Adoption of SMS for business-to-consumer usage: Supporting adherence to healthy activities

SMS has become a highly successful mobile service. Besides its use as a tool for person-to-person exchange of short messages, a newer approach is to use it as a vehicle for business-to-consumer services such as reminders. This study is an early investigation of user reasons to adopt or to reject the use of SMS for reminders about healthy activities. A theoretical model blending motivation and perceived risk is developed and empirically tested. Findings show that enjoyment is the only reason for acceptance when people do not perceive the usefulness of SMS use, and perceived psychological risk the main reason for rejection. Overall this study introduces a 'pro'-'con' adoption model applied to the use of SMS for business-to-consumer applications.