Research paper on "FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ADOPTION OF THE SMARTWATCH IN CAMBODIA". This is a conference research summary that was taken on purpose to graduate from the Master's Degree Program.

1. FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ADOPTION OF THE
SMARTWATCH IN CAMBODIA
Chea Socheat*
ABSTRACT
The research analyses the factors that affect the adoption of smartwatch users
in Cambodia. This research aims to determine the factors influencing smartwatch
adoption, understand consumer acknowledgment of smartwatches, and provide
further insights into the industry. The study applies two existing established models
related to technology acceptance, which include the Technology Acceptance Model
(TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The
result of this study revealed that users accepted that the factor of social influence
from friends’ family or acquaintances greatly enhances the user’s decision in
purchasing a smartwatch, while users accept that ease of use of the technology would
provide benefits and increase productivity in their job performance. Furthermore, this
research helps industry leaders understand user expectations and target groups that
can help implement the right strategy.
Keywords: Smartwatch in Cambodia, Smartwatch Adoptions, Wearables, Technology
Adoption, Consumer’s Perception.
INTRODUCTION
The smartwatch is an electronic wearable device embedded with advanced
technology and functions as an activity tracker, health monitoring, reminder, receiving
calls and messages, navigation tool, and so on. These features have created incredible
value and benefits, making consumers’ daily lifestyles more seamless and convenient.
The first trending year that the first smartwatch boomed in the market was 2013, as
*
Student of Master Degree Faculty of Business Administration of University of Panyapiwat
Institute of Management 2022.

2. reported by Bloomberg (Thompson, 2018). This smartwatch continued rising in
popularity, which led many electronic firms to develop a smartwatch in the following
years. Moreover, the leading global firm in the current market is Apple, which holds
up to 52.5 percent market share, followed by Samsung with 11 percent, according to
Statista (Vailshery, 2021). Despite the spreading of the Covid-19 pandemic, the global
smartwatch market still had a growth of 20% in revenue, equal to approximately 42
million units of shipment in the first half of the fiscal year H1 in 2020, according to
Counterpoint (Lim, 2020). Looking deeply into the Cambodian market, as it is the main
focus of this research, Cambodian annual growth in the health sector has risen, as
indicated by more than 50% growth in the fitness industry, according to Nikkei Asian
Review (SESE, 2019). This assumes that the Cambodian consumer is one of the greatest
influencers and the potential sources of market growth in the future. According to the
study, there has been no research done specifically on the adoption of smartwatches
in Cambodia. More than that, there are several limitations or gaps in the current
research that were not fulfilled in their studies, which will be brought and improved
as an extension in this study.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH
This research paper aims to examine the factors influencing the adoption of
smart wearable devices, the smartwatch was also included (Adapa, 2016). The
perceived value to the consumer of the various brands would have been a relevant
variable to the study. This would help the smartwatch industry to understand the
different types of customer demand and perceptions when purchasing a smartwatch
based on their demographic. Another research paper also mentioned and encouraged
improvement in the Activity-Interest-Opinion (AIO), which reflects the lifestyle of
consumers.This latter point would benefit the smartwatch industry regarding marketing
research for future product development based on consumers’ needs (Wu et al., 2016).
RESEARCH QUESTION
What are the factors influencing the adoption of the smartwatch in Cambodia?
What is the consumer acknowledgment of smartwatches in Cambodia?
What are the industry insights of smartwatch users in Cambodia?
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

3. 1. To determine the factors that influence smartwatch adoption in Cambodia
2. To understand consumer acknowledgment toward smartwatches.
3. To provide further insight into the smartwatch industry
LITERATURE REVIEW
To broadly elaborate the initiative of this research on factors influencing the
intention to adopt smartwatches in Cambodia, the TWO most widely used models are
chosen to guide the study to understand the user acceptance behavior toward
technology adoption. These include the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the
Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Personal
Innovativeness is also included to extend more insight into the study, known as the
external variable under the TAM model.
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)
This study aims to focus on the two constructs of TAM which are considered
to relate to the adoption of the smartwatch in Cambodia. According to the existing
paper (Adapa, 2016), Perceived Usefulness (PU) is defined and known as one of the
variables in the TAM model, which illustrates the user’s attitude toward the degree of
usefulness of the technology that would enhance his/her job performance.5 At the
same time, Perceived Ease of Use is defined as the degree to measure the technology
free of effort from the user's perspective.
Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT)
UTAUT is recognized as one of the most powerful theories used to examine
the ability of users to accept new technology and their intention to adopt new
technologies (Momani, 2020). There are four core constructs in UTAUT that will be
used in this study. Performance Expectancy (PE): this is the degree to which the user
believes that using the technology will provide benefits and enhance their job
performance (Venkatesh et al., 2003, p.447). In this study context, the benefit of
smartwatch functionality and features are considered to be the key drivers of adopting
the smartwatch in Cambodia.
Effort Expectancy (EE): is defined as the degree of the User-expectation toward
the ease of use of the technology (Venkatesh et al., 2003, p.450). These variable
measures the level of user capability, which requires a certain effort in skills and

4. knowledge to adopt the new technology. Meaning that it measures the difficulty of
ease of use of smartwatch technology to the user.
Social Influence (SI): is defined as the degree to which the influence of other
users on individuals to start using the new technology (Venkatesh et al., 2003, p.451).
This will study the level of influence from others on the use of the technology,
enhancing the decision to use or adapt the smartwatch of one user.
Facilitating Conditions: is defined as the degree of the organizational and
technical infrastructure that exists to support the use of technology from the user’s
expectation (Venkatesh et al., 2003, p.453). This term measures the availability of
resources that can support or instruct on how to use the new technology of
smartwatches.
Personal Innovativeness
According to (Agarwal & Prasad, 1998), Personal Innovativeness (PI) is defined
as the willingness of the individual to try out any new technology as soon as it is
available. Following this research (Lu et al., 2005) also mentioned numerous studies
that found that PI has significantly had a strong relationship with perceived usefulness
and perceived ease of use from the TAM model. This can be assumed and formulated
as the hypothesis where personal innovativeness has a positive effect on the perceived
usefulness and perceived ease of use of TAM.
Summary of Hypotheses
H1a Personal Innovativeness (PI) has a positive effect on the perceived usefulness
of the intention to adopt smartwatches in Cambodia.
H1b Personal Innovativeness (PI) has a positive effect on perceived ease of use on
the intention to adopt smartwatches in Cambodia.
H2a Perceived Usefulness (PU) has a positive effect on the intention to adopt a
smartwatch in Cambodia.
H2b Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) has a positive effect on the intention to adopt a
smartwatch in Cambodia.
H3a Performance Expectancy (PE) has a positive effect on the intention to adopt a
smartwatch in Cambodia.

5. H3b Effort Expectancy (EE) has a positive effect on the intention to adopt a
smartwatch in Cambodia.
H3c Social Influence (SI) has a positive effect on the intention to adopt a smartwatch
in Cambodia.
H3d Facilitating Conditions (FC) has a positive effect on the intention to adopt a
smartwatch in Cambodia.
Conceptual Framework
Figure 1 Conceptual Framework: Adopted from Al-Maroof et al. (2021) and Venkatesh
et al. (2003).
METHODOLOGY
A quantitative research design is applied to this study using the Google Form
survey questionnaires to collect the data from the respondent in the two main cities
in Cambodia: Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. Through this study, nine (9) parts of 37 sub-
questionnaires were in the approved final survey. The population size is for Cambodian
millennials aged between 27 and 41 who live and work in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.
The calculation of sample size will implement the technique of Yamane (1973). There
are 400 samples size obtain from respondents. The result of the data analytics was
produced by using ADANCO software from all respective respondents.
FINDINGS
The data analysis and the results have shown that PI positively affects PU and
PEOU. However, PEOU and PU are insignificant factors in the AI of the smartwatch in

6. Cambodia. As a result, we assume that Personal Innovative (PI) and the TAM variables
(PU and PEOU) have no positive effect on adopting smartwatches in Cambodia. The
FOUR core constructs in UTAUT (PE, EE, SI, and FC) significantly and positively affect
smartwatch adoption in Cambodia. The result of Performance Expectancy (PE)
indicates that the users accepted that using the technology would provide benefits,
enhance their job performance, and increase their productivity through the outstanding
functions and features attached to the smartwatch. In addition to Effort Expectancy
(EE), it showed a positive relationship toward AI regarding the user's expectation toward
the ease of use of the technology and measuring the capability level of the user. This
points out that whenever the technology is free of effort or requires less effort in
learning to use, it will be in high demand by users. Because they will be willing to use
new technology under the condition of being easy to use and useful. For Social
Influence (SI), the result showed that the level of influence from others like family,
friends, or acquaintances also greatly enhances the user’s decision to use the
smartwatch. Facilitating Conditions (FC) also showed a positive result toward the
adoption of the smartwatch in Cambodia that there is sufficient support on the use of
smartwatches which can assist or instruct on how to use the new technology of
smartwatch. This can be the guidebook or the specialized smartwatch vendors who
can instruct the user when they purchase
With the result of this study, the smartwatch brand will gain new knowledge
and notice the gaps that need to improve for future product innovation and service
improvement. Based on the demographic result, most respondents are business
owners between 32-36 years old with a 500-100 USD monthly income. This assumes
that people in this age range are willing to spend money to fulfill their demands and
social status. These are some of the important factors that influence the adoption of
the smartwatch as per the result of the study in which the user majority focused on
the benefits of the technology and the effort expectancy.

7. Structural Analysis
Figure 2 Graphical representation of the model. Author’s calculation
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