The impact of perceived crisis severity on intention to use voluntary proximity tracing applications

During a crisis such as COVID-19, governments ask citizens to adopt various precautionary behaviours, such as using a voluntary proximity tracing application (PTA) for smartphones. However, the willingness of individual citizens to use such an app is crucial. Crisis decision theory can be used to better understand how individuals assess the severity of the crisis and how they decide whether or not to adopt the precautionary behaviour. We propose a research model to examine the direct influence of perceived crisis severity on intention to use the technology, as well as the indirect impact via PTAs’ benefits for citizens. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirm the two dimensions of the benefits, namely personal and societal benefits. We used PLS-MGA to evaluate our research model. The results confirm the influence of the perceived severity of COVID-19 on the intention to use the PTA, as well as the mediating effects of personal and societal benefits on this relationship. Our findings contribute to the technology adoption literature and showcase the use of crisis decision theory in the field of information systems.