A glimpse into the future: The influence of virtual reality and augmented reality on the fitness industry

• Autor(a) principal: Martina, Jurrian Joshua
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/31007
• topic: Realidade virtual -- Virtual reality; Augmented reality; Fitness; Hedonism; Motivation; Realidade aumentada; Hedonismo; Motivação

The fitness industry has experienced a significant transformation in the recent years and is still developing rapidly, partly due to technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). This dissertation investigates what behavioral factors influence motivation and intent to sustain the use of VR and AR among VR and AR fitness users. It draws upon two influential frameworks: the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework. The variables that have been analyzed are perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, the physical activity enjoyment scale, the behavioral regulation in exercise questionnaire, and the theory of planned behavior. For the research, an online questionnaire has been conducted in which Dutch gym-goers (N=257) were interrogated about their experience with VR and AR. The questionnaire was split into two branches. Branch one was shown to respondent that have used VR and AR for fitness before (N=107), while branch two was shown to respondent that had no prior experience with VR and AR related to fitness (N=150). The results show that hedonism has a significant influence on motivation and the intention to continue one’s fitness journey using VR and AR. Furthermore, perceived usefulness of VR and AR has a significantly influences the user’s intention to continue using these technologies for fitness. Both results are aligned with previous research.