documents real concerns, and regulatory frameworks such as the GDPR have heightened European consumers’ sensitivity to data practices. Rather, it suggests that in the Portuguese market, functional utility and ingrained habit outweigh abstract concerns when consumers form their intention to use these devices. Similarly, classic UTAUT2 drivers such as hedonic motivation and social influence, while present in the model, played a secondary role compared with the powerful combination of perceived usefulness and habit.
The implications ripple outward in several directions. For device manufacturers, the results suggest that investment in genuinely useful features—accurate sensors, meaningful health insights, seamless integration with daily life—matters more than brand prestige or reassurance campaigns in driving adoption. For app developers and health-services designers, the centrality of habit underscores the importance of the first weeks of ownership: features that encourage daily engagement, streaks, gentle nudges and personalized feedback can convert initial curiosity into the automatic usage patterns that sustain the ecosystem. For policymakers and privacy advocates, the findings raise a subtle challenge: consumers may not weigh privacy heavily at the point of adoption, but regulators and companies nonetheless bear responsibility for protecting the continuous streams of biometric and location data that wearables generate.
The study also situates wearables within the broader trajectory of the Internet of Things. Since the term was formalized by the International Telecommunication Union and popularized by surveys such as Atzori, Iera and Morabito’s landmark 2010 paper, the IoT has expanded from industrial sensing to consumer ecosystems in which billions of connected devices interact. Forecasts from market analysts have projected tens of billions of connected IoT devices worldwide by 2030, with wearables among the fastest-growing categories. Wearables occupy a unique position in this landscape: they are not merely endpoints but intimate, body-worn sensors whose data feeds health applications, insurance models and preventive medicine. Understanding the acceptance dynamics of these devices is therefore not just a marketing question but a public health and data governance question.
The Portuguese context adds its own texture. Portugal’s digital adoption has accelerated rapidly, and the research team—working within the ISTAR research center at Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa—framed the study against national population statistics and the growing penetration of smartphones and connected services. Prior Portuguese theses and conference papers had explored wearable acceptance and the benefits of smartwatches for promoting regular physical activity, but this study represents the most comprehensive UTAUT2-based modelling effort in the national context, integrating the extended constructs and testing the full intention-to-behaviour pathway with modern PLS-SEM techniques.
The research is not without limitations, as the authors acknowledge in situating their work. The cross-sectional questionnaire design captures a snapshot of intention rather than longitudinal behaviour change, and the sample of 305 valid responses, while adequate for the modelling performed, cannot represent every demographic segment of the Portuguese population. The rapid evolution of wearable hardware—continuous glucose monitoring, advanced sleep staging, blood pressure estimation—means that the performance expectancy calculus consumers apply today may shift as capabilities expand. Future research could track the same users over time, compare smartwatches with smart bands separately, or test the model in other European markets to determine whether the dominance of performance expectancy and habit holds across cultures.
Still, the study’s core message is likely to resonate far beyond Portugal. Technology acceptance research has long shown that people embrace tools they perceive as useful, and that sustained use depends on behaviours becoming habitual. Wearables, uniquely, are devices people must choose to wear against their skin every day, making these dynamics unusually vivid. As the boundary between consumer gadget and medical device blurs, and as the number of connected wearables continues to climb, the question of what makes people accept them will only grow in importance. The Portuguese study provides a rigorous, statistically validated answer: deliver demonstrable value, foster habits early, and the wrist will follow.
Subject of Research: Acceptance and use of smartwatches and smart bands (wearable technology) among Portuguese consumers, studied through an extended UTAUT2 model with added constructs of Perceived Security, Perceived Privacy and Brand Name.
Subject of Research: Technology and Engineering
Article Title: Wearable technology: a study on the acceptance and use of smartwatches and smart bands
Article References: Martins, J., Alturas, B., & Messias, I. (2026). Wearable technology: a study on the acceptance and use of smartwatches and smart bands. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-026-05117-z
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1007/s12652-026-05117-z
Keywords: IoT, Wearable devices, Smartwatches, Smart bands, Technology acceptance, UTAUT2, Performance expectancy, Habit, Perceived privacy, Perceived security, PLS-SEM, Structural model
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Denise Maddox. (September 3, 2026). Study reveals what drives smartwatch and fitness band acceptance. Scienmag. https://scienmag.com/study-reveals-what-drives-smartwatch-and-fitness-band-acceptance/
Denise Maddox. “Study reveals what drives smartwatch and fitness band acceptance.” Scienmag, 3 September 2026, https://scienmag.com/study-reveals-what-drives-smartwatch-and-fitness-band-acceptance/. Accessed 3 September 2026.
Denise Maddox. “Study reveals what drives smartwatch and fitness band acceptance.” Scienmag. September 3, 2026. https://scienmag.com/study-reveals-what-drives-smartwatch-and-fitness-band-acceptance/
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