The use of fitness apps on customer satisfaction and retention: the fitness centres context

The use of fitness apps on customer satisfaction and retention: The fitness centres context Doctoral program of Gestión Estratégica y Negocios Internacionales PhD Thesis by: Helena Isabel Ludovino Ferreira Barbosa Supervisors: Doctor Gabriel A. Cepeda Carrión Doctor Jerónimo García-Fernández Seville, July 2021 Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 Universidad de Sevilla Doctoral program of Gestión Estratégica y Negocios Internacionales The use of fitness centre apps on customer satisfaction and retention: The fitness centres context PhD Thesis by: Helena Isabel Ludovino Ferreira Barbosa Supervisors: Dr. Gabriel A. Cepeda Carrión Dr. Jerónimo García-Fernández Seville, July 2021 Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 I Dissertation submitted to the Universidad de Sevilla to fulfil the requirements necessary to obtain a PhD degree, carried out under the scientific supervision of Dr. Gabriel A. Cepeda Carrión and Dr. Jerónimo García-Fernández. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 II “There is a driving force more powerful than steam, electricity and nuclear power: the will”. Albert Einstein Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 III To João, Francisco, and Rodrigo, my beloved husband and children. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 IV Acknowledgements I'd like to thank my supervisors, Dr. Gabriel Cepeda Carrión and Dr. Jerónimo García-Fernández, for their advice, support, encouragement, patience, and comprehension. It was an honor and a privilege to be guided by two professionals with extensive experience and knowledge. To my husband, my greatest strength, and to my beloved children, the light of my life, for the nights and days when I was less a wife and less a mother in order to devote myself to this project, I could never have done it without them. I am grateful for their encouragement, assistance, and fundamental understanding, which enabled me to realize this dream. A special thank you to my parents, José and Dilar, who have always encouraged and supported me in my studies and ambitions. Lénia and Milton, my dear sister and brother-in-law, for your words of love and strength when I needed them the most. Joo and Emilia, my in-laws. Their assistance and support were critical. I'd like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Vera Pedragosa and Dr. James Zhang for their availability, advice, and critical contributions to this work. This project would not have been possible without the encouragement and support of Dr. Vânia Loureiro, a colleague and friend. I am extremely grateful for her unwavering support, encouragement, and friendship. She will be a personal and professional reference for me in the future. I would also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Associaço de Ginásios e Academias de Portugal for their kindness in treating me and making this study possible. I'd also like to thank all of the fitness center managers who agreed to distribute the questionnaire to their members, as well as the members who completed it. Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who helped this project in some way. I'm a very thankful person. Thank you very much. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 V Index INDEX OF FIGURES VII INDEX OF TABLES VIII ABSTRACT IX CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 1. INTRODUCTION. 1 1.1. OBJECTIVES. 2 2. ORGANIZATION OF THE DISSERTATION REPORT. 4 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 6 1. THEORETICAL MODELS USED TO UNDERSTAND THE ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGIES. 6 1.1. TRA MODEL. 7 1.2. TPB MODEL. 9 1.3. TAM MODEL. 10 1.4. UTAUT MODEL. 12 1.5. UTAUT2 MODEL. 13 2. CUSTOMER. 16 2.1. CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR. 16 2.2. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION. 19 2.3. CUSTOMER RETENTION. 21 3. FITNESS INDUSTRY. 23 3.1. FITNESS AND BUSINESS MODELS. 23 3.2. PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND FITNESS INDUSTRY. 24 3.3. FITNESS INDUSTRY EVOLUTION. 26 3.4. GLOBAL FITNESS TRENDS. 28 3.5. FITNESS INDUSTRY’S RESPONSE TO COVID-19. 30 3.6. TECHNOLOGIES IN THE FITNESS INDUSTRY. 32 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 37 1. METHODOLOGY 37 1.1. STUDY DESIGN, PROCEDURE AND TIME PLANIFICATION. 37 1.2. DATA COLLECTION. 40 1.3. MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENT. 42 1.3.1. QUESTIONNAIRE. 42 1.4. DATA ANALYSIS. 44 Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 VI CHAPTER IV: ARTICLE 1 47 CHAPTER V: ARTICLE 2 76 CHAPTER VI: ARTICLE 3 108 CHAPTER VII: CONCLUSIONS 134 1. CONCLUSIONS 134 1.2. PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS. 139 1.3. LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH. 141 REFERENCES 143 APPENDIX A: PROJECT TIMELINE 164 APPENDIX B: QUESTIONNAIRE 165 Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 VII Index of Figures Figure 1. Adoption models analysed (of own elaboration ............................................ 7 Figure 2. TRA Model (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). .......................................................... 9 Figure 3. TPB Model (Ajzen, 1991) ........................................................................... 10 Figure 4. TAM Model (Davis et al., 1989) .................................................................. 12 Figure 5. UTAUT Model (Venkatesh et al., 2003 ....................................................... 13 Figure 6. UTAUT2 Model (Venkatesh et al., 2012). ................................................... 14 Figure 7. Fitness industry evolution. .......................................................................... 28 Figure 8. Global fitness trends in the past three years based on Thompson (2018, 2019, 2021) (of own elaboration). .............................................................................. 30 Figure 9. Features of the fitness centre Apps (of own elaboration) ........................... 36 Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 5 the appendix, project timeline, and measuring instrument, are listed at the end of the report. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 6 Chapter II: Theoretical Framework Considering that the general objective of the work is to analyse the adoption of a technological tool (app) in the context of fitness centres and its influence on customer satisfaction and retention, the theoretical framework was carried out in order to address these issues. Thus, this chapter will explain the theoretical framework used to understand and adopt new technologies by customer. Customer behaviour, satisfaction and retention will be analysed. Finally, the context where this study will be applied, the fitness context, will be presented. From the concept and evolution to its relationship with physical activity, trends, response to the current challenge of the covid-19 pandemic without forgetting the approach to technological resources used in the industry. 1. Theoretical models used to understand the adoption of technologies. Product adoption is the process by which a consumer begins to buy and use a new good, service or idea. In contrast, product diffusion describes how the use of the product spreads through a given population (Mannan & Haleem, 2017). Computer and information technologies have expanded rapidly. Explaining user acceptance of new technologies is often described as one of the most mature areas of research in the contemporary literature on information and communication systems (Hu et al. 1999). Research in this area has resulted in several theoretical models, with roots in information systems, psychology and sociology, that explain variation in individual intention to use technology (Davis et al., 1989; Venkatesh et al., 2003, 2012). A variety of theoretical models have been established to explore customer intentions and the actual use of new technologies (Beh et al., 2019). The theoretical models used to understand the adoption of mobile technologies include theory of reasoned action (TRA) (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975), theory of planned behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991), technology adoption model (TAM) (Davis et al., 1989), the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al., 2003) and the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) (Venkatesh et al., 2012). From the customer perspective, these two models, UTAUT Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 7 and UTAUT2, have greater predictive power compared to other technology adoption models (Venkatesh et al., 2012). The evolution of the adoption models analysed can be seen in figure 1. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the technology adoption model (TAM) are both derived from theory of reasoned action (TRA). After comparing the similarities and differences between models used in the information system context (including TRA, TPB and TAM), Venkatesh et al. (2003) developed the unified theory of technology acceptance and use (UTAUT). Subsequently, Venkatesh et al. (2012), extended the UTAUT model to the UTAUT2 model in regard to customers’ perspectives. Figure 1 Adoption models analysed (of own elaboration) 1.1. TRA Model. The theory of rational action (TRA) holds that an individual's behaviour is determined by the intention individual is determined by the intention that the individual possesses to perform certain behaviour, and this behaviour intention, in turn, is influenced by the individual's attitude and the subjective norms that exert influence over him/her (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). The basic tenet of the theory of rational action (TRA) indicates therefore that behaviours are largely intentional (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). In turn, these intentions are predicted by the individual's Adoption Models Theory of reasoned action (TRA) Theory of planned behaviour (TPB) Technology adoption model (TAM) Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) Extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 8 attitudes towards the behaviour and any relevant subjective norms that may influence the performance of the behaviour (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). Figure 2 explains the causal relationship advocated by the theory. According to TRA, the proximal determinant of a behaviour is a behavioural intention, which in turn is determined by attitude and subjective norm. Attitude captures a person's overall assessment of the performance of the behaviour, it refers to the positive or negative feelings that an individual has about performing a particular behaviour, results from individuals' evaluations of their beliefs about the consequences that performing a particular behaviour will generate for them, as well as their assessment of the desirability of these consequences. Subjective norms refer to the individual's perception of the opinion of others about whether or not to perform the analysed behaviour (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). At the end of the topic, in Table 1, it is possible to find a resume definition of the model's constructs. The TRA model has been used in various studies and industries, in the tourism industry (Lamsfus et al., 2014; Perez-Aranda et al., 2021), social networking services (Salehan et al., 2018), applied to breast cancer screening in women (Firouzbakht et al., 2021), in the banking industry (Ali et al., 2017; Amin, 2013; Lishomwa & Phiri, 2020) but also in the sports industry (Breslin et al., 2019; Yim & Byon, 2020). Drawing from social psychology, TRA theory is a precursor to many models and a frequently used theory of human behaviour to explain technology adoption (Venkatesh et al. 2003). The theory of rational action (TRA) proves to be, however, insufficient to determine the factors that impact the decision to use a technology by consumers, to the extent that it does not consider subjective variables that probably influence their decision. Recognising that most human behaviours are subject to obstacles, Ajzen (1991) introduced TPB, which generalises TRA by adding a third insight: perceived behavioural control. In this sense, derived from the theory of rational action (TRA), the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) emerges. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 9 Figure 2 TRA Model (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) 1.2. TPB Model. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) is an extension of the theory of rational action (TRA). Although TPB and TRA both focus on explaining individuals' behaviour, unlike TRA which derives from social psychology, TPB is a psychosocial theory (Gagnon et al., 2006). Acknowledging that most human behaviours are subject to obstacles, Ajzen (1991) added a third insight to the TRA model, perceived behavioural control (PBC). Figure 3 clarifies the relationships advocated by the theory. As a general model, TPB was designed to explain most human behaviours (Ajzen 1991). TPB has expanded TRA by postulating that both intentions and behaviours are predicted by the individual's perceived behavioural control. Perceived behavioural control refers to the perceived ease or difficulty of performing a behaviour (Ajzen 1985). Thus, the TPB model proposes that if an individual believes that he is capable of performing a behaviour, the probability of his intention to perform it increases and consequently he will eventually perform it. Similarly, despite positive attitudes and norms towards a behaviour, if an individual is unable to perform it, it is unlikely to happen. TPB uses PBC for individual actions that are not under volitional control. PBC has the direct influence on actual behaviour as well as the indirect effect through behavioural intentions. Ajzen (1991), understands that behavioural intention is reflected in behaviour if the person willingly decides to adopt the behaviour or not, i.e. by the perceived control they have over the behaviour they desire. Behaviour is the product of a series of cognitive and affective events often preceded by the conscious Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 10 intention to act. At the end of the topic, in Table 1, it is possible to find a resume definition of the model's constructs. TPB is a well-researched model that has been shown to predict behaviour across a variety of scenarios. TPB has been used in e-commerce adoption (Pavlou & Fygenson, 2006), in Tourism (Lin et al., 2020), in banking industry (Ali et al., 2017b) but also in the sports industry (Kim & Kim, 2021; Song et al., 2018; Yim & Byon, 2020). Like TPB, the technology adoption model (TAM) is also derived from the TRA model. Figure 3 TPB Model (Ajzen, 1991) 1.3. TAM Model. Davis et al. (1989) and Davis (1989) developed the technology adoption model (TAM) (figure 4) to explain the acceptance of information system (IS) and information technology (IT) and found the existence of two beliefs in influencing the use of IS, with a considerable impact on user attitude: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. However, not only are contained in the TAM the perceived usefulness Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 11 and the perceived ease of use, but also the behavioural intentions. Thus, TAM explains user motivation by three factors: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and attitude towards use. At the end of the topic, in Table 1, it is possible to find a resume definition of the model's constructs. TAM model has been usually used in estimating the probability that consumers will accept or reject an innovative technology. It argues that when users are introduced to a new technology, a number of factors influence their decision on how and when to use it, namely: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (Davis et al., 1989). In addition to predicting whether the individual's behaviour towards a new technological tool is positive, also explains why this same behaviour is positive, through a basic system on the impact of external factors on the attitudes and intentions to use a technology, using a reduced number of variables that collect all this information (Davis et al., 1989). TAM is a simple but solid model that can explain the key factors of consumers’ adoption of new technologies and is one of the most cited models in the field of technology acceptance and in the field of information management (Taherdoost, 2018). TAM has demonstrated its usefulness in explaining technology use in different contexts such as in e-commerce (Pavlou & Fygenson, 2006) the healthcare industry (Nasir & Yurder, 2015) or the banking industry (Bidarra et al., 2013). In the sports industry this model has been widely used (Ha et al., 2017; Hur et al., 2012; Lunney et al., 2016; Song et al., 2018). Specifically in the fitness context, several studies have applied the technology acceptance model (TAM) as a theoretical basis to examine individuals' intentions to use health and fitness apps (Beldad & Hegner, 2017; Byun et al., 2018). Though, the TAM alone, appears not to be enough to posit determinants of the adoption of new technologies because the model leaves out crucial determinants, like social impact in real situations (Beh et al., 2019). This model does not address intrinsic motivations, making TAM's ability to apply in a customer context difficult, as acceptance and use of information technology is not only to perform tasks but also to satisfy emotional needs. TAM was one of the models that served as a starting point for the development of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 12 Figure 4 TAM Model (Davis et al., 1989) 1.4. UTAUT Model. Venkatesh et al. (2003), compared the similarities and differences between eight models previously used in the information system context, including TRA, TPB and TAM, and developed the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). Thus, UTAUT model was proposed as a new IT acceptance theory (Venkatesh et al., 2003). This model (Figure 5) is widely used to examine the acceptance and use of technologies by individuals (Gao et al., 2015). There are four independent variables placed in the UTAUT model that directly determine behavioural intentions, namely: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions. Performance expectancy indicates the degree to which an individual believes that using a given technology will help him to gain performance at work; effort expectancy is the degree of ease associated with using the system; social influence refers to the degree to which an individual realizes that his or her social referents believe they should use the new system; facilitating conditions is the degree to which an individual believes there is an organizational and technical infrastructure to support the use of the system (Venkatesh et al., 2003). At the end of the topic, in Table 1, it is possible to find a resume definition of the model's constructs. The use of technology is explained directly by the intention of use and the facilitating conditions. In turn, the intention of utilization is directly determined by the performance expectancy, effort expectation and social influence. Individual differences (namely, age, gender and experience) are moderating Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 13 variables of the relationships between the four nuclear variables, behavioural intention and the use of technology (Venkatesh et al., 2012). The UTAUT model has been widely used to explain technology adoption in various contexts such as hospitals, crowd-funding, immigration (Joa & Magsamen- Conrad, 2021; Kim et al., 2016; Li et al., 2018). The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) has also been heavily used in the sports industry (Lee et al., 2017; Ndayizigamiye et al., 2020), specifically in the context of fitness (Reyes- Mercado, 2018) and the adoption of fitness apps (Liu et al., 2019; Vinnikova et al., 2020). In this model, academics criticised that it only considered relevant factors in predicting the behavioural intention of employees to use new technologies in organisational contexts. Therefore, Venkatesh et al (2012) extended the UTAUT model to the UTAUT2 model in regard to customers’ perspectives. Figure 5 UTAUT Model (Venkatesh et al., 2003) 1.5. UTAUT2 Model. In UTAUT2 model (Figure 6), together with the four original constructions of UTAUT, there are three additional constructions, namely: hedonic motivation; price value; and habit (Venkatesh et al., 2012). Integrated to examine customer Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 14 acceptance and use of technology (Beh et al., 2019). Hedonic motivation is added to the UTAUT2 model in order to highlight the intrinsic motivations of users in the acceptance of consumer products. It refers to the fun or satisfaction derived from the use of technologies (Venkatesh et al., 2012). The price value is integrated in the UTAUT2 model because, unlike the organizational context, it is the users who bear its costs and may influence the behavioural intention of consumers (Venkatesh et al., 2012). The habit refers to the degree to which the individual tends to use technology automatically as a result of a learning process (Venkatesh et al.,2012). Extensive research has applied UTAUT2 to analyse the use of app in different contexts (e.g. bank apps, shopping apps) (Alalwan, 2020; Chopdar et al., 2018). Some studies have also applied this model with respect to the fitness apps and fitness wearable technologies (Beh et al., 2019; Hew et al., 2015; Neeraj et al., 2019; Shamim et al., 2019; Yuan et al., 2015). However, little or no attention has been given in the specific context of fitness centre app use. Since the study is directed to the customer´s perspective, UTAUT2 model was the one selected for the context of the study. Figure 6 UTAUT2 Model (Venkatesh et al., 2012) Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 21 The flipside of satisfaction is member dissatisfaction, with the potential to decrease the fitness centre’s membership if it has a volatile member base, damaging its reputation. This is particularly true in a service industry where member dissatisfaction is a significant problem. The action of members, and how managers react to such action, determine whether the member is retained by the fitness centre (Pedragosa, 2021a). Concluding, it is extremely important that managers focus on the effects of customer satisfaction (Ferreira Barbosa, Loureiro, & Alves, 2019; García-Fernández et al., 2017; Gocłowska, Piątkowska, & Lenartowicz, 2019; Tsitskari, Quick, & Tsakiraki, 2014) and customer retention (Chris, 2011; Gonçalves & Diniz, 2015; Kim, 2019) as they call into question the stability of businesses, in terms of the continuity of members, but also the long-term sustainability of businesses (Zeithaml et al., 1996). Having said this, the study of services that can lead to member satisfaction, and in turn retention, proves to be fundamental. 2.3. Customer retention. Customers are fundamental to any company, without them there is no revenue, profit, profitability or market value (Gupta & Zeithaml, 2006). Business relationships can logically vary in their intensity and have a positive impact on customer retention (Lin & Wu, 2011). However, customers will only establish a relationship with a provider when they experience a sense of identity and perceive value in the relationship (Nikhashemi et al., 2013). Retention is understood as the tendency to repurchase, i.e., to renew the monthly fee to continue with the organisation (Bodet, 2012; Hallowell, 1996; Oliver, 1999). According to Oliver (1999), a customer with a history acquires a commitment to the company and tends not to look at other providers of the same service. It is important to clarify that retention is different from loyalty. In the short term, retained customers do not have to be loyal. Retention shows only a behaviour or a manifestation of loyalty, but not as an equivalent (Clavel San Emeterio et al., 2017; Oliver, 1999). Thus, retention is usually measured as a binary dependent variable (e.g. continue or cancel, retention or abandonment). Other authors have indicated Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 22 that customer retention can be measured through databases and company histories (Zins, 2001). As for the context under study, the fitness industry, it's the rapid growth is due to a higher demand for these services, given the increased awareness of the benefits of physical activity. Customers now have access to a wide range of services, which increases their expectations of them and their intolerance towards some dissatisfaction, leading to early abandonment. The concept of retention in fitness centres refers to membership retention and is considered fundamental to their profitability (Ferrand et al., 2010). The importance of customer retention for companies also lies in the fact that that the cost of attracting new customers is around five times higher than retaining existing ones (Lencastre & Brito, 2014; Simões, 2014), despite the fact that nowadays, the increase in competition and options, makes it difficult to keep customers (Pedragosa, 2012). Thus, fitness organisations have to understand the consumption behaviours of their members to achieve retention. Among the variables that affect retention is satisfaction (Bodet, 2006; Bolton, 1998; IHRSA, 2017; Nikhashemi et al., 2013; Oliver, 1999; Pradeep et al., 2020; Rahmatulloh & Melinda, 2021; Rust et al., 1995). According to Pradeep (2021), service quality leads to customer satisfaction and both lead to customer retention. Other variables as age, returned payment receipts, money invested, time of registration, frequency and duration of stay should be considered to enhance customer retention. Yi et al. (2020), also points to age and frequency as a determining factor in retention. A study on retention in fitness centres, also found that higher frequency of use was associated with a lower likelihood of abandonment and that the duration of stay in the fitness centre was related to lower the dropout probability, suggesting that managers should focus on offer services with durations of more than one hour (Clavel San Emeterio et al., 2017). Internet technology is also pointed out as an important tool in improving service, providing value to customers through which the retention rate and customer loyalty will be improved (Nikhashemi et al., 2013). Online proves to affect customer satisfaction, contributing to customer retention. Technology is part of customer perceived value, directly related to perceived quality Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 23 and therefore also to satisfaction and in turn to retention, as, as seen, customer satisfaction and service quality are both indirectly related to retention (García- Fernández et al., 2020). Another study referring to technologies on service delivery channels and customer retention, despite being in a European car manufacturer and roadside assistance service provider, indicates that customers are most likely to leave a service relationship when they only use one channel for service delivery, be it a technology-based self-service channel or a personal service channel, indicating the importance of offering multiple service delivery channels. This study also highlights the importance of the value that customers can get from different service channels over the duration of their relationship with an employee, as opposed to only using self-service channels, despite them being potentially more cost-effective for companies (Scherer et al., 2015). There are several studies that address the issue of customer retention (Kim, 2019; Nikhashemi et al., 2013; Rahmatulloh & Melinda, 2021; Scherer et al., 2015). In the fitness context, retention has also been widely studied (Clavel San Emeterio et al., 2017; Ferreira Barbosa et al., 2019; Gonçalves et al., 2016; Gonçalves & Diniz, 2015; Yi et al., 2020), but there is a gap in this field, in the existence of studies that specifically address the impact of technologies on customer retention. Based on the above, the desire arose to conduct this study, analysing the effect of technologies on customer retention in the fitness industry. 3. Fitness industry. 3.1. Fitness and business models. Business model is understood as a conceptualization of the way a firm does its business (Zott et al., 2011). In the fitness industry, gyms can be classified by different business models through the services they offer and the pricing segment. With regard to business models through the services offered, they can fit into five categories: health clubs or fitness centres, personal trainer studios, crossfit boxes, women's gyms and fitness boutiques (Pedragosa, 2021b). The most complete business model is the health clubs and fitness centres. This business model offers various services from rooms with such as weight training equipment, cardiovascular equipment, group classes, functional training, swimming pool, racquet sports, ball Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 24 sports, sauna and spa & wellness. Regarding personal training studios, it is a business model that offers fewer services than the previous model and the facilities are smaller. The third business model, crossfit boxes, is similar to the second business model in its typology of service offerings and square metres. The fourth business model, women's gyms, offers more services compared to the second and third business model, such as bodybuilding equipment, cardiovascular equipment, group classes, functional training, swimming pool, sauna and spa & wellness but the facilities are smaller compared to the first business model. The last business model, fitness boutiques, offers similar services to the fourth business model and the facilities are also smaller compared to the first business model (Pedragosa, 2021b). In Portugal, most gyms (79%) are health clubs or fitness centres, followed by personal training studios (9%). Fitness boutiques have gained representativeness since 2018 and account for around 6% of business models in Portugal. Crossfit box business models and woman gyms are responsible for 5% of business models in the Portuguese fitness industry (Pedragosa, 2021b). The business models, regarding the price segment, can be divided into three categories: low-cost, mid-market and premium. The average monthly fee prices for the low-cost segment are equal or less than 29.90 €, for the mid-market segment between 29.90 € and 55.00 €, for the premium segment above 55.00 € (EuropeActive, 2020). In Portugal, gyms have an average monthly fee of 37.71 € (with VAT), having decreased by 5.6% compared to 2018. It should be noted that 51% of gyms have average monthly fees in the mid-market segment and 42% in the low-cost segment. 66% of the individual gyms belong to the middle market segment and 50% of the chains belong to the low-cost segment. The main chains in Portugal are VivaGym Group (35 clubs), Holmes Place (21 clubs), Solinca (20 clubs), Fitness up (13 clubs), Kalorias (11 clubs), Pump (9 clubs) and the Time to Fitness 24H (7 clubs) (Pedragosa & Cardadeiro, 2019). 3.2. Physical activity and fitness industry. During the last decades the numerous benefits of physical activity have been proven, its contribution to improving the quality of life and reducing/ combating health Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 25 problems derived from physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyles (WHO, 2020b). But despite the recommendations of the World Health Organization for physical activity, more than a quarter of the world's adult population (1.4 billion adults) is not active enough and around 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men do not get enough physical activity to stay healthy (WHO, 2020a). The lack of agreement on effective solutions, identification of responsibility and the role of different professional groups in addressing physical inactivity are the biggest current challenges (Loureiro & Ferreira Barbosa, 2018). However, over time, there has been an increased awareness of these benefits among the population. For this reason, in order to become more active, people have seen the need to go to specialised places where they can perform guided, monitored and controlled physical activity by health professionals. Thus, fitness centres have become fundamental places in the search for health (Gómez Hincapié et al., 2019). Due to this, there has been a boom in recent years in fitness centres and the large influx of people to them, which has managed to gain ground in terms of the practice of regular physical activity, where the characteristics, the service and the way in which the management is carried out with the user is what allows people to maintain these healthy practices in their daily (Díaz Sánches, 2011). In Portugal, most individuals who practice physical activity do so in fitness facilities. This industry plays a crucial role in reducing and combating the level of physical inactivity in this country, by allowing the regular practice of exercise in accredited spaces with specialized professionals (Pedragosa, 2021b). In September 2018, the Associação de Ginásios e Academias de Portugal (AGAP), launched a movement to raise awareness of the importance of physical activity in the health of the population, the Movement PORTUGAL ATIVO. This movement assumes the importance of the fitness industry in promoting physical activity. In this line of action, there is scientific evidence that suggest that fitness professionals can improve their clients' health (Yorks et al., 2017; Zhou et al., 2019), through the promotion of physical activity, motivation and support for motion. In this context, exercise professionals become a valuable resource for public health and an essential component in the implementation of policies to reduce physical inactivity, since physical inactivity has been identified as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality causing an estimated 3.2 million deaths worldwide (WHO, 2021). Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 26 3.3. Fitness industry evolution. Sports practice has undergone great progress over time. The fitness industry emerged around the 1940s in the USA, in the form of street gyms and bodybuilding. The equipment used consisted of free weights and benches. In the 1960s, the first bodybuilding machines appeared, which offered greater safety for exercisers and in the 1970s, there was an explosion in the commercialisation of fitness, accompanied by a mass participation (Maguire, 2018). The aerobic exercises were studied in the 1960s and 1970s by Dr Keneth Cooper, who proved their efficiency for losing weight and improving cardiovascular condition (Wing, 2014). Based on this knowledge, some training methods were developed in the USA which used music, dance steps and calisthenics exercises, among them the Aerobic Dance. In the 1980s, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jane Fonda respectively boosted strength training and aerobics. Still in the 1980s, Gin Miller, for recovery and strengthening from a knee injury, used a step to perform exercises. The up and down turned out to be monotonous, however, when combined with music, the activity proved to be both fun and a great cardiovascular workout. For this reason, Gin Miller created the step aerobics group class (Dalleck, 2012). Since the early 1990s, the term "aerobics" has been steadily replaced by the term "group class" due to the emergence of new formats, which do not include the cardiovascular component. In the 1990s, in the USA, a new type of fitness services emerged: personal training (Maguire, 2008). The large-scale growth of aerobics and the increasing body care trend made personal training more accessible to the middle class. Also in the 1990s, the arrival of Les Mills' pre-choreographed group classes, starting with Body Pump, were also a major contribution to the industry's evolution. According to Wagener et al. (2020), the emergence of Crossfit by Greg Glassman in 1996 also revolutionised the industry. Figure 7 shows some of the key moments that have revolutionised the fitness industry since the early days. The 1990s were characterised by the international explosion of the fitness industry and, in addition to the United States, England, Germany, France, South Africa and Japan saw the expansion of this industry. At the same time, the emergence of various institutions and organisations linked to fitness, such as the Health & Fitness Association (IDEA), American Fitness & Aerobics Association (AFAA), American Council on Exercise Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 27 (ACE), American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), International Health, Racquet & Sportclub Association (IHRSA), NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine), the european organisation Europeactive as well as the Portuguese organisation Portugal Activo | AGAP, contributed to the credibility and affirmation of these activities. After overcoming a crisis in 2008 (technological period), the fitness industry started to offer more than the traditional gyms, doing by innovating new products and services: different business models; new price segment; and high technology (Pedragosa, 2021b). The concept itself has been developing from fitness to wellness (Pedragosa, 2012), concept created by Charles Corbin. The wellness concept is defined as the union of health and fitness aspects, without neglecting physical condition, and valuing quality of life and well-being (Saba, 2006). The fitness industry is constantly growing. In 2019, globally, the number of health club members exceeded 184 million members. Industry revenues totalled an estimated 97 billion dollars in the same year, with 210,000 facilities. Major markets continued to show growth in the Americas and Europe. Before the pandemic, the number of health club customers had grown by 27%, since 2010 (IHRSA, 2020). The European health and fitness market also grew in 2019. The total number of health and fitness club members increased by 3.8% (2.4 million new members) to almost 65 million, highlighting fitness as the number one sporting activity in Europe. Total revenues of fitness clubs also increased by 3.1% (€28.2 billion). The number of facilities increased by 2.3% (63,644). Germany proved to be the country with the highest number of members ahead of the UK (10.4 million), France (6.2 million), Italy (5.5 million) and Spain (5.5 million) (EuropeActive, 2020). In Portugal, in 2019, there were 1100 fitness centres, 688,210 members, mostly women (57%). The overall market represented €289,371 million (excluding VAT) (Pedragosa & Cardadeiro, 2020). The first chain in Portugal was Holmes Place in 1998 and after this milestone other gyms and individual chains appeared in Portugal. The number of chains in Portugal has been increasing since 2016 when compared to individual gyms. Chains represented in 2019, 63% of gyms and in 2018, 47% of gyms (Pedragosa & Cardadeiro, 2019). Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28 With regard to the evolution of research on this area, a recent study (Miragaia & Constantino, 2019) reveals that research on gyms and health clubs began to grow in 2001, with most publications being developed in the last 15 years. The first specific journal in sport management, the Journal of Sport Management, contributed the most to this development of the literature. Figure 7 Fitness industry evolution (Aagaard, 2015) 3.4. Global fitness trends. Knowledge of market trends can help to discover or create opportunities to start, manage or expand businesses in any business environment (Sánchez-Oliver et al., 2017). The fitness industry is no exception. In the fitness market it is important to follow international trends (Kercher et al., 2021). The study and interpretation of the trends can be very useful for the entrepreneur in physical activity and sports Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 29 science in the search for business opportunities. Thus, from 2006 to the present, the American College of Sport and Medicine's (ACSM) Health & Fitness Journal sends an annual electronic survey to thousands of professionals around the world to determine trends related to physical activity and sport in the coming year. That is, every year the ACSM publishes a worldwide fitness trend survey for the following year. The goals of this survey are to differentiate a temporary fad from a trend, to establish global trends in the physical activity and sport-related industry from the clinical (including fitness), commercial, business and physical activity and sportrelated community and to learn expert opinion for the coming year. The survey is sent annually to 20-25,000 professionals and includes 40-45 trends of which 25 are major trends from previous years and the rest are some emerging trends identified by the editors of the ACSM Health & Fitness Journal (Sanchez-Oliver et al., 2017). According to the same author, even the future of any industry cannot be accurately predicted, this survey helps track trends that can assist owners, managers, programme directors and personal trainers in making important business decisions that have a direct bearing on the enterprise. It is also important for the fitness and sports-related industry to pay close attention to trends that appear for the first time but also to those that do not appear in successive years. Figure 8 presents the top 10 global fitness trends of the last three years (Thompson, 2018, 2019, 2021). The covid-19 pandemic has had an effect on 2021 fitness trends. It brought the reality of online training and virtual training. As of the 2020 survey, virtual/online training was redefined specifically for online training, and reached the top of the global fitness trends. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 30 3.5. Fitness industry’s response to covid-19. During the course of this study, a global pandemic, covid-19, hit us and severely affected all industries, including the fitness industry. In this sense, it was decided to address the influence that the pandemic had on the industry in question, for a better, real and updated description of it. The worldwide pandemic of covid-19 changed everything and led to fitness centres having to adapt to these changes and restructure their services (Thompson, 2021). The pandemic has produced effects for the global health and fitness industry, among them a significant economic impact (Kercher et al., 2021). Fitness centres faced substantial financial burdens and subsequent restrictions. Mandated closures placed financial pressure on owners, causing many gyms and fitness centres to close permanently (Myers et al., 2020). The impact on the industry included 1.4 million jobs lost until December 2020, 20.4 billion dollars in lost revenue, 17% of fitness clubs and studios closed in the same period and one in four clubs are projected to close suddenly (IHRSA, 2021). In Portugal the effects of the pandemic were also felt in the industry. The number of fitness centres decreased by 30% to 800 and the number of members decreased by 29% (491,355 members), mostly women (56%). Overall market revenues decreased by 42% with €167,408 million (excluding VAT) (Pedragosa & Cardadeiro, 2021). 1 Wearable Technology Wearable Technology Online Training 2Group Training High Intensity Interval Training Wearable Technology 3 High Intensity Interval Training Group Training Body Weight Training 4 Fitness Programs for Older Adults Training with Free Weights Outdoor Activities 5 Body Weight Training Personal Training High Intensity Interval Training 6 Employing Certified Fitness Professionals Exercise is Medicine Virtual Training 7Yoga Body Weight Training Exercise is Medicine 8 Personal Training Fitness Programs for Older Adults Strength Training with Free Weights 9 Functional Fitness Training Health/ Wellness Coaching Fitness Programs for Older Adults 10 Exercise is Medicine Employing Certified Fitness Professionals Personal Training 2019 2020 2021 Ranking Figure 8 Global fitness trends in the past three years based on Thompson (2018, 2019, 2021) (of own elaboration) Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 37 Chapter III: Methodology This chapter will seek to explain the research methodology by describing the study design, describing the procedures used in the three studies conducted, presenting the study sample and presenting the instrument used. 1. Methodology 1.1. Study design, procedure and time planification. In order to understand the line of thought of the present study, the general scheme of the research was elaborated (Table 2). The design of each study will be described below. Table 2 Study design The use of fitness centre apps on customer satisfaction and retention: The fitness centres context Main objective Analyse the use of fitness centre apps and its influence on customer satisfaction and retention. Article 1: Systematic Review “The influence of technologies on members’ retention by gyms: A systematic review” Objective: Identifying the influence of social networks and technologies on customer retention in fitness centres. Articles 2 and 3 Article 2: “The use of fitness centre apps and its relation to customer satisfaction: A UTAUT2 perspective” Article 3: “Adoption of the fitness centre app on customer satisfaction: A multigroup analysis” Objective: Analyse whether there are significant differences in the use of fitness centre apps, and also in customer overall satisfaction, in relation to age, gender, academic qualifications, training frequency and registration time. Objective: Analyse the intention to use fitness centre apps and their relationship with overall customer satisfaction. Measurement Instrument Questionnaire - Socio-demographic and fitness centre use items; - 28 UTAUT2 model items; - 1 item to assess use behaviour; - 4 Customer satisfaction items. Sample (n=1,678) Female ♀= 982 (59%) Male ♂= 696 (41%) Article 2: To assess the measurement (outer) model in (first stage): (Continued on next page) Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 38 - Measures of internal consistency reliability: rhoA, Cronbach’s alpha measures and composite reliability; - Unidimensionality and convergent validity: The AVE (average variance extracted); - Discriminant validity: heterotrait–monotrait ratio of correlations (HTMT) and Fornell and Larcker's criteria. To evaluate the structural (inner) model (second stage): - R2 and path coefficients; - Bootstrap percentile Cis to check the significance of the path coefficients. Article 3: Testing the measurement invariance of composite models: - Measurement of composite models (MICOM); Multigroup analysis: - Permutation and the path coefficients for comparison of each group. The following are the key phases that led to the completion of this dissertation with the time planning. First, in October 2019, to answer the first objective, identifying the influence of social networks and technologies on customer retention in fitness centres, the first article was started, “The influence of technologies on members’ retention by gyms: A systematic review”. The translation of the title of this article, originally prepared in Portuguese, indicates that gyms were studied, however, the study refers to fitness centres. As previously mentioned, the difference between gyms and fitness centres is that fitness centres incorporate more services since from rooms with such as weight training equipment, cardiovascular equipment, group classes, functional training, swimming pool, racquet sports, ball sports, sauna and spa & wellness. This first article started with a search of the existing literature on the topic under study that was conducted in several databases (Web of Science, Scopus, EBSCO and PubMed) with the terms 1) "retention" (fidelity, loyalty, adherence), 2) "health fitness club" (fitness centre, health club, gymnasium), 3) "technology" (social networks, mobile phone, smartphone, app, Facebook, twitter, Instagram, gamification). Through the PRISMA method (Moher et al., 2009) 10 articles were selected. The results showed that social networks and the use of technologies are fundamental in the retention process. After analysing the 10 articles, it was also identified and analysed the variables personal characteristics of members, frequency and time of use, quality of service and satisfaction, as influencing customer retention. In summary, this study reviewed the articles that study the impact of technologies and social networks on customer retention in fitness centres Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 39 and helped to identify other factors that focus on customer retention, grouping them into two dimensions, associated with the company and the customer. The results of the first study led to the second study, also in order to answer the second objective, analyse the intention to use fitness centre apps and their relationship with overall customer satisfaction. Thus, in February 2020, the second article "The use of fitness centre apps and its relation to customer satisfaction: A UTAUT2 perspective" was prepared and the instrument for data collection was developed. The data collection process, which was supported by AGAP, took place from July to September 2020, through the application of the questionnaire in online format inserted into the Google Forms application, whose completion time was, on average, 10 minutes. The information provided by the members was voluntary and confidentiality was guaranteed. These data served as the basis for the remaining articles and conference presentations that are part of this work. This study used the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) (Venkatesh et al., 2012), as the base model. All the hypothesised relationships were tested through partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), in a quantitative study with data from 1,678 fitness customers from Portugal. The results support the ability of UTAUT2 in predicting the customers intention to use the fitness centre app. All UTAUT2 constructs, namely, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation and habit (Venkatesh et al., 2012) showed a positive impact on behavioural intentions to use the fitness centre app. Performance expectancy and habit have the strongest relationships. With this study it was also concluded that behavioural intentions are positively related both to the use behaviour of the fitness centre app and to overall customer satisfaction. The results of this study present a strong contribution for fitness centre managers, since it highlights the importance of using these apps as a way to increase customer satisfaction, increasing retention levels. This study is paramount as regards to examine the behavioural intention to use the fitness apps that the fitness centres using UTAUT2 model. In February 2021, with the findings of the second study on the influence of control variables on use behaviour and customer overall satisfaction, a third article was initiated, “Adoption of the fitness centre app on customer satisfaction: A Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 40 multigroup analysis”. This paper aims to analyse whether the influence of behavioural intention to use the fitness centre app in the use behaviour and in customer overall satisfaction varies according to gender, age, academic qualifications and registration time. To investigate this heterogeneity, a multi-group analysis (MGA) was used through partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The sample included was the same used in the previous study. The results showed that the influence of behavioural intentions on overall customer satisfaction and use behaviour varies according to the customers’ sociodemographic characteristics and time of registration. The findings also revealed that the influence of behavioural intentions on both overall customer satisfaction and use behaviour is greater in men, in the youngest customers, those with lower academic qualifications and registered for less time at the fitness centre. Finally, a general discussion of the work was held. The project timeline of this research, as well as the entire chronology of the PhD. process can be seen in Appendix A. In the planning it is also possible to verify all the work developed within the doctoral thesis, participation and work developed in conferences based on the articles developed, book chapters that were held, courses attended within the PhD. 1.2. Data collection. The data was collected between July and September 2020. The sample included 1,678 customers of Portuguese fitness centres. Portugal presents a good context for this research as there is a great development of the use of fitness centre apps. According to the Fitness Barometer 2021, around 68% of fitness centres use these apps (Pedragosa & Cardadeiro, 2021). For data collection, the collaboration of the Associação de Ginásios e Academias de Portugal (AGAP) was requested. The AGAP was immediately interested in our study and requested the presentation of the basis and objectives of the study. After it was sent and subsequently approved by the President of the association, in July 2020, AGAP contacted the fitness centres to present the study, send the questionnaire and request that it be re-sent to the members. In order to get an even more representative sample of the Portuguese population, Dr. Vera Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 41 Pedragosa, fitness industry researcher from the Psychology Research Centre and the Autonomous University of Lisbon, was also contacted. Through Dr. Vera's knowledge base of fitness centres in Portugal, it was possible to increase the final sample size considerably. With regard to the data collected, female members (59%, n = 982) were higher than male members (41%; n = 696), which coincides with the percentages of men and women in Portugal (Pedragosa & Cardadeiro, 2021). The age range that most responded to the questionnaire was 25-34 years (29%; n = 491) and 35-44 years (29%; n = 486). With respect to academic qualifications, it was found that 66% (n = 1101) of the members had a higher education. The districts in the country where more answers were received were Lisbon (54%; n = 903), Porto (14%; n = 236), Setúbal (9%; n = 145) and Beja (7%; n = 122). The distribution of the answers to the questionnaire per district coincides with the distribution of the population of Portugal. Around 34% (n = 576) of the respondents declared that they attend the fitness centre on average more than five times per week. It was also found that 32% have been registered at the fitness centre for more than four years and another 32% stated that they have been registered between two and three years. The majority of members (84%; n = 1,403) reported using the fitness app, which were those included in the final sample. The descriptive analysis can be seen in Table 3. Table 3 Descriptive analysis n (%) Gender Female 982 (59) Male 696 (41) Age (years) Less than 25 208 (12.4) 25 - 34 491 (29) 35 - 44 486 (29) 45 - 54 More than 55 356 (21.3) 135 (8.1) Academic qualifications Basic Education 49 (2.9) Secondary Education 526 (31.4) High Education 1,101 (66.0) District of residence Lisboa 903 (54) (Continued on next page) Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 42 Porto Setúbal Beja Leiria Braga Coimbra Aveiro 236 (14) 145 (9) 122 (7) 101 (6) 49 (2.9) 49 (2.9) 38 (2.3) 22 (1.3) 2 (0.1) 2 (0.1) 1 (0.1) 1 (0.1) 61 (3.6) 81 (4.8) 221 (13.2) 243 (14.5) 277 (16.5) 217 (12.9) 576 (34.4) 275 (16.4) 318 (19) 541 (32.3) 542 (32.3) 1,403 (83.7) 273 (16.3) Viseu Évora Santarém Portalegre Madeira Attendance to the fitness centre 0 times per week Once a week Twice a week Three times per week Four times per week Five times per week More than five times Time of Registration Less than 6 months 6 months to 1 year 2 to 3 years More than 4 years Use the app Yes No 1.3. Measurement instrument. Data collection in an investigation usually appears associated with the model used. The instrument selected for this study, according to the quantitative methodology was the questionnaire. The questionnaire was applied online, through google forms. 1.3.1. Questionnaire. In accordance with the proposed objectives, the UTAUT2 model was selected, once this model have greater predictive power compared to other technology adoption models and is more suitable for the study of technology adoption from the Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 43 customer's perspective. Therefore, the UTAUT2 model served as the basis for the completion of the questionnaire (Appendix B). The questionnaire is composed of 33 items, of these, 28 come from each of the UTAUT2 constructs, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions (Venkatesh et al., 2003), hedonic motivation and habit (Venkatesh et al., 2012). The UTAUT2 construct price value was not added since the app is made available free of charge to members. Also based on the UTAUT2 model, an item was added to assess use behaviour (based on Zeithaml et al. (1996), adapted by Venkatesh et al. (2012) and 4 items to assess customer overall satisfaction with the fitness centre, based on Oliver (1997) and Cronin et al. (2000), adapted to fitness industry by García-Fernández et al. (2017). Thus, the questionnaire includes four items associated to the performance expectancy variable (i.e., I find the mobile application of my gym useful), four items associated to the effort expectancy (i.e., Learning to use my gym's mobile application is easy), five items associated to the social influence (i.e., People who are important to me think I should use the gym's mobile application), four items associated to the facilitating conditions (i.e., I have the resources necessary to use the gym's mobile application), three items to the hedonic motivation (i.e., Using the gym mobile application is fun), four items to the habit variable (i.e., The use of the mobile gym application has become a habit for me), four items associated to the behavioural intention (i.e., I intend to continue using the gym mobile application in the future) and one item associated to the use (I use the application frequently). As mentioned before, the variable price value was excluded since the fitness app to be studied are made available to members without any extra value. Also, four items were also added to the questionnaire to measure customer overall satisfaction. All items are measured on a 5-Likert scale of five points where 1 expresses maximum disagreement and 5 expresses total agreement. Finally, the questionnaire includes questions of a socio-demographic nature and characterization of the member such as age, gender, academic qualifications, average weekly frequency of use of the fitness centre, time of registration and also questions related to the use of the fitness app, such as if the client uses the fitness app and which one is used by the fitness centre that the member attends. These Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 44 variables were used as instrumental variables and control variables to test issues about common method bias and endogeneity. 1.4. Data analysis. The first study, the systematic review titled “The influence of technologies on members’ retention by gyms: A systematic review” was developed following the structure and recommendation of other systematic reviews (Castro-Pinero et al., 2010; Ruiz-Ariza et al., 2017; Zanatta et al., 2018) and the treatment used by the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) guidelines for reports and studies. The PRISMA recommendation is defined as a set of evidence-based items for conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses. It consists of a checklist and a flow chart. PRISMA is composed of a 27-item checklist, which helps the author to make sure that he/she has analysed all aspects of the systematic review. It also includes a flow chart with the total number of references found, the number of articles that were excluded in the various phases and the number of articles that reached the final phase. The purpose of PRISMA is to help authors to improve the reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses (Moher et al., 2009). In order to analyse de data from second study, titled “The use of fitness centre apps and its relation to customer satisfaction: A UTAUT2 perspective", it was used SmartPLS 3.3.2 software (Ringle et al., 2015). This software is specialized in the models that follow the PLS-SEM approach (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling). The PLS-SEM estimation method is a versatile method to estimate models of structural equations (Sarstedt et al., 2017). Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is one of the most powerful and advanced methodologies for data analysis techniques that simultaneously study the behaviour of multiple variables (Hair et al., 2012). The relationships between the constructs and the indicators were analysed using a composite process (Richter et al., 2015). According to Hair et al. (2017) and Henseler (2017) in the composite process, PLS-SEM is one of the most proper tools to use. In this study, the independent variables were estimated in Mode A, as well Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 45 as final dependent variables, behavioural intention, use behaviour and overall customer satisfaction. Following to Cepeda et al. (2019) this study was an explanatory analysis, which was divided into two stages. The first stage was to assess the measurement (outer) model, identifying the relationships between observable variables and the theoretical concepts. The measures of internal consistency reliability used were rhoA (Henseler et al., 2016), Cronbach’s alpha measures and composite reliability. The AVE (average variance extracted) measure served of unidimensionality and convergent validity and a heterotrait–monotrait ratio of correlations (HTMT) as well as Fornell and Larcker's criteria were used to provide evidence of discriminant validity (Henseler et al., 2015). The second step was to evaluate the structural (inner) model to test if the proposed causal relationships were consistent with the available data. R2 and path coefficients are the most important result of the structural model (García, Martelo-Landroguez, et al., 2018). The bootstrap percentile CIs was used to check the significance of the path coefficients (García, Martelo-Landroguez, et al., 2018). For the third study, titled “Adoption of the fitness centre app on customer satisfaction: A multigroup analysis” the same software was used. The measurement invariance of the composite models was tested through the three-step composite model measurement (MICOM) (Henseler et al., 2016). The MICOM procedure consists of three steps: (1) configurational invariance (2) compositional invariance and (3) equality of mean values and composite variance values. According to Hair et al. (2018) to apply the MGA it is necessary to establish both configurational invariance and compositional invariance to establish partial measurement invariance. To establish configurational invariance each latent variable in the PLSSEM model must be specified equally for all groups, ensuring, in this case, identical indicators for each measurement model, identical data treatment and identical algorithm configuration across all groups. Subsequently, for the multi-group analysis, permutation was used and path coefficients for each variables relationship were compared. For this study, the control variables age, academic qualifications and time of registration were regrouped and only two groups were created for each. Age was regrouped into participants aged under 25 years to 34 years (n=569) and participants aged 35 years to over 55 years (n = 834). For the academic qualifications variable Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 46 the groups of basic and secondary education were grouped (n=464) and the group with higher education qualifications was maintained (n = 939). As for the time of registration, the groups of participants were grouped by those who were registered between less than six months and one year (n=494) and those registered between two years and more than four years (n = 909). The three scientific publications are discussed in the chapters that follow (Chapters IV, V, and VI). The first published article is in Chapter IV, the second published article is in Chapter V and the final article produced is in Chapter VI, which has not yet been submitted to any journal. Finally, in Chapter VII, an overall conclusion of the work will be presented, including the study's practical and theoretical implications and limitations, as well as future research proposals. The dissertation references, as well as the appendix, project timeline, and measuring instrument, are listed at the end of the report. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 53 com o número total de referências encontradas, número de artigos que foram excluídos nas várias fases e número de artigos chegaram à fase final. O objetivo do PRISMA é ajudar os autores a melhorarem o relato de revisões sistemáticas e meta-análises (MOHER et al., 2009). 2.1 SELEÇÃO DA LITERATURA Durante o mês de dezembro de 2019 foi realizada uma pesquisa abrangente de quatro bases de dados (Web of Science, Scopus, EBSCO e PubMed), de janeiro de 2011 a dezembro de 2019. As principais categorias de termos de pesquisa em inglês foram: 1) “retention” (fidelity, loyalty, adherence), 2) “health fitness club” (fitness center, health club, gymnasium), 3) “technology” (social networks, mobile phone, smartphone, app, facebook, twitter, Instagram, gamification). O Quadro 1 apresenta os principais termos utilizados na pesquisa por categoria. Quadro 1 - Estratégia de pesquisa nas bases de dados. Base de dados Estratégia de Pesquisa Limites Total de artigos obtidos Total de artigos selecio nados Web of Science (TS=( retention OR fidelity OR loyalty OR adherence ) AND TS=(health fitness club* OR fitness center* OR health club* OR gymnasium ) AND TS=(technology OR social networks OR mobile phone OR smartphone OR app* OR facebook OR twitter OR instagram OR gamification)) Data de publicação: Após 2011; Tipo de documento: Article ou Review; Idioma: Português, Inglês e Espanhol. Open Acess 97 2 Scopus ( retention OR fidelity OR loyalty OR ad herence ) AND ( health AND fitness AND club* OR fitness AND center* OR healt h AND club* OR gymnasium ) AND ( tec Data de publicação: Após 2011; Tipo de fonte: 56 2 (Continued on next page) Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 54 hnology OR social AND networks OR m obile AND phone OR smartphone OR a pp* OR facebook OR twitter OR instagr am OR gamification) Journals Tipo de documento: Article, Review Idioma: Português, Inglês e Espanhol. Open Acess EBSCO ((retention OR fidelity OR loyalty OR adherence ) AND ( health fitness club* OR fitness center* OR health club* OR gymnasium ) AND ( technology OR social networks OR mobile phone OR smartphone OR app* OR facebook OR twitter OR instagram OR gamification) Data de publicação: de 01/01/2011 a 31/12/2019 Tipo de fonte: Revistas Científicas (analisadas por pares) Idioma: Português, Inglês e Espanhol. Texto Integral 303 6 PubMed (((retention OR fidelity OR loyalty OR adher ence)) AND (health fitness club* OR fitness center* OR health club* OR gymnasium)) AND (retention OR fidelity OR loyalty OR adhere nce) AND (health AND fitness AND club* OR fitness AND center* OR health AND club* OR gymnasium) AND (technology OR social AND networks OR m obile AND phone OR smartphone OR app* OR facebook OR twitter OR instagram OR gamification) Data de publicação: Após 2011; Idioma: Português, Inglês e Espanhol. Free Full Text 2 0 Fonte: Autores. 2.2 LIMITES DA PESQUISA Foi utilizado um conjunto predeterminado de critérios de inclusão com o intuito de selecionar os documentos para esta revisão sistemática. Os Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 55 documentos selecionados para inclusão na revisão sistemática foram analisados no que diz respeito aos seguintes critérios: (1) O estudo incluía um relatório de texto completo publicado em jornal, revista, revista académica ou revista especializada, analisado por especialistas. (2) O estudo incluía uma população de ambos os géneros e de todas as faixas etárias; (3) O estudo utilizava investigações do tipo transversal, longitudinal ou estudo caso; (4) O estudo incluía artigos escritos em inglês, português ou espanhol; (5) Não foram utilizados critérios de exclusão relativos à origem étnica. Os artigos foram incluídos se preenchessem todos esses critérios precedentes. Estes artigos foram importados para um banco de dados de referência (Mendeley). 2.3 AVALIAÇÃO DA QUALIDADE A avaliação da qualidade foi realizada com base em listas de avaliação padronizadas (CASTRO-PINERO et al., 2010; RUIZ-ARIZA et al., 2017), bem como nos critérios de seleção referidos acima. A lista incluiu 5 itens (A-E): A- Estudo com relatório de texto completo publicado em jornal, revista, revista académica ou revista especializada, analisado por especialistas; B- A população do estudo abrangia ambos os géneros e todas as faixas etárias; C- Os resultados da retenção de clientes dos centros de fitness eram claramente descritos; D- Os resultados incluíam informação relativa ao uso de tecnologias em centros de fitness; E- O tipo de investigação era transversal, longitudinal ou estudo caso. Cada item foi classificado como '2' (se o critério era claro e totalmente referido no artigo analisado), '1' (se o critério era moderadamente referido no artigo analisado) ou '0' (se o critério não era referido ou estava pouco claro no artigo). Para todos os estudos foi calculado um índice de qualidade total, através da contagem do número de itens positivos numa pontuação total de 0 a 10. Foram estabelecidos três níveis de evidência. Os estudos foram definidos como de alta qualidade (AQ), se a pontuação fosse igual ou superior a 8, de qualidade média (QM), se a pontuação total se situasse entre 5 e 7 e de qualidade baixa (QB), se a pontuação fosse igual ou inferior a 4. Assim, verificou-se que cinco Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 56 artigos eram de alta qualidade e cinco de média qualidade (Quadro 2). Quadro 2 - Lista de artigos com o respetivo nível de qualidade. Artigos A B C D E Pontuaçã o Total Nível de Qualidade SPERANDEI; VIEIRA; REIS, 2016. 2 2 1 0 2 7 QM HERRERA et al., 2019. 2 2 2 2 2 10 AQ MIDDELKAMP; ROOIJEN; STEENBERGEN, 2016. 2 2 1 0 2 7 QM GONÇALVES; MEIRELES; CARVALHO, 2016. 2 2 2 0 2 8 AQ LEŚNIEWSKA, 2014. 2 0 1 2 2 7 QM GOCŁOWSKA; PIĄTKOWSKA; LENARTOWICZ, 2019;. 2 2 1 0 2 7 QM GIUDICATI; RICCABONI; ROMITI, 2013. 2 2 2 0 2 8 AQ TSITSKARI; CH; G., 2014. 2 2 2 0 2 8 AQ LISTER et al., 2014. 2 0 0 2 2 6 QM FERREIRA BARBOSA; LOUREIRO; ALVES, 2019. 2 2 2 0 2 8 AQ Nota: Avaliação para a pontuação total: Alta Qualidade (AQ) = 8-10; Qualidade Média (QM) = 5-7; Qualidade Baixa (QB) = 0-4. A: Estudo com relatório de texto completo publicado em jornal, revista, revista académica ou revista especializada, analisado por especialistas. B: A população estudada abrange ambos os géneros e todas as faixas etárias. C: Os resultados da retenção de clientes dos centros de fitness foram claramente descritos. D: Os resultados incluíam informação relativa ao uso de tecnologias em centros de fitness. E: O tipo de investigação é transversal, longitudinal ou estudo caso. Fonte: Autores. 3 RESULTADOS O fluxograma dos resultados da pesquisa através do processo de revisão sistemática é apresentado na Figura 1. O número total de artigos obtidos com a pesquisa foi de 458 artigos. Após a exclusão os artigos duplicados, foram selecionados para leitura 362 artigos, dos quais se excluíram 322 pela leitura do título (n=40), 25 pela leitura do resumo (n=15) e dois pela relevância do resultado. No total, foram considerados 13 artigos. Estes artigos foram analisados de acordo com os critérios de seleção, com base nos quais, foram excluídos três artigos. Após esta seleção, foram incluídos na revisão sistemática 10 artigos. Uma análise detalhada destes estudos revelou que quatro eram transversais (40%) (FERREIRA BARBOSA; LOUREIRO; ALVES, 2019; GOCŁOWSKA; PIĄTKOWSKA; LENARTOWICZ, 2019; GONÇALVES; Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 57 MEIRELES; CARVALHO, 2016; TSITSKARI; CH; G., 2014), quatro eram longitudinais (40%) (GIUDICATI; RICCABONI; ROMITI, 2013; HERRERA et al., 2019; MIDDELKAMP; ROOIJEN; STEENBERGEN, 2016; SPERANDEI; VIEIRA; REIS, 2016) e dois eram estudos caso (20%) (LEŚNIEWSKA, 2014; LISTER et al., 2014). Esta revisão inclui uma amostra com n=16.370.945, cujo tamanho variou de 76 (GOCŁOWSKA; PIĄTKOWSKA; LENARTOWICZ, 2019) a 9674,945 participantes (GIUDICATI; RICCABONI; ROMITI, 2013). As amostras eram de 11 países diferentes: Portugal (FERREIRA BARBOSA; LOUREIRO; ALVES, 2019; GONÇALVES; MEIRELES; CARVALHO, 2016), Espanha (HERRERA et al., 2019; MIDDELKAMP; ROOIJEN; STEENBERGEN, 2016), Itália (GIUDICATI; RICCABONI; ROMITI, 2013; MIDDELKAMP; ROOIJEN; STEENBERGEN, 2016), França, Holanda, Bélgica, Luxemburgo, Alemanha (MIDDELKAMP; ROOIJEN; STEENBERGEN, 2016), Chipre (TSITSKARI; CH; G., 2014), Brasil (SPERANDEI; VIEIRA; REIS, 2016) e Polónia (GOCŁOWSKA; PIĄTKOWSKA; LENARTOWICZ, 2019; LEŚNIEWSKA, 2014). Informações detalhadas sobre todos os estudos são apresentadas no Quadro 3, que se encontra no Apêndice, no final deste artigo. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 58 Figura 1 - Fluxograma dos documentos selecionados, segundo a recomendação PRISMA. 4 DISCUSSÃO As redes sociais revelam-se ferramentas indispensáveis para atrair novos clientes, aumentar a satisfação e as vendas e fortalecer a imagem da marca (He et al., 2013). São vários os autores que relacionam a utilização das redes sociais com a retenção e fidelização do cliente no setor do fitness (Bowden, 2009; Brodie et al., 2011; García et al., 2015; Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004). De acordo com García-Fernández et al. (2020), também a tecnologia está relacionada com a retenção. A utilização da tecnologia em ginásios, quando corretamente utilizada, representa um diferencial frente aos concorrentes do mercado, podendo proporcionar vantagem competitiva, diminuição dos custos e aumento dos lucros (Pedragosa, 2021b) Após a análise dos 10 estudos, para além das variáveis redes sociais e tecnologias, foram também identificadas e analisadas as variáveis Elegibilidade Documentos excluídos da análise Leitura do título: -322 (n=40) Análise do resumo: -25 (n=15) Relevância dos resultados: -2 Documentos excluídos da análise (n=3) baseado nos critérios de seleção. Referências que foram selecionadas para elegibilidade (n = 13) Identificação Seleção Inclusão Referências identificadas nas bases de dados consultadas Pesquisa Inicial n=458: Web of Science =97 Scopus =56 EBSCO =303 PubMed = 2 Referências selecionadas para leitura (n = 362) Documentos incluídos na síntese (n = 10) Número após remoção das referências duplicadas (n = 362) Fonte: Autores. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 59 características pessoais dos sócios, frequência e tempo de utilização e qualidade do serviço e satisfação, como influenciadoras da retenção de sócios. 4.1 VARIÁVEIS QUE INFLUENCIAM A RETENÇÃO DE CLIENTES 4.1.1 Redes Sociais Dos 10 estudos analisados, dois investigam as redes sociais no contexto do fitness (GIUDICATI; RICCABONI; ROMITI, 2013; HERRERA et al., 2019). Para Giudicati et al. (2013), o impacto das redes sociais na satisfação e no compromisso do cliente deve ser levado em consideração, pois a inclusão de fatores sociais aumenta significativamente o poder preditivo do modelo de retenção de clientes. Em particular, o número e a intensidade dos vínculos sociais, isto é, a centralidade nas redes sociais, tem um papel significativo na restrição da taxa de rotatividade dos clientes. A gestão das redes sociais de experiência compartilhada desempenha um papel crucial na criação e manutenção de vantagem competitiva sustentável no setor de serviços. De acordo com o estudo de Herrera et al. (2019), a análise das redes sociais no setor de fitness é uma realidade e uma necessidade para a fidelização e retenção de clientes, o que leva a procurar formas eficazes de as utilizar como parte da estratégia de marketing, para comunicar com os sócios e gerir o posicionamento da marca. Os resultados deste estudo indicam, ainda, o Facebook como a rede social mais utilizada, tendo-se verificado um aumento notável da utilização da rede social do Instagram. Ainda assim, o Twitter verificou-se a 2ª rede mais utilizada, seguida do Instagram. 4.1.2 Tecnologias Dos estudos selecionados, são quatro os que se referem ao uso da tecnologia no sector do fitness (GIUDICATI; RICCABONI; ROMITI, 2013; HERRERA et al., 2019; LEŚNIEWSKA, 2014; LISTER et al., 2014). No seu estudo, Leśniewska (2014) apresenta duas soluções tecnológicas de gestão da relação com o cliente (CRM) num clube de fitness, para garantir um bom e contínuo atendimento ao cliente, criando uma relação de longo prazo entre este e a empresa. Neste estudo, são apresentadas duas ferramentas de CRM de Informação Tecnológica (IT), o Perfect Gym-Club Management Software e o Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 60 Suunto Fitness Solution, concebidas para gerir um health and fitness club ou um ginásio. De acordo com a autora, as principais vantagens desse tipo de CRM são um contato constante e regular com o cliente (com um sistema de envio de relatórios), uma transferência sistemática de informações dentro da instituição (organizando o histórico de interações com clientes de alto risco), um controlo constante do progresso dos clientes e da sua atitude face ao treino, bem como um controlo da frequência de idas ao ginásio. Este revela-se um grande trunfo, da perspetiva interna da instituição. No entanto, o facto de serem constantemente solicitados aos sócios os dados pessoais (número de telefone, endereço de e-mail etc.), de serem abordados no ginásio e incentivados a conversar, o facto de serem incomodados por mensagens regulares enviadas automaticamente para o telemóvel ou e-mails com novas ofertas ou eventos podem ser percebidos por alguns sócios como perturbadores. As funções da ferramenta de IT apresentada ajudam a gerir o centro de fitness, sendo algumas opções voluntárias para o sócio (por exemplo, a utilização da aplicação móvel ou a sincronização com as redes sociais). Por outro lado, podem revelar-se uma desvantagem para os sócios, por exemplo para aqueles que preferem alguma privacidade enquanto frequentam o ginásio. É um grande desafio definir a fronteira entre o que é esperado e aceite pelos sócios e o que não é. Para os clientes interessados em observar regularmente o progresso do treino, os relatórios da Suunto enviados após as sessões podem ser altamente motivadores. A visualização na tela da frequência cardíaca e do consumo de energia durante as aulas de grupo, bem como o envio dos resultados por e-mail após a sessão, ajudam a aumentar a motivação dos clientes. Este relatório, em particular, é um exemplo de como o CRM funciona e de como a instituição se preocupa com os clientes, enviando-lhes algumas orientações sobre o que fazer e a frequência com que devem treinar. A principal diferença entre o Perfect Gym e o Suunto Solution é que o primeiro é utilizado principalmente para apoiar o trabalho dos gestores com os clientes, enquanto o segundo é uma ferramenta usada para manter contato com os clientes e melhorar a sua motivação. No entanto, Leśniewska (2014) sugere o uso de ferramentas que possam apoiar a gestão em vários aspetos, tendo também em consideração a perspetiva dos clientes. Os dados organizados corretamente podem ser uma fonte rica de Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 61 informações sobre as necessidades, hábitos, frequência de treino, tipo de atividade preferida, caráter de motivação, objetivos. Isto pode ser útil quando forem preparadas ofertas individuais para o cliente ou quando for necessário utilizar as estatísticas para gerir os horários das aulas em grupo ou fazer algumas classificações. Sabendo que cada cliente tem expectativas e necessidades diferentes, é crucial garantir que estes dados sejam analisados adequadamente e que seja apresentada uma oferta única e individualizada ao cliente, para garantir um serviço profissional. Estes aspetos fazem diferença quando se trata de escolher o serviço e podem criar uma relação de longo prazo entre o cliente e a empresa (LEŚNIEWSKA, 2014). Portanto, à vista deste artigo, pode-se deduzir que estes CRM facilitam a retenção de clientes em centros de fitness. Outros estudos como o de Giudicati et al. (2013) investigam a tecnologia RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). Os autores trazem algumas ideias sobre como os gestores podem aproveitar as informações geradas por RFID para melhorar a satisfação e o compromisso do cliente. A conclusão a que chegam sugere que esta tecnologia deve ser profundamente integrada nos sistemas de gestão de relação com o cliente, pois é um modo de reunir e partilhar informações do cliente. Estes sistemas inteligentes de rastreio de cliente para cliente devem ser combinados com o marketing boca a boca, para aumentar a lealdade do cliente (GIUDICATI; RICCABONI; ROMITI, 2013). Ainda no tema das tecnologias, no que diz respeito às páginas web dos ginásios, ficou provado que a sua popularidade diminuiu (HERRERA et al., 2019). Verifica-se, portanto, uma utilização cada vez menos recorrente deste tipo de tecnologia. Por último, Lister et al. (2014) analisaram a gamificação das aplicações de saúde e fitness, como um potencial influenciador no comportamento de saúde de um consumidor. Os autores verificaram, pelo número de aplicações encontradas na Apple App Store que contêm alguns componentes da gamificação, que o seu uso em aplicações de saúde e fitness se tornou bastante popular. As aplicações representam um mercado muito promissor para criar um comportamento de mudança na área da saúde. De modo geral, os resultados revelaram um uso abundante da gamificação em aplicações de saúde e fitness (LISTER et al., 2014). Ainda que não seja diretamente mencionado no artigo, pensa-se que a gamificação influencia positivamente a retenção de clientes. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 62 4.1.3 Características Pessoais Da totalidade dos 10 estudos, são três os que se referem às características pessoais do cliente no processo de renovação e retenção (FERREIRA BARBOSA; LOUREIRO; ALVES, 2019; GIUDICATI; RICCABONI; ROMITI, 2013; SPERANDEI; VIEIRA; REIS, 2016). Giudicati et al. (2013) verificaram que as características individuais desempenham um papel importante nas decisões de renovação. As características pessoais, como género dos clientes e a idade, afetam significativamente as decisões de abandono dos centros de fitness pelos clientes. Os autores concluíram que trabalhadores, imigrantes, homens e jovens clientes revelaram menor hipótese de renovar a inscrição. De acordo com Sperandei et al. (2016), as variáveis idade, nível de atividade física e índice de massa corporal e as motivações para perda peso, saúde, estética e hipertrofia, estão relacionadas com a probabilidade de um indivíduo se manter retido no ginásio. Através do seu estudo, criaram estimativas para o perfil do melhor prognóstico: acima de 35 anos, ativo, não motivado pela perda de peso e motivado pela hipertrofia, saúde e estética; e do pior prognóstico: idade até 25 anos, que nunca praticou atividade física, motivado pela perda de peso e não motivado pela hipertrofia, saúde ou estética. Mesmo os indivíduos que apresentam a melhor combinação de variáveis ainda apresentam alto risco de abandono antes dos 12 meses de associação ao ginásio (SPERANDEI; VIEIRA; REIS, 2016). Pelo contrário, no seu estudo, Ferreira Barbosa et al. (2019) verificaram que as características pessoais dos sócios, nomeadamente o género, idade e as habilitações académicas, não influenciam a satisfação global dos sócios e, por sua vez, a retenção. 4.1.4 Frequência e Tempo de Utilização São cinco os estudos que procuram examinar a frequência e/ou tempo de utilização no contexto da retenção (FERREIRA BARBOSA; LOUREIRO; ALVES, 2019; GIUDICATI; RICCABONI; ROMITI, 2013; GONÇALVES; MEIRELES; CARVALHO, 2016; MIDDELKAMP; ROOIJEN; STEENBERGEN, 2016; SPERANDEI; VIEIRA; REIS, 2016). De acordo com o estudo de Gonçalves et al. (2016), a frequência semanal (número de assistências ao ginásio) não mostra Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 69 n. 4, p. 409–422, Dez. 2013. GOCŁOWSKA, S.; PIĄTKOWSKA, M.; LENARTOWICZ, M. Customer satisfaction and its measurement in fitness clubs of Warsaw. Economics and Sociology, v. 12, p. 205–2018, 1 Jun. 2019. GONÇALVES, C.; MEIRELES, P.; CARVALHO, M. Consumer Behaviour in Fitness Club: Study of the Weekly Frequency of use, Expectations, satisfaction and Retention. 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Autores/ Ano/ Título Objetivo Amostra / País Resultados Sperandeia, S.; Vieira, Marcelo Avaliar a taxa de desistência 1. 63% dos novos sócios abandonarão as atividades antes do terceiro mês e menos de 4% permanecerá por (Continued on next page) Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 72 C.; Reis, Arianne. 2016. dos sócios de um centro de fitness na cidade do Rio de Janeiro e as possíveis variáveis explicativas para o fenómeno. 5240 sócios. Brasil. mais de 12 meses de atividade contínua. 2. Variáveis relacionadas significativamente à probabilidade de um indivíduo permanecer como membro ativo do centro de fitness: idade, nível de atividade física e índice de massa corporal e as motivações 'perda de peso', 'saúde', 'estética' e 'hipertrofia'. 3. A partir da combinação das variáveis consideradas significativas no modelo, é possível criar perfis de indivíduos representativos e uma estimativa da probabilidade de longevidade para cada mês. 4. Mesmo os indivíduos que apresentam a melhor combinação de variáveis ainda apresentam alto risco de abandono antes dos 12 meses de associação ao centro de fitness. Adherence to physical activity in an unsupervised setting: Explanatory variables for high attrition rates among fitness center members. Herrera-Torres, L.; Pérez-Tur, F.; Valcarce Torrente, M. y García- Fernández, J. 2019. Analisar a evolução das redes sociais no setor de fitness em Espanha durante o período de 2015 a 2018. 215 empresa s. Espanha 1. As organizações desportivas estão a perceber os benefícios das redes sociais e a procurar formas eficazes de as utilizar como parte de seu marketing global, para comunicar com os sócios e gerir as estratégias da marca. 2. A análise de redes sociais no setor de fitness é uma realidade e uma necessidade. 3. Desceu a popularidade das páginas web. 4. Os resultados indicaram o Facebook como a rede social mais utilizada e um aumento notável da rede social do Instagram. 5. Ainda assim, o Twitter é a 2ª rede mais utilizada seguida do Instagram. Analysis Of Social Networks In The Spanish Fitness Sector: A Longitudinal Study. Middelkamp, J; Van Rooijen, M.; Steenbergen, B. 2016. Aplicar as fases de mudança do Modelo Transteórico de mudança de comportamento para analisar os padrões de comportamento dos participantes em centros de fitness. 400 sócios. Holanda, Bélgica, Luxembu rgo, Alemanh a, França, Espanha e Itália 1. O comportamento de frequência dos 400 ex-sócios revelou-se problemático em relação à manutenção da saúde. 2. Apenas 10% dos sócios alcançaram a fase de manutenção sem recaídas. 3. 19,5% nunca frequentaram o centro. 4. O comportamento médio de frequência foi extremamente baixo e a sua diminuição foi substancial - 12,5 vezes menor no 24º mês em comparação ao primeiro mês completo. 5. Apenas 2,3% dos ex-sócios nunca teve uma recaída durante os 24 meses. 6. 50% dos ex-sócios que tiveram uma recaída durante um mês reiniciou no mês seguinte. 7. Ex-sócios que atingem a fase da manutenção têm maior probabilidade de Attendance Behavior of Exmembers in Fitness Clubs: A Retrospective Study Applying the Stages of Change. (Continued on next page) Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 73 continuar a frequentar até ao 12º mês, mesmo com frequências baixas. Gonçalves, C.; Meireles, P.; Carvalho, M. J. 2015. Compreender a relação entre frequência semanal de treino, as expectativas, a satisfação e a retenção de sócios em centros de fitness. 146 sócios. Portugal. 1. A frequência semanal não mostrou capacidade explicativa para predizer a satisfação e retenção (a frequência semanal não contribui para maior satisfação ou retenção.). 2. A relação entre as expectativas, a satisfação (73%) e a retenção (64%) foi estatisticamente significante. 3. A relação entre satisfação e retenção (63%) foi positiva e significativa. Consumer behaviour in fitness club: Study of the weekly frequency of use, expectations, satisfaction and retention. Leśniewska, A. 2014. Apresentar uma forma de aplicar o conceito de CRM (Customer Relationship Management) numa instituição desportiva e discutir as suas funções e a sua utilidade, através de duas ferramentas (Perfect Gym- Club Management Software e Suunto Fitness Solution). Polónia. 1. As soluções de IT apresentadas têm vários recursos de suporte à abordagem de CRM. 2. A principal vantagem deste tipo de aplicação é um contato regular com o cliente, transferência sistemática de informações dentro da instituição, controlo constante do progresso dos clientes e da sua atitude face ao treino, bem como controlo da frequência de idas ao clube. 3. As funções das ferramentas apresentadas ajudam a gerir o centro de fitness, sendo algumas opções voluntárias para o sócio. 4. Os dados organizados corretamente podem ser uma fonte rica de informações sobre as necessidades, hábitos, frequência treino, tipo de atividade preferida, caráter de motivação, objetivos etc. Customer Relationship Management In A Fitness Club - Case Study Of It Solutions Applied In A Selected Organization. Gocłowska, S.; Piątkowska, M.; Apresentar a metodologia de 76 por entrevist 1. Foco mais forte das empresas nas áreas que provaram ser pontos fracos e ameaças em termos de nível de (Continued on next page) Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 74 Lenartowicz, M. 2019. design e uso do CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index) para empresas que prestam serviços de fitness. a. Polónia. satisfação do sócio do fitness club: a localização, o preço e as atividades promocionais do fitness club. 2. A metodologia de medição da satisfação do sócio parece estar adaptada à natureza dos sócios do setor de fitness, bem como às pequenas e médias empresas que dominam nesse campo. 3. Medir a satisfação do cliente torna possível tomar decisões e contribuir para a qualidade dos serviços oferecidos. Customer satisfaction and its measurement in fitness clubs of Warsaw. Giudicati, G.; Riccaboni, M.; Romiti, A. 2013. Analisar efeitos da posse, contrato de uso e socialização na retenção de clientes. 4.649 sócios, 133.945 registros de inscrição e 4.892 contratos . Itália. 1. Clientes de longa data têm uma menor hipótese de renovar o contrato. 2. A centralidade do consumidor na rede reduz a taxa de rotatividade do cliente. 3. A inclusão de efeitos sociais aumenta o poder preditivo do modelo de rotatividade do cliente. 4. Os resultados deste estudo revelam de que modo os gestores podem aproveitar as informações geradas por RFID para melhorar a satisfação e o compromisso do cliente. Experience, socialization and customer retention: Lessons from the dance floor. Tsitskari, E.; Antoniadis, CH; Costa, G. 2014. Analisar os padrões de qualidade e satisfação do serviço que podem ser utilizados para predizer o compromisso psicológico dos sócios com a indústria do fitness. 315. Chipre. 1. A dimensão "Colaboradores" derivou ser a chave para o alcance da satisfação e do compromisso psicológico dos membros dos centros de fitness Cipriotas. 2. A qualidade do serviço é um antecedente da satisfação do cliente. Investigating the relationship among service quality, customer satisfaction and psychological commitment in Cyprian fitness centers. Lister, C.; West, JH; Cannon, B.; Sax, T.; Brodegard, D. 2014. Identificar de que modo a gamificação é utilizada em aplicações de saúde e analisar a gamificação das aplicações de saúde e 132 apps. 1. O uso da gamificação em aplicações de saúde e fitness tornou-se imensamente popular, conforme evidenciado pelo número de aplicações encontrados na Apple App Store que contêm alguns componentes da gamificação. 2. As aplicações representam um mercado muito promissor para criar comportamento de mudança na área da saúde. 3. Os resultados iniciais revelam um uso abundante da gamificação em aplicações de saúde e fitness. Just a Fad? Gamification in Health and Fitness Apps. (Continued on next page) Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 75 fitness como um potencial influenciador no comportamento de saúde de um consumidor. Ferreira Barbosa, H.; Loureiro, V.; Alves, A. 2019. Analisar a influência da qualidade dos serviços na satisfação global dos sócios em ginásios 172 sócios. Portugal. 1. Não existem diferenças significativas na satisfação global dos sócios relacionada com as características sociodemográficas, tempo de inscrição, frequência e horário de utilização do ginásio. 2. A qualidade dos serviços apresenta uma maior relevância, seguido da qualidade de equipamentos e, por fim, a relação qualidade-preço para a satisfação global dos sócios. 3. Relação positiva entre qualidade de serviço e satisfação global. Quality And Satisfaction In Gymnasiums & Health Clubs. Fonte: Auto Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 76 Chapter V: Article 2 THE USE OF FITNESS CENTRE APPS AND ITS RELATION TO CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: A UTAUT2 PERSPECTIVE Authors: Ferreira Barbosa, Helena* ([email protected]) García-Fernández, Jerónimo** ([email protected]) Pedragosa, Vera*** ([email protected]) Cepeda-Carrión, Gabriel**([email protected]) * Instituto Politécnico de Beja, Beja (Portugal). ** Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla (España). *** Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa (Portugal). Corresponding author: Helena Ferreira Barbosa Mobile phone: +351 961200226 Email: [email protected] Published in International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship (ISSN 1464-6668) Impact Factor in Journal of Citation Reports (JCR) 2020: 2.938 5 Year Impact Factor: 1.177 Quartile: Q3 Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 77 THE USE OF FITNESS CENTRE APPS AND ITS RELATION TO CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: A UTAUT2 PERSPECTIVE Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the intention of using fitness app made available by the fitness centre to its members and their relationship with overall customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – The present study uses the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) as the base model. All the hypothesized relationships were tested through partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), in a quantitative study with data from 1,678 fitness consumers from Portugal. Findings – The results support the ability of UTAUT2 in predicting the customer´s intention to use the fitness app. Performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation and habit do have a positive impact on behavioural intentions to use the fitness app. Performance expectancy and habit have the strongest relationships. Behavioural intentions are positively related both to the usage behaviour of the fitness app and to overall customer satisfaction. Practical implications – The results of this study present a strong contribution for fitness centre managers, since it highlights the importance of using these apps as a way to increase customer satisfaction, increasing retention levels. Originality – This study is paramount as regards to examine the behavioural intention to use the fitness apps that the fitness centres make available to their members using UTAUT2 model. Keywords: Technology adoption, UTAUT2, fitness app, behavioural intentions, overall customer satisfaction. Paper type: Research paper. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 78 1. Introduction. Digital transformation is an increasingly present reality in the fitness sector (Jones et al., 2020). Gradually, fitness centres managers have incorporated new technologies into the organization and management of their business, not only with a view to assist in this aspect of organization and management but also to offer the consumer a more satisfying experience (Andre, 2020). According to García-Fernández et al. (2020a), this transformation creates a direct impact in all areas of the fitness centres. The digital expansion, at the level of smartphones and wearable devices, has given rise to the fitness app as one of the main categories of apps in the current market for mobile apps (Hu and He, 2020). Mobile fitness apps flood the mobile app market (Beldad and Hegner, 2017). During the first quarter of 2020, health and fitness apps were downloaded 593 million times, and by the end of the second quarter of 2020, 656 million downloads are expected. The download of these apps increased over the same period last year, probably due to the covid-19 pandemic that led consumers to stay at home and restructure their exercise regimen and general lifestyle practices (Clement, 2020). Yet, mobile exercise apps are proving to be a growing trend in the fitness world, reaching 12th on the fitness trend chart for 2021 (Thompson, 2021). The features of individual-oriented fitness apps can significantly improve both exercise adherence and social involvement of users (Hu and He, 2020). In their study, Molina and Myrick (2020) concluded that fitness apps that enable social interaction and/or social comparison are more appropriate for individuals who begin to use the app due to social influences. Individuals who begin with a goal to improve their physical fitness or appearance may want more self-focused features in a fitness app in order to persist in its use. In particular, the fitness apps used by fitness centre are generally integrated into the management / Customer Relationship Management (CRM software) they use (King, 2018). These fitness apps prove to be a convenient and easily accessible tool that allows fitness centre to remain constantly connected to their members. These fitness apps can help to improve members' experience and can also increase revenue and referrals by reducing operating costs. Among other Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 85 that consumers are more likely to adopt a particular technology which they perceive to be more useful in their everyday life (Alalwan, 2016; Alalwan et al., 2017). Regarding mobile app, Lee et al. (2012), confirmed that consumers' intentions to use mobile app increase if the perceived utility of the app is bigger. Consequently, if the consumer finds that mobile apps are useful, then they would have higher intention to use them. Therefore, this study hypothesizes that: H1: Performance expectancy has a positive impact on the behavioural intention of using the fitness app. 3.2. Effort expectancy and behavioural intention. Such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy is another strong predictor for analysing behavioural intention and actual technology usage (Venkatesh et al., 2003; Venkatesh et al., 2012). Consumers’ intentions to adopt a new technology is not just influenced by the perceived value and its utility, but also by the efforts required to use the technology (Davis, 1989). Technology that is easy to use in an initial phase positively influences consumer’s intentions towards using it (Neeraj et al., 2019). On the other hand, the more effort users need to dedicate to an app, the less likely they will continue to use it over time (Yuan et al., 2015). Therefore, it is possible to assume that high effort expectancy would be associated with more positive intention to use the mobile app. H2: Effort expectancy has a positive impact on the behavioural intention to use the fitness app. 3.3. Social influence and behavioural intention. Social influence significantly influences an individual's behavioural intention. Mobile app makes it convenient for users to connect with people they think are important to them, which reinforces their social influence in this context (Yuan et al., 2015). The role of social influence is crucial, particularly for products or services in the early stages of development, where technological products are entirely new to them and they lack information about the use of this new Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 86 technology (Adapa et al., 2018). Mobile apps are not only usable by certain groups of users and, based on which one´s will, its use is mandatory. Based on that, there is a chance that users of mobile apps are forming the behavioural intention based on the social influence (Hew et al., 2015). Therefore, this study forms the following hypothesis: H3: Social influence has a positive impact on the behavioural intention to use the fitness app. 3.4. Facilitating conditions and behavioural intention Facilitating conditions are explained as factors in the environment that either facilitate or impede acceptance of technology (Venkatesh et al., 2012; Yuan et al., 2015). Consumers are therefore encouraged to use technologies for which they have some support and resources and consider that the specific technology is compatible with the technologies they have previously used (Alalwan et al., 2017). Knowing how to use mobile app can also influence the users' continued use. Users with better knowledge of how to use apps are more likely to continue to use them (Yuan et al., 2015). Therefore, it is suggested that facilitating conditions positively affect individuals’ intention to use the mobile app. H4: Facilitating conditions have a positive impact on the fitness app´s behavioural intention to use. 3.5. Hedonic motivation and behavioural intention. Venkatesh and Davis (2000) have showed that hedonic motivation is an important factor in technology acceptance. Users are more inclined to use technologies that appear to be entertaining with unique, creative tools and functions (Alalwan et al., 2017). Previous studies in different settings clearly establish a positive relationship between hedonic motivation and behavioural intention (Beh et al., 2019; Farooq et al., 2017; Gu et al., 2016; Neeraj et al., 2019; Yuan et al., 2015). In relation to health and fitness apps, though they are not designed directly for hedonic motivations, many also include entertaining Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 87 features in order to keep users involved and engaged (Yuan et al., 2015). Based on the above argument, the study hypothesizes that: H5: Hedonic motivation has a positive impact on the behavioural intention to use the fitness app. 3.6. Habit and behavioural intention. It is conceptualized as a self-reported perception of automatic involvement in a given behaviour, which has been found to be a significant predictor of mobile internet use. Venkatesh et al., (2012) found that habit affects the behavioural intention to use technology. In addition, existing research has empirically validated the habit as one of the strongest predictors of usage in several fields (Hew et al., 2015; Miladinovic and Hong, 2016; Oliveira et al., 2016). Therefore, we hypothesize that: H6: Usage habit has a positive impact on the behavioural intention to use fitness app. 3.7. Behavioural intention and use behaviour. Investigations have consistently demonstrated that behavioural intention is the strongest indicator of use behaviour (Davis, 1989). If there is a higher probability of using a certain technology, individuals who develop intentions about a certain behaviour are more likely to practice this behaviour (Orbell et al., 1997). Thus, based on the discussion above, it is assumed that there is a positive relationship between behavioural intention and the use of technology. H7: Behavioural intention has a positive impact on the use behaviour of the fitness app. 3.8. Behavioural intention and customer overall satisfaction Previous research (Howat et al., 1999; McDougall and Levesque, 2000; Murray and Howat, 2002) has noted that consumers’ behavioural intentions have been positively correlated with other factors such as consumer satisfaction. This Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 88 is the link that is looked for, the behavioural intention with the fitness app to the overall customer satisfaction with the fitness centre. Thus, it was sought to study the impact of behavioural intention to use the fitness centre's app with customer overall satisfaction. H8: Behavioural intention to use the fitness app has a positive impact on customer overall satisfaction with the fitness centre. Figure 2 shows the model of this research, resulting from the combination of the above hypotheses. 4. Methodology. This cross-sectional study used a quantitative research approach to analyse the intention to use the mobile apps made available by fitness centres and their relationship with overall customer satisfaction. 4.1. Data collection. To obtain our data set, Associação de Ginásios e Academias de Portugal (AGAP) was contacted in order to request its collaboration in the dissemination of the survey. Thus, in July 2020 AGAP contacted the fitness centres to present FITNESS CENTRE FITNESS APP Performance expectancy Effort expectancy Social influence Facilitating conditions Hedonic motivation Habit Behavioural intention Use behaviour Customer overall satisfaction H1 H2 H6 H3 H4 H5 H7 H8 Figure 2. Research model. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 89 the basis and objectives of the study, sent our survey and requested this survey to be forwarded to the members. The questionnaire was applied from July to September 2020. The sample is composed by 1,678 fitness centres customers from Portugal. This country has a good context for the study once there is a great development of fitness centres apps and, according to the 2021 Fitness Barometer, about 68% of fitness centres use these apps (Pedragosa and Cardadeiro, 2021). The female members (59%, n = 982) were superior to the male members (41%; n = 696), which coincides with the percentages of men and women in Portugal (Pedragosa and Cardadeiro, 2021). The age group that answered most to the questionnaire was the 25-34 years old (29%; n = 491) and 35-44 years old (29%; n = 486). Regarding academic qualifications it was found that 66% (n = 1101) of the members had a higher education. The districts in the country from where most replies were received were Lisbon (54%; n = 903), Porto (14%; n = 236), Setúbal (9%; n = 145) and Beja (7%; n = 122). The distribution of questionnaire responses by district coincides with the distribution of the population of Portugal. About 34% (n = 576) of respondents reported attending the fitness centre on average more than five times a week. It was also found that 32% have been registered in the fitness centre for more than four years and another 32% reported being registered between two and three years. Most members (84%; n = 1,403) reported using the fitness app, which were those included in the final sample. 4.2. Measurement instrument. The questionnaire items, based on the existing literature related to the UTAUT2 model, were adapted to the particular context of this study. The questionnaire, included in appendix, has 33 items. Four associated to the performance expectancy variable (i.e., I find the mobile application of my gym useful), four associated to the effort expectancy (i.e., Learning to use my gym's mobile application is easy), five associated to the social influence (i.e., People who are important to me think I should use the gym's mobile application), four associated to the facilitating conditions (i.e., I have the necessary resources to Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 90 use the gym's mobile application), three to the hedonic motivation (i.e., Using the gym mobile application is fun), four to the habit variable (i.e., The use of the mobile gym application has become a habit for me), four items associated to the behavioural intention (i.e., I intend to continue using the gym mobile application in the future) and one associated to the use (I frequently use the application). As mentioned, the variable price value was excluded since the fitness app to be studied are made available to members without any extra value. Four items were also added to the questionnaire to measure overall customer satisfaction based on García-Fernández et al. (2018a). All items are measured on a Likert scale of five points where 1 expresses maximum disagreement and 5 expresses total agreement. The questionnaire also includes questions of a socio-demographic nature and characterization of the member such as age, gender, academic qualifications, average weekly frequency of use of the fitness centre, time of registration and also questions related to the use of the fitness app, such as if the client uses the fitness app and which one is used by the fitness centre that the member attends. These variables were used as instrumental variables and control variables to test issues about common method bias and endogeneity. 4.3. Data analysis. The software used for data analysis was SmartPLS 3.3.3 (Ringle et al., 2015). This software is specialized in the models that follow the PLS-SEM approach (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling). The PLS-SEM estimation method is a versatile method to estimate models of structural equations (Sarstedt et al., 2017). Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is one of the most powerful and advanced methodologies for data analysis techniques that simultaneously study the behaviour of multiple variables (Hair et al., 2012). The relationships between the constructs and the indicators were analysed using a composite process (Richter et al., 2015). According to Hair et al. (2017) and Henseler (2017) in the composite process, PLS-SEM is one of the most proper tools to use. In this study, the independent variables were estimated in Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 91 Mode A, as well as final dependent variables, behavioural intention, use behaviour and overall customer satisfaction. Following to Cepeda-Carrión et al. (2019) our study was an explanatory analysis, which was divided into two stages. The first stage was to assess the measurement (outer) model, identifying the relationships between observable variables and the theoretical concepts. The measures of internal consistency reliability used were rhoA (Henseler et al., 2016), Cronbach’s alpha measures and composite reliability. The AVE (average variance extracted) measure served of unidimensionality and convergent validity and a heterotrait–monotrait ratio of correlations (HTMT) as well as Fornell and Larcker's criteria were used to provide evidence of discriminant validity (Henseler et al., 2015). The second step was to evaluate the structural (inner) model to test if the proposed causal relationships were consistent with the available data. R2 and path coefficients are the most important result of the structural model (García- Fernández et al., 2018b). The bootstrap percentile CIs was used to check the significance of the path coefficients (García-Fernández et al., 2018b). 4.4. Single respondent bias, common method bias and endogeneity of the model. The sample size, the fact that the questionnaire is anonymous, the simplistic nature of the questions, minimizes the risk of respondent biases. Common method bias (CMB) may affect findings and it refers to the difference between the trait score and measured score that is attributed to the use of a common method to take more than one measurement of the same or different traits (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Kock (2015) demonstrate that the full collinearity test based on variance inflation factors is successful in the identification of common method bias, therefore, the present model may be considered free of CMB, once the VIF values are all above than 3.3. In the case of using PLS-SEM for confirmatory/explanatory purposes (the case of our model) controlling for endogeneity is crucial in order to adequately test hypotheses (Papies et al., 2017). Ebbes et al. (2016) establish that including Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 92 suitable control variables handles the impact of endogeneity on the model estimates. Therefore, since on this study control variables are used, apparently our model has no endogeneity problems. 5. Results As explained before, the analysis and interpretation of the results was made in two phases. 5.1. Measurement model. For Mode A composites, our results confirm that individual items are consistent, since all standardized weight correlations are superior to 0.7, except fc4 (0.649). Given this, as all the other indicators show values above 0.7 and since the convergent and discriminant validity and reliability are well, we have decided to maintain this indicator. As shown in Table I, all the constructs have, Rho, composite reliability and Cronbach’s alpha above than 0.7 in all cases, which suggests that the model satisfies the prerequisite of construct reliability. Furthermore, the scores for the AVE exceed the threshold of 0.5, which means that the latent variables explain more than half of the variance of its indicators. Also, all the variables achieve discriminant validity, once the HTMT value is bellow 0.9. Table I. Reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity values of outer model. Construct rho_A Composite reliability Cronbach’s alpha AVE HTMT (BI) HTMT (OS) HTMT (UB) Behavioural Intention 0.896 0.924 0.890 0.753 - - - Performance expectancy 0.904 0.932 0.903 0.775 0.837 - - Effort expectancy 0.949 0.962 0.947 0.864 0.566 - - Social Influence 0.904 0.928 0.902 0.722 0.718 - - (Continued on next page) Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 93 Facilitating Conditions 0.775 0.857 0.775 0.602 0.583 - - Hedonic Motivation 0.929 0.952 0.924 0.868 0.749 - - Habit 0.863 0.888 0.831 0.667 0.9 - - Overall Satisfaction 0.931 0.950 0.930 0.827 0.583 - - Use Behaviour 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 0.777 0.446 - Age 1.000 - - - 0.027 0.078 0.011 Gender 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 0.138 0.070 0.126 Academic Qualifications 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 0.061 0.072 0.041 Average Weekly Frequency of use of the fitness centre 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 0.019 0.045 0.145 Time of registration 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 0.038 0.102 0.022 Additionally, discriminant validity of the constructs was also evaluated using Fornell-Larcker criteria. As it can be verified in Table II, the diagonal values are superior to the off-diagonal values, all the loadings are greater than the correspondent cross-loadings. Consequently, both criteria provide evidence of discriminant validity. Table II. Fornell-Lacker Criterion. BI PE EE SI FC HM H OS US BI 0.87 PE 0.75 0.88 EE 0.52 0.51 0.93 SI 0.64 0.62 0.40 0.85 (Continued on next page) Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 94 FC 0.49 0.46 0.62 0.42 0.78 HM 0.68 0.68 0.47 0.71 0.45 0.93 H 0.80 0.64 0.47 0.60 0.45 0.64 0.82 OS 0.53 0.54 0.41 0.54 0.46 0.56 0.46 0.91 US 0.74 0.57 0.46 0.47 0.45 0.48 0.74 0.43 1.00 Note: BI = Behavioural intention; PE = Performance expectancy; EE = Effort expectancy; SI = Social influence; FC = Facilitating conditions; HM = Hedonic motivation; H = Habit; OS = Overall customer satisfaction; US = Use behaviour. 5.2. Structural model. The structural model was assessed by examining the R2 values and the sign, size and significance of the path coefficients of the structural relationships. 10000 samples were used in bootstrapping (Streukens and Leroi-Werelds, 2016). According to Hayes and Scharkow (2013) the bootstrap CI is an effective way to detect significance in path coefficients. All the path coefficients support our hypotheses as shown in Table III and Figure 3. Table III. Construct effects on endogenous variables (including lower and upper bounds of 95 per cent CI). Hypotheses Path coefficient P Values CIs 5.0% 95.0% Supported f2 H1: Performance Expectancy Behavioural Intention 0.308 0.000 0.259 0.356 Yes 0.163 H2: Effort Expectancy Behavioural Intention 0.057 0.000 0.020 0.095 Yes 0.007 H3: Social Influence Behavioural Intention 0.075 0.000 0.040 0.110 Yes 0.010 H4: Facilitating Conditions Behavioural Intention 0.034 0.006 0.001 0.070 Yes 0.003 H5: Hedonic Motivation Behavioural Intention 0.071 0.000 0.030 0.111 Yes 0.007 H6: Habit Behavioural Intention 0.473 0.051 0.436 0.509 Yes 0.434 H7: Behavioural Intention Use Behaviour 0.734 0.002 0.705 0.762 Yes 1.224 H8: Behavioural Intention Overall Satisfaction 0.530 0.000 0.491 0.568 Yes 0.388 Age Overall Satisfaction -0.070 0.002 -0.110 -0.031 NA 0.006 (Continued on next page) Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 101 Quarterly, 6(2), pp. 149–165. 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(1996) ‘The Behavioral Consequences of Service Quality’, Journal of Marketing, 60. doi: 10.2307/1251929. Appendix Items References Performance expectancy 1. I find the fitness app of my fitness centre useful. Venkatesh et al. 2012 2. By using my fitness app I increase the opportunity to achieve things that are important to me. 3. My fitness app helps me perform activities faster. 4. In general, the use of my fitness app is advantageous. Nair, Ali and Leong, 2015 Effort expectancy 1. Learning to use my fitness app is easy. Venkatesh et al. 2012 2. My interaction with my fitness app is clear and understandable. 3. My fitness app is easy to use. 4. It is easy to become skilful in using my fitness app. Social influence 1. People who are important to me think I should use the fitness app. Venkatesh et al. 2012 2. People who influence my behaviour think that I should use the fitness app. 3. People whose opinion I value would like me to use the fitness app. 4. Members of the fitness centre staff have been helpful in use of the fitness app. Nair, Ali and Leong, 2015 5. In general, the fitness centre has supported the use of the fitness app. Facilitating conditions 1. I have the resources necessary to use the fitness app. Venkatesh et al. 2012 2. I have the knowledge necessary to use the fitness app. 3. The fitness app is compatible with other technologies I use (e.g. mobile phone). 4. I can get help from the fitness centre staff when I have difficulties using the fitness app. Hedonic motivation 1. Using the fitness app is fun. Venkatesh et al. 2012 2. Using the fitness app is enjoyable. 3. Using the fitness app is very entertaining. (Continued on next page) Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 107 Habit 1. The use of the fitness app has become a habit for me. Venkatesh et al. 2012 2. I'm addicted to using the fitness app. 3. I must to use the fitness app. 4. Using the fitness app has become natural to me. Behavioural intention 1. I intend to continue using the fitness app in the future. Venkatesh et al. 2012 2. I will always try to use the fitness app in my daily life. 3. I plan to continue to use the fitness app frequently. 4. I intend to make positive comments about the fitness app to other people. Adapted from Zeithaml et al. 1996 Use behaviour 1. I use the fitness app frequently. Venkatesh et al. 2012 Overall customer satisfaction I am satisfied with the programs and services of this fitness centre. García- Fernández et al., 2018a I am happy with the programs and services of this fitness centre. I am pleased to have taken the decision to become a member of this fitness centre. My decision to be a member of this fitness centre was successful. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 108 Chapter VI: Article 3 ADOPTION OF THE FITNESS CENTRE APP ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: A MULTIGROUP ANALYSIS Authors: Ferreira Barbosa, Helena* ([email protected]) García-Fernández, Jerónimo** ([email protected]) Cepeda-Carrión, Gabriel**([email protected]) * Instituto Politécnico de Beja, Beja (Portugal). ** Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla (España). Corresponding author: Helena Ferreira Barbosa Mobile phone: +351 961200226 Email: [email protected] Note: This article has not yet been submitted to a journal. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 109 BEHAVIOURAL INTENTIONS, USE BEHAVIOUR OF THE FITNESS CENTRE APP AND CUSTOMER OVERALL SATISFACTION: A MULTIGROUP ANALYSIS Helena Ferreira Barbosa1 2, Jerónimo García-Fernandez2, Gabriel Cepeda2 1 Polytechnic Institute of Beja, Beja, Portugal 2 University of Seville, Seville, Spain ABSTRACT The use of fitness apps in fitness centres is not homogeneous, it varies according to the characteristics of the consumers. Based on this premise, this paper aims to analyse whether the influence of behavioural intention to use the fitness centre app in the use behaviour and in overall customer satisfaction varies according to gender, age, academic qualifications and registration time. To investigate this heterogeneity, a multi-group analysis (MGA) was used through partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The sample included 1,678 members of fitness centres in Portugal. The present study uses the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) as the base model. The results showed that the influence of behavioural intentions on overall customer satisfaction and use behaviour varies according the consumers' sociodemographic characteristics and time of registration. The findings also revealed that the influence of behavioural intentions on both overall customer satisfaction and use behaviour is greater in men, in the youngest customers, those with lower academic qualifications and registered for less time at the fitness centre. Keywords: MGA; age; gender; academic qualifications; time of registration; fitness centre; use behaviour; customer satisfaction, PLS-SEM. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 110 1. Introduction. Mobile health apps, such as fitness apps, are flooding the app market. The global downloads of these apps increased 46% in 2020 (Grand View Research, 2021). It is, therefore, not surprising that it is increasingly proving to be a trend in the fitness world (Thompson, 2021). The constant demand for information related to the use of apps means that the mechanism behind people's intention to continue using them is still not fully understood. To study the adoption of new technologies many studies use several methods, among them, the most complete is the extended Unified Technology Acceptance Model (UTAUT2). When compared to previous models, UTAUT2 is directed to the customer's perspective and it integrates three more constructs, namely hedonic motivation, price value, and habit (Venkatesh et al., 2012), integrated to examine consumer acceptance and use of technology (Beh et al. 2019). Even so, the price value has been removed from this study since the fitness app are made available to members by fitness centres without any extra value. Regarding the app used by fitness centres, it is known that their use is strongly associated with the customers' overall satisfaction with the fitness centre (Ferreira Barbosa et al., 2021) and that customer satisfaction is related to customer retention (Bodet, 2006; Nikhashemi, Paim et al., 2013; Rahmatulloh & Melinda, 2021), one of the main problems in the sector (McCarthy, 2004). Furthermore, it is known that the cost of customer retention is lower than creating new customer (Nikhashemi et al., 2013). Therefore, understanding that the increase in the use of fitness centre apps will be related to the customer's overall satisfaction with the institution, their study deserves attention. Furthermore, it is believed that the intention to use these apps is not homogeneous and may vary according to the characteristics of the consumers, as well as other factors (e.g. time of registration). Thus, the aim of this study to analyse whether the influence of behavioural intention to use the fitness centre app in the use behaviour and in overall customer satisfaction varies according the gender, age, academic qualifications and time of registration. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 117 were found to have higher education. It was also found that 32% have been members of the fitness centre for more than four years and another 32% reported having been members for between two and three years. The majority of members (84%; n = 1403) reported using the fitness app, and these were the ones included in the final sample. 4.2. Measurement instrument. An online questionnaire was used to collect information based on the UTAUT2 model, adapted to the particular context of this study. The questionnaire included 33 items. The price value variable was excluded, as the fitness app to be studied is made available to the fitness centre customers without any additional value. Four items were also added to the questionnaire to measure customer overall satisfaction (Based on Oliver (1997) and Cronin et al. (2000), adapted by García-Fernández et al. (2017)). All items are measured on a Likert scale (1-5). The questionnaire also includes socio-demographic and partner characterization questions. These variables were used as instrumental variables and control variables to test questions about common method bias and endogeneity. 4.3. Data analysis. The software used for data analysis was SmartPLS 3.3.2 (Ringle et al., 2015). The measurement invariance of the composite models was tested through the three-step composite model measurement (MICOM) (Henseler et al., 2016). Subsequently, for the multi-group analysis, permutation was used and path coefficients for each variables relationship were compared. The control variables age, academic qualifications and time of registration were regrouped and only two groups were created for each. Age was regrouped into participants aged under 25 years to 34 years (n = 569) and participants aged 35 years to over 55 years (n = 834). For the academic qualifications variable the groups of basic and secondary education were grouped (n = 464) and the group with higher education qualifications was maintained (n = 939). As for the time of registration, the groups of participants were grouped by those who were Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 118 registered between less than six months and one year (n = 494) and those registered between two years and more than four years (n = 909). 5. Results. Before performing the group comparison. the measurement invariance of the three-step composite models (MICOM) was tested (Henseler et al., 2016). The MICOM procedure consists of three steps: (1) configurational invariance (2) compositional invariance and (3) equality of mean values and composite variance values. According to Hair et al. (2018) to apply the MGA it is necessary to establish both configurational invariance and compositional invariance to establish partial measurement invariance. To establish configurational invariance each latent variable in the PLS-SEM model must be specified equally for all groups, ensuring, in this case, identical indicators for each measurement model, identical data treatment and identical algorithm configuration across all groups. In the appendix it is possible to find the tables (Table A, Table B, Table C, Table D, Table E, Table F, Table G, Table H) with the results of MICOM phase 2 and phase 3, for all four control variables. In step 2, if the correlation values are equal to or above the 5% quantile value, compositional invariance is verified (Hwa et al., 2020). In step 3, to achieve partial invariance, the values of the mean difference and variance difference should be between the 2.5% and 97.5% limits and, in that case, MGA can be performed (Hwa et al., 2020). For the multi-group analysis permutation was used and path coefficients were compared for each group. Group comparisons (Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, Table 4) allowed verification of group-specific differences. Regarding step 2, since the correlation values are equal to or higher than the 5% percentile value for all constructs, compositional invariance was verified for all control variables (gender, age, academic qualifications and time of registration). For all the variables, in step 3, as there are constructs in which none of the values of the mean difference and variance difference are between the 2.5% and 97.5% limits, there is partial invariance, and AMS can be performed (Hwa et al., 2020). Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 119 In multigroup analysis, the final path coefficient values, indicate the most important constructs for each group and the p-value indicates whether the existing differences are significant or not. With regard to gender (Table 1), in terms of behavioural intentions to use the fitness app, performance expectancy and social influence were found to be significantly more important for men than for women. Effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation and habit are significantly more important for women. The results also indicate that behavioural intentions towards the app influence men's overall satisfaction and app use behaviour more than women's. Still, as can be seen in Table 1, the pvalues indicate that there are no significant differences between the groups (p>0.005). Only the relationship between weekly training frequency and use behaviour reveals a more significant difference between the two groups (p=0.015). Table 1 Gender PLS-MGA results Path Coefficient pvalue Men Women Behavioural intention Overall satisfaction 0.570 0.493 0.108 Behavioural intention Use behaviour 0.744 0.727 0.627 Performance expectancy Behavioural intention 0.336 0.272 0.309 Effort expectancy Behavioural intention 0.022 0.078 0.236 Social influence Behavioural intention 0.119 0.048 0.093 Facilitating conditions Behavioural intention 0.025 0.045 0.648 Hedonic motivation Behavioural intention 0.060 0.081 0.671 Habit Behavioural intention 0.450 0.494 0.343 Age Overall satisfaction -0.056 -0.079 0.638 Age Use behaviour -0.063 -0.005 0.095 Academic qualifications Overall satisfaction -0.019 -0.040 0.670 Academic qualifications Use behaviour 0.058 0.075 0.634 Average weekly frequency of use Overall satisfaction -0.001 0.023 0.638 Average weekly frequency of use Use behaviour 0.084 0.175 0.015 Time of registration Overall satisfaction -0.070 -0.061 0.835 Time of registration Use behaviour 0.061 0.011 0.211 With respect to age (Table 2), the most important variables for the less than 25 to 34 years group are effort expectancy, social influence, hedonic motivation Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 120 and habit. The group 35 to over 55 years old values more in the app of fitness the aspects related performance expectancy and facilitating conditions. Behavioural intentions were also found to influence overall satisfaction and use behaviour more the youngest group than the oldest group. Even so, the p-values indicate that there are no significant differences between the groups in all relationships (p>0.005), only the behavioural intentions to use the fitness app show significant differences relative to overall customer satisfaction (p=0.027). Table 2 Age PLS-MGA results Path Coefficient pvalue Less than 25 to 34 years 35 to more than 55 years Behavioural intention Overall satisfaction 0.591 0.485 0.027 Behavioural intention Use behaviour 0.736 0.730 0.874 Performance expectancy Behavioural intention 0.232 0.343 0.063 Effort expectancy Behavioural intention 0.094 0.032 0.190 Social influence Behavioural intention 0.092 0.071 0.662 Facilitating conditions Behavioural intention 0.031 0.046 0.743 Hedonic motivation Behavioural intention 0.105 0.049 0.285 Habit Behavioural intention 0.478 0.472 0.877 Gender overall satisfaction 0.024 -0.018 0.400 Gender Use behaviour 0.017 0.061 0.225 Academic qualifications Overall satisfaction -0.013 -0.050 0.425 Academic qualifications Use behaviour 0.065 0.066 0.963 Average weekly frequency of use Overall satisfaction 0.067 -0.020 0.059 Average weekly frequency of use Use behaviour 0.159 0.132 0.464 Time of registration Overall satisfaction -0.072 -0.064 0.870 Time of registration Use behaviour 0.045 0.019 0.478 In Table 3, as can be seen, for consumers with basic and secondary academic level the characteristics of performance expectancy and social influence are more important, or affect more, the intention to use the fitness centre app. In the same perspective, consumers with higher academic level value more aspects related to effort expectancy, facilitating conditions and habit. Behavioural intentions are shown to influence the overall satisfaction with the Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 121 fitness centre and the use behaviour of consumers with less academic qualifications more. However, the differences are not significant, since for all relationships the p-values are above 0.005. With regard to academic qualifications, the only significant differences arise in the relationships between age and time of registration with customer overall satisfaction (p=0.025 and p=0.005, respectively). Table 3 Academic Qualifications PLS-MGA results Path Coefficient pvalue Basic and Secondary Education Higher Education Behavioural intention Overall satisfaction 0.568 0.509 0.249 Behavioural intention Use behaviour 0.760 0.724 0.344 Performance expectancy Behavioural intention 0.329 0.295 0.570 Effort expectancy Behavioural intention 0.034 0.068 0.506 Social influence Behavioural intention 0.084 0.074 0.825 Facilitating conditions Behavioural intention 0.028 0.039 0.822 Hedonic motivation Behavioural intention 0.060 0.073 0.820 Habit Behavioural intention 0.465 0.479 0.733 Age overall satisfaction 0.007 -0.103 0.025 Age Use behaviour -0.065 -0.019 0.213 Gender Overall satisfaction -0.009 -0.012 0.963 Gender Use behaviour 0.022 0.057 0.364 Average weekly frequency of use Overall satisfaction 0.013 0.014 0.982 Average weekly frequency of use Use behaviour 0.102 0.162 0.122 Time of registration Overall satisfaction -0.162 -0.023 0.005 Time of registration Use behaviour 0.078 0.008 0.072 Considering the time of registration (Table 4), for consumers registered for less time at the fitness centre (less than one year), with regard to the intention to use the app, performance expectancy and hedonic motivation are the most influential variables. Customers registered for longer (more than two years) value more aspects related to effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and habit. As can be seen in Table 4, it was found that behavioural intentions with the fitness centre app most influence the overall satisfaction and use behaviour of consumers who have been registered for less time at the fitness centre. The Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 122 p-values indicate, once again in this case, that there are no significant differences between the groups, with the exception of the relationship between academic qualifications and overall customer satisfaction (p=0.042). Table 4 Time of Registration PLS-MGA results Path Coefficient pvalue Less than 6 months to 1 year 2 to more than 4 years Behavioural intention Overall satisfaction 0.587 0.499 0.068 Behavioural intention Use behaviour 0.757 0.719 0.317 Performance expectancy Behavioural intention 0.335 0.293 0.524 Effort expectancy Behavioural intention 0.044 0.062 0.698 Social influence Behavioural intention 0.056 0.087 0.450 Facilitating conditions Behavioural intention 0.018 0.044 0.538 Hedonic motivation Behavioural intention 0.088 0.065 0.657 Habit Behavioural intention 0.462 0.477 0.765 Age overall satisfaction -0.079 -0.054 0.610 Age Use behaviour -0.008 -0.048 0.281 Gender Overall satisfaction -0.029 0.009 0.476 Gender Use behaviour 0.065 0.036 0.464 Average weekly frequency of use Overall satisfaction 0.007 0.014 0.885 Average weekly frequency of use Use behaviour 0.172 0.122 0.210 Academic qualifications Overall satisfaction -0.088 0.007 0.042 Academic qualifications Use behaviour 0.093 0.041 0.147 6. Discussion and conclusions. This study aimed to analyse whether the influence of behavioural intention to use the fitness centre app in the use behaviour and in overall customer satisfaction varies according the gender, age, academic qualifications and registration time. For that, a multigroup analysis was used through permutations within PLS-SEM. In all four MGA carried out, although the influence of the constructs of UTAUT2 on behavioural intentions to use the fitness centre app varied between groups, it was found that, practically always, these differences were not Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 123 significant. This means that although the perceptions of the groups are different about the adoption of the app, the differences are not statistically significant. The influence of behavioural intentions on both overall customer satisfaction and use behaviour is greater in males, in the youngest customers, those with lower academic qualifications and registered for less time at the fitness centre. Therefore, the results of this study proved our hypotheses, that there are differences in behavioural intentions to use the fitness centre app with overall customer satisfaction and use behaviour. Still, only in the relationship of behavioural intentions with overall satisfaction regarding age there were significant differences. The results of this study do not corroborate that of Carroll et al. (2017) and Kontos et al. (2014), in health app users in the aspect of gender and education, which indicates that the main users of health apps were women and individuals who had more education. The results of our study also do not confirm those of McCully et al. (2013) regarding to education, which reported that users tended more educated. On the other hand, the three studies (Carroll et al., 2017; Kontos et al., 2014; McCully et al., 2013) confirm our results with regard to the age of the users, which are the youngest. Contrary to our results, it was also found in the Elavsky et al. (2017) study that women are more likely to use apps than men. Reasons for educational differences may reflect skills and confidence with the use of technologies and possibly social norms related to perceived value. Similarly, the results with respect to age likely reflect both social norms and exposure during younger ages to mobile devices and apps. The results regarding age can also be explained according to the Bhuyan et al. (2016) report, which indicates that the probability of having an app decreases with increasing age from 35 years old onwards. The reasons for gender differences are less clear, but may reflect differences in training behaviour and interest and participation in fitness centre activities in general. The conclusions regarding the time of registration are also unclear, but they are probably associated with a greater need to use the app by members registered for less time to consult information about the fitness centre or even for the reason that in an initial phase they need to dedicate a little more time to exploring the app. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 124 With this study, it was also found that men value more the ease of use aspects of the app, the facilitating conditions and aspects related to the habit, for the behavioural intention to use, than women. It was also found that younger consumers value aspects related to effort expectancy, social influence, hedonic motivation and habit more than consumers over 35 years of age. For consumers with lower academic qualifications, aspects of performance expectancy and social influence are more relevant to the behavioural intention than for consumers with higher academic qualifications. It was also noted that for consumers registered for a shorter period of time, performance expectancy and hedonic motivation influences behavioural intentions more than for those registered for a longer period of time. 6.1. Theoretical and practical implications. The findings provide evidence for gender, age, educational and time of registration differences in the use of fitness centre apps. Although the influence of behavioural intentions on usage behaviour and overall customer satisfaction has already been studied, there is no evidence on the differences between the groups regarding sociodemographic issues and time of registration in the fitness centre. Thus, this is considered a theoretical contribution of this study. Understanding the aspects most valued by consumers in the adoption of fitness centre app according to their characteristics allows improving the design of the service offer and therefore improving consumer satisfaction with the service and the brand. Also, it is considered that app designers should incorporate user profiles in the design of fitness apps to facilitate tailoring of app features to maximize their effectiveness as well as minimize any possible negative impact on users with different predispositions and consider the underlying psychological needs of users. 6.2. Limitations and future research. In conducting this study some limitations were encountered. First, the scarcity of studies involving fitness apps, specifically fitness centre apps, limited Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 125 the conclusions. Another limitation relates to the characteristics of the study, namely the fact that it is a cross-sectional study and the fact that it was only applied in Portugal. Therefore, it is recommended as future research to replicate this research in other countries, comparing the results between them. Because the type of MGA used does not consider the model in its entirety, it would be interesting to compare these results with an analysis of the entire model (Klesel et al., 2019). In order to analyze possible differences, it is suggested that future research use an analysis that allows this evaluation, comparing with the results of this study. 7. References. Beh, P., Ganesan, Y., Iranmanesh, M., & Foroughi, B. (2019). Using smartwatches for fitness and health monitoring: the UTAUT2 combined with threat appraisal as moderators. Behaviour and Information Technology. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2019.1685597 Bhuyan, S. S., Lu, N., Chandak, A., Kim, H., Wyant, D., Bhatt, J., … Chang, C. F. (2016). Use of Mobile Health Applications for Health-Seeking Behavior Among US Adults. Journal of Medical Systems, 40(6), 153. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-016-0492-7 Bodet, G. (2006). Investigating customer satisfaction in a health club context by an application of the tetraclasse model. European Sport Management Quarterly, 6(2), 149–165. Carroll, J. K., Moorhead, A., Bond, R., LeBlanc, W. G., Petrella, R. J., & Fiscella, K. (2017). Who Uses Mobile Phone Health Apps and Does Use Matter? A Secondary Data Analytics Approach. J Med Internet Res, 19(4), e125. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.5604 Chu, S.-C. (2011). Determinants of consumer engagement in electronic word-of- mouth (eWOM) in social networking sites. International Journal of Advertising, 30. https://doi.org/10.2501/IJA-30-1-047-075 Cronin, J. J., Brady, M. K. & Hult, G. T. M. (2000). Assessing the effects of quality, value, and customer satisfaction on consumer behavioral intentions in service environments. Journal of Retailing, 76(2), 193–218. 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Who are mobile app users from healthy lifestyle websites? Analysis of patterns of app use and user characteristics. Translational Behavioral Medicine, 7, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-017-0525-x Feld, J. (2018, April 4). Cloud-Connected Sensors Are Helping Gyms Track Equipment Use. IHRSA. https://www.ihrsa.org/improve-your-club/cloudconnected-sensors-are-helping-gyms-track- weight-and-cardio-equipment- use/ Ferreira Barbosa, H., García-Fernández, J., Pedragosa, V. & Cepeda-Carrion, G. (2021). The use of fitness centre apps and its relation to customer satisfaction: a UTAUT2 perspective. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, (ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSMS- 01-2021-0010 Fornell, C. (1992). A National Customer Satisfaction Barometer: The Swedish Experience. Journal of Marketing, 56(1), 6–21. https://doi.org/10.2307/1252129 García-Fernández, J., Gálvez-Ruiz, P., Fernandez, J., Velez Colon, L., Pitts, B., & Bernal, A. (2017). The effects of service convenience and perceived quality on perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty in low-cost fitness centers. Sport Management Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2017.07.003 Grand View Research. (2021, April 4). Fitness App Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Type (Exercise & Weight Loss, Activity Tracking), By Platform (Android, iOS), By Device (Smartphones, Wearable Devices), And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/fitness-app-market Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 133 Table H Time of Registration: Results of MICOM Phase 3 Construct Equality of composite values Mean values Variance values Mean diff. 2.5-97.5% Verified Log. var ratio 2.5-97.5% Verified Behavioural intention 0.028 [-0.112-0.101] Yes 0.103 [-0.181-0.167] Yes Performance expectations 0.043 [-0.116-0.105] Yes 0.039 [-0.183-0.181] Yes Expectation of effort 0.035 [-0.108-0.100] Yes 0.079 [-0.243-0.251] Yes Social influence 0.286 [-0.110-0.106] No -0.049 [-0.134-0.122] Yes Facilitating conditions 0.085 [-0.112-0.108] Yes 0.045 [-0.254-0.227] Yes Hedonic motivation 0.254 [-0.112-0.101] No 0.038 [-0.145-0.135] Yes Habit 0.069 [-0.113-0.105] Yes 0.143 [-0.155-0.144] Yes Overall satisfaction 0.183 [-0.113-0.101] No 0.045 [-0.178-0.171] Yes Use behaviour -0.073 [-0.118-0.099] Yes 0.193 [-0.199-0.195] Yes Gender -0.562 [-0.107-0.112] No 0.106 [-0.131-0.113] Yes Academic qualifications -0.012 [-0.102-0.110] Yes 0.006 [-0.056-0.045] Yes Average weekly frequency of use 0.041 [-0.119-0.107] Yes -0.065 [-0.123-0.117] Yes Academic qualifications -0.414 [-0.110-0.105] No 0.356 [-0.152-0.154] No Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 134 Chapter VII: Conclusions This chapter will present the main conclusions of each study and an overall conclusion. The practical and theoretical implications as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for future lines of research will also be presented. 1. Conclusions The conclusions of this work can be divided into three parts, 1) conclusions of the first article “The influence of technologies and other variables on the retention of members in gyms: systematic review”, 2) conclusions of the second article “The use of fitness centre apps and its relation to customer satisfaction: A UTAUT2 perspective” and 3) conclusions of the third article “Behavioural intentions, use behaviour of the fitness centre app and customer overall satisfaction: A multigroup analysis”. 1) Technology and social networks are increasingly becoming indispensable tools in all sectors, of which the fitness industry is no exception. In order to adapt and keep up with this evolution, but also to try to increase the level of satisfaction and retention of members, fitness centres are increasingly incorporating technological innovation services (virtual classes, WFT, ondemand, fitness apps) into their institutions in a variety of ways. The first research included in this study aimed to understand the influence of the use of technologies and social networks on customer retention, through a systematic review of the literature. The search was conducted using the PRISMA method in 4 databases (Web of Science, Scopus, EBSCO and PubMed) from January 2011 to December 2019. The main categories of search terms were: 1) "retention" (fidelity, loyalty, adherence), 2) "health fitness club" (fitness centre, health club, gymnasium), 3) "technology" (social networks, mobile phone, smartphone, app, Facebook, twitter, Instagram, gamification). This first study identified that not only social networks and technologies positively influence customer retention, but also other factors such as the personal characteristics of the members, frequency and time of use, quality of service and customer satisfaction with the fitness centre. Thus, it was also found that studying satisfaction helps us to understand retention Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 135 behaviours and, as previously studied, increasing customer retention is critical for business profitability. As a result, this study emphasizes the significance and impact that social networks and technologies can have on customer retention, and it opens the door for further and more in-depth research in this area. The first article's conclusions boil down to two points: • Social networks and technologies have a positive impact on customer retention; • Customers' personal characteristics, frequency and time of use, service quality, and customer satisfaction with the fitness centre were also found to influence retention. As a result, satisfaction aids in understanding retention behaviours. Both of these findings led to the second article, as well as preliminary research that demonstrated the gap in studies on the fitness centre app. It was decided to study the intention to use fitness apps, specifically the fitness centre app, and the relationship of their use with customers' overall satisfaction with the fitness centre. 2) For the second study it was used the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, the UTAUT2 (Venkatesh et al., 2012). With this study it was found that the majority of the app users were female. It was also concluded that the majority were between 25 and 44 years of age. With regard to academic qualifications, it was concluded that the majority of the sample had a higher education. These results are in line with others on fitness apps in general (Purcell, 2011) and mobile health applications (Krebs & Duncan, 2015) which indicate that mobile app users tend to be young and have above average education. Lisbon was the district of residence of the majority of the participants, followed by Porto, Setubal and Beja. These data are in line with the distribution of the population in Portugal (Pedragosa & Cardadeiro, 2021). As to the weekly training frequency and time of registration in the fitness centre, it was also concluded that most of the participants in this study attend the fitness centre more than 5 times a week and are registered from two to more than four years in the fitness centre. The data collected made it possible to analyse the profile of the fitness centre applications users. The app of the fitness centre is more frequently used Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 136 by women and by users aged between 25 and 54. On the other hand, it was the users with basic academic level who indicated the most frequent use of the app. It was also concluded that the members who train most often in the fitness centre per week are the ones who indicated the most frequent use of the app. Interestingly, the members who indicated the most use of the fitness centre app are those who have been registered less than six months or more than two years. Regarding the behavioural intentions to use the app in relation to the characteristics of the participants, it was also found that it is women and participants with lower academic qualifications who showed the greatest intention to use these apps. On the contrary, this intention of use indicated to be superior in participants who are over 45 years old, who attend little the fitness centre and those who have been registered for less time. It was verified that use behaviour was positively correlated with behavioural intentions. These results are in line with those of Byun et al. (2018) that indicates the intention to use positively influences use behaviour. In their study Nair et al. (2015) also verified that use behaviour depends on the intention to use. The results support the ability of the purposed model, UTAUT2, in predicting the customer´s intention to use the fitness app. The results therefore indicate that both performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation and habit have a positive impact on behavioural intentions to use the fitness app. Performance expectancy and habit have the strongest relationships with behavioural intentions. This indicates that the fact that customers consider that using the app will help improve their performance at the institution (performance expectancy) and that the habit/desire/addiction to use the app (habit) will contribute to behavioural intentions to use the fitness centre app. Through this study it was also found that behavioural intentions influence both the use behaviour of the fitness centre app and the customer's overall satisfaction with the fitness centre, proving the influence of the use of this technology in customer satisfaction and thus highlighting the importance of its use for managers. As for the features most valued by members regarding the use Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 137 of the fitness centre app it was found that the most valued features are Clarity of Apps; Ease of use; Apps being fun. The analysis also highlights the indicator that most influences customer overall satisfaction: happiness regarding the fitness centre's programmes and services, which is also in line with the findings of the first study, positive perceptions of service quality lead to greater member satisfaction and, in turn, retention. This study revealed a high usage of these app by members of Portuguese fitness centres, around 84% of members use their fitness centre's app and of these, 66% use it frequently. This finding is important since the behavioural intention of use has a positive relationship with the customer's overall satisfaction with the fitness centre. The findings revealed the impact of control variables (age, gender, academic qualifications, weekly training frequency, and time of registration) on use behaviour and customer satisfaction. The second study yielded three major conclusions: • Although performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, and habit all have a positive impact on behavioural intentions to use the fitness centre app, performance expectancy and habit have the strongest relationships. • Behavioural intentions are positively related to both fitness app use behaviour and overall customer satisfaction; • The app use behaviour and overall satisfaction with the app are influenced by control variables (age, gender, and academic qualifications, weekly training frequency, and time of registration). This final conclusion prompted the third article. 3) With the aim of analysing whether there were significant differences in the use of fitness centre apps, and in customer overall satisfaction, in relation to age, gender, academic qualifications, training frequency and registration time. For that, a multigroup analysis was used. After this analysis, it was found that the perceptions of the groups are effectively different about the adoption of the fitness centre app. There are differences in the behavioural intentions to use the app in the fitness centre with the customer overall satisfaction and use behaviour, in relation to the characteristics of the customers. Still, only in the relationship of Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 138 behavioural intentions with overall satisfaction in relation to age were there significant differences. The influence of behavioural intentions on both customer overall satisfaction and use behaviour is greater in men, younger customers, those with less academic qualifications and those who have enrolled for less time in the fitness centre. With this study, it was also found that men value the aspects of the app's ease of use, facilitating conditions and habit-related aspects more than women. Younger customers value the aspects related to effort expectation, social influence, hedonic motivation and habit more than customers over 35 years of age. Performance expectancy and social influence are more important for customers with lower academic degrees than they are for customers with higher academic qualifications in terms of behavioural intention. Performance expectancy and hedonic motivation influence behavioural intentions more for customers who have been registered for a shorter length of time than for those who have been registered for a longer period of time. Two main results were drawn from the third study: • The impact of behavioural intentions on customer overall satisfaction and use behaviour varies by age, gender, academic qualifications and time of registration; • The influence of behavioural intentions on customer overall satisfaction and use behaviour is higher among male gender, younger customers, those with lower academic qualifications and those who have been registered for less time in the fitness centre. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to investigate the use of fitness centre apps and their impact on customer satisfaction and retention. Thus, it was discovered that fitness centres increasingly bet on the use of innovative technologies, such as the use of fitness apps, to improve the quality of services and differentiate themselves from the competition, thereby increasing customer overall satisfaction. As previously stated, one of the major determinants of customer overall satisfaction is satisfaction with service quality (Eskiler & Altunışık, 2021; Ferreira Barbosa et al., 2019; Pradeep et al., 2020; Rahmatulloh & Melinda, 2021; Zeithmal et al., 2011). In this regard, it was discovered that the use of apps in fitness centres increases customer overall satisfaction and, as a Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 139 result, retention (Bodet, 2006; Bolton, 1998; IHRSA, 2017; Nikhashemi et al., 2013; Oliver, 1999; Pradeep et al., 2020; Rahmatulloh & Melinda, 2021; Rust et al., 1995). The issue of physical inactivity was also addressed in the introduction to this dissertation. In this sense, this study also emphasizes the significance of using fitness centre apps to increase physical activity, as the findings show that frequent use of the fitness centre app is associated with a higher weekly training frequency. Thus, it is possible to conclude that the use of the fitness centre app is beneficial for the customer in terms of health, as it increases the practice of physical activity, and for the centre in terms of customer satisfaction, which may lead to higher levels of retention, improving the company's profitability. As a result, the use of these apps increases the practice of physical activity, improving both the health of customers and the "health" of the company, from the standpoint that if customers go more, they improve their health and remain customers, contributing to the retention rate. 1.2. Practical and theoretical implications. The practical and theoretical implications can be divided, taking into account the three articles developed. 1) The systematic review reinforces the theoretical importance not only of the study of technologies for customer retention in the fitness context but also of other factors that should be valued (for example: personal characteristics of the members, frequency and time of registration, quality of service and customer satisfaction). By addressing variables that affect customer retention, this study does not fail to reveal its practical implications for the managers of these organisations. 2) As for the study of fitness centre apps, despite the various existing studies on the use of fitness apps, there are no studies in the literature that refer to the use of fitness centre apps specifically, let alone the differences in use with regard to customer characteristics. This is therefore a theoretical contribution of the second study. Furthermore, the results contribute to the sports and marketing Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 140 literature on the UTAUT2 model by adding another measure, customer overall satisfaction. Since it has been proven that these apps are widely used by members and that they contribute to their overall satisfaction with the fitness centre, fitness centre managers should invest in their acquisition by selecting the application according to the characteristics of their members. 3) The results of the third study provide information on the use of fitness apps in fitness centres, as well as evidence of differences in gender, age, education and registration time in the use of these apps. The fact that fitness centre apps are used more by the younger population also provides designers with useful information, as it suggests that apps should be improved to be more intuitive and easier to use by the senior population. Smartphones are predicted to be used by 3.8 billion people worldwide in 2021, accounting for 48.46% of the world's population (Statista, 2021). In addition, the number of fitness app downloads is steadily increasing (Clement, 2020). Furthermore, the findings of this survey suggest that members utilize fitness applications on a regular basis. Given the popularity of apps, it is recommended that fitness centres invest in the use of a good one, as their use is linked to overall customer happiness and, thus, retention, which benefits the fitness centres. The app's use varies depending on the customer's qualities, which must be taken into account while acquiring an app. This conclusion also provides information to the designers of these apps, highlighting the features that users value the most when adopting the app based on their preferences. Using the fitness app, the fitness centre may interact with members more effectively and efficiently. As a result, the member establishes a stronger connection with the brand and its employees. Using fitness centre apps has a favourable influence on both clients and fitness centres, according to the conclusions of this study. Customers gain a positive social impact as a result of having access to a product (fitness app) that promotes health by increasing physical activity. Customers that use the app have greater control over how they access the fitness centre’s services and goods, as well as more information. I'd venture to claim that the convenience it gives increases clients' quality of life. Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 141 From the perspective of the businesses, the adoption of fitness centre apps helps them to stay afloat financially. The consumer base grows as a result of the app. 1.3. Limitations and future research. The limitations and future lines of research can be divided into two parts, the limitations of the systematic review and the limitations of cross-sectional studies, since the limitations of both of these latest articles are related, above all, to limitations of existing studies on the topic of fitness centre apps or the methodology used, which was similar. 1) As for conducting the systematic review, the main limitations were related to the fact that there were not many studies included in the final review, despite the fact that the search terms were carefully chosen according to the main theme of the study. Second, the study was only related to the opinion of three reviewers. As a third limitation, the fact that the sociodemographic differences of the population of the different studies were not considered. As a future line of research for the first study, it is suggested to integrate the different perspectives of quality (organisation and customer) related to the use of technologies and how this use would influence customer retention. It is important to understand that the creation of organisation value should be guided by the value perceived by customers (Landroguez et al., 2013). It is therefore important to distinguish what the organisation perceives as quality, but mainly the customer's perception of quality of the services offered by the company. This is because satisfaction (and consequently retention) is highly dependent on members' expectations about the service (Pedragosa, 2021b). 2) The conduct of the statistical analysis studies also had some limitations. Firstly, the fact that there are few studies based on UTAUT2 to analyse the intention to use fitness apps, specifically fitness centre apps. Secondly, the fact that the study was cross-sectional, despite the assumed difficulty in conducting a longitudinal study using a large number of fitness centres. Thirdly, the study was only conducted in Portugal, so the results may not be generalisable to other Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 142 countries with different cultures. In the second study, one of the limitations found was related to the fact that the intentions of using the app according to the customers' characteristics were not considered, a limitation that was overcome in the third study. As future lines of research, it is recommended the reproduction of the studies in other countries, such as Spain, comparing the results obtained with this study. For the MGA, it would be interesting to compare these results with an analysis with the whole model (Klesel et al., 2019), since the type of MGA used does not consider the model in its entirety. As a future research, it is suggested to use an analysis that allows this evaluation, comparing with the results of this study, in order to analyse possible differences. In general, the limitations of this work are related to weaknesses in the research derived from initial inexperience that were overcome with the help and experience of the tutors and with the completion of papers for conferences, namely participation in the TAPAS Conference 2020 and the XI Congreso Iberoamericano de Economía del Deporte, as well as a 3-month stay at the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa. Another limitation is related to the initial unfamiliarity with the SmartPLS analysis software, which was overcome with two training courses, Modelos de ecuaciones estructurales basados en la varianza: partial least squares (PLS) para investigadores en ciencias sociales (online) and PLS-SEM Desarrolos Avanzados, as well as participation in the course Explanation and Prediction in Business Research: The Example of PLS-SEM, all developed by the Seville University. As mentioned, in the future it is intended to follow up on these studies, with the application of a new method of multi-group analysis, proposed by Klesel et al. (2019). Código seguro de Verificación : GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 | Puede verificar la integridad de este documento en la siguiente dirección : https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida ÁMBITOPREFIJO CSV FECHA Y HORA DEL DOCUMENTO GEISER GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6 28/07/2021 13:34:59 Horario peninsular Nº registro DIRECCIÓN DE VALIDACIÓN O00008745e2100045538 https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es/valida GEISER-78aa-bac2-b790-40c2-af61-c5cc-fb03-15b6