| Co-creation of value and personalization of experience, in a digitally enabled environment, is a fundamental feature of the 21st century business model. Online weight-loss social networks fit perfectly into this model. Online weight-loss social networks are supportive environments for users whose common goal is weight loss. Researchers have shown online social networks (OSNs), generally, to be increasingly successful with accompanying increased privacy concern among users. In addition, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have been presented as determinant of behavioral intention to accept OSNs. However, these studies have not been inclusive of the emerging uses of OSNs for weight-loss purposes despite empirical evidence of a positive correlation between the use of OSNs and weight loss. This explanatory non-experimental quantitative study of 203 randomly selected participants set out to examine the existence of relationship between users' privacy concerns, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and the behavioral intention to accept the use of online weight-loss social networks based on the theoretical foundation of the technology acceptance model. The result of a hierarchical multiple regression analysis established that privacy concerns, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use can explain 43.1% of behavioral intention of users' to accept the use of OSN for weight-loss purposes. The study highlighted the implications of these findings for providers of online weight-loss social networks and the academia. Recommendations are also made for future research. |
