Cyborg products are already available on today's market. They are a potentially large market offering extraordinary opportunities and challenges for businesses. Becoming a cyborg involves many ...ethical aspects that can be explored from a consumer behavior perspective. However, while these ethical variables have been used in several market analyses, none has examined their potential use for market segmentation in disruptive markets such as the one for cyborg products. We use the Composite Multidimensional Ethics Scale (Composite MES) to explore ethical judgments regarding cyborg products in a sample of 1563 university students in seven countries. Our findings show that all ethical judgment dimensions contribute in the same way and with similar intensity to cyborg market segmentation. We identify three potential market segments. These segments exhibit different characteristics with regard not only to their willingness to become a cyborg but also to their technology acceptance analysis dimensions. We make recommendations for the ethical exploration of this emerging market.
Povzetek. Potrošniki tehnoloških novosti ne sprejmejo vedno dobro, prav oni pa odlocajo, ali bodo izdelek uporabljali ali bo šel v pozabo. V príspevku predstavljamo uporabo tehnoloških vsadkov, ki ...jih delimo na dve vrsti: (1) raba tehnoloških vsadkov za zdravstvene namene, (2) raba za namene olajševanja vsakdanjega Življenja. Da bi odgovorili na vprašanje, kateri dejavniki napovedujejo sprejemanje vstavljivih tehnologij, smo razvili raziskovalni model, ki temelji na modelu sprejemanja tehnologije in obenem vsebuje tudi varnostne vidike. Za testiranje modela smo uporabili spletni vprašalnik (N = 243). Stališca do tehnoloških vsadkov najbolje napovedujeta enostavnost uporabe in zaznana uporabnost, v manjšem obsegu pa tudi zaznana varnost podatkov in subjektivna norma. Skrb glede nadzora nad uporabniki in glede zasebnosti statistiCno znaCilno ne napoveduje stalisšcš do tehnolosških vsadkov. Namero uporabe tehnolosških vsadkov statisticšno znacšilno napovedujejo stalisšcša do tehnolosških vsadkov.
The development of neural implants to increase people's memory is enabling the creation of cyborgs (human-machine hybrids) with superior capacities. This paper aims to advance new technology ...acceptance models by analyzing the moderating effect of ethics on an integrative Cognitive-Affective-Normative (CAN) model to understand the acceptance of brain implants to increase capacities. The model is tested on a sample of 900 individuals segmented by their ethical assessment of these insideables: ethically in favor, ethically against, or ethically indifferent. The results show that an individual's ethical assessment of memory implants explains differences in his or her intention to use them but does not moderate the influence of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, positive emotions, negative emotions, or social influence on the intention to use them. The results have theoretical implications for technology acceptance models and open new lines of research concerning the future cyborg society.
•Neural implants development enables the creation of highly qualified cyborgs.•The intention to use memory implants is linked to individual's ethical assessment.•Affective and normative factors have the greatest influence on the acceptance.•Within the affective dimension, positive emotions have the greatest impact.
Determining the peculiarities of the technological acceptance of disruptive vs. conventional products is a need for both academics and practitioners. Forecasting how consumers will behave with ...emerging disruptive technology products is key to successfully launching them on the market. The UTAUT2 model has been widely used for new technologies, but not yet to compare conventional and disruptive technology products. A survey comparing the acceptance of wearables and insideables, which are implantable technologies aimed at human augmentation, was carried out. The sample consisted of 1,563 higher-education students in 7 countries. The findings show similarities and differences in expected behaviours with regard to conventional (wearables) and disruptive (insideables) technologies. The explanatory power of the model could be very valuable for both research and business decision-making in this field.
This study examines the press coverage of initiatives taken by three companies, in three different countries, to propose chip implants to their employees (‘insideable’ technology). The study sought ...to identify prevalent topics, the motivations and measures taken by the companies, the drivers and barriers of employees towards the chips, and the issues raised by experts in the newspaper articles. Content analysis was performed, with each Case being analysed separately. Then, overarching themes and differences are observed. The ethical considerations driving perception of technology have to do with privacy, the proportionality principle, harm and safety. People accepting the technology do not mention such constructs, they focus on the possibility of being pioneers and the convenience offered by the technology. Societal acceptance, through the gaze of others and the infrastructure developed in the different countries to use microchips, also plays a role to drive personal and work-related acceptance of insideables. A modelling to investigate the acceptance of insideables taking into account different dimensions of acceptability is proposed.
•The role of ethical acceptability in technology (non)-acceptance is under researched.•The ethical issues identified by laymen with chip implants in the workplace are broader than privacy.•A new framework to study the (non)-acceptance of insideables is proposed.
Body hacking through self‐implantation of electronic devices (e.g., insideables and prostheses) is an emerging risky behavior with potential negative health and safety consequences, despite the ...claimed potential benefits. Risks become higher in unconventional settings where self‐implantations are performed without experts' risk assessment and preventive measures. To understand such behavior, it is important to identify what are the motivational factors that underlie intentions to practice body‐hacking. Given the scarce literature on the subject to date, this paper presents a theoretical framework of potential motivational drivers underlying the intention towards practicing body hacking in order to help setting up priorities for future research. The potential theoretical associations between intention to practice body hacking and existential, identity, ideological, cognitive, epistemic, social affiliation, and affective drivers are discussed.
Some well-known scientists and technologists have expressed concern that robots may take over the world. More generally, there is concern that robots will take over human jobs and leave billions of ...people suffering long-term unemployment. Yet, such concerns do not take into account the potential for human beings to enhance their natural capabilities with in-the-body technologies and so become cyborgs with superior capabilities to robots. Types of cyborgs include: human beings with mass produced biomedical implants; human beings with mass imagineered body hacks; and human beings with mass customized insideables. In this paper, human enhancement with in-the-body technologies is analyzed through the theoretical frameworks of mass paradigms, technology domestication, and cultural capital. The implications of the findings of these analyses are related to debates about the future of society. In particular, opportunity versus exploitation, utopia versus dystopia, and emancipation versus extinction. It is explained that that debates about the future of society are flawed if they focus more upon robots than cyborgs. This is because cyborgs can provide more highly advanced embodied cognition, and the number of cyborgs continues to increase as enterprises introduce new in-the-body technologies while individuals seek to increase cultural capital through body projects. Accordingly, debates about the future of society should consider the potential of cyborgs, as well as robots, replacing human beings.
The advent of intelligent wearable (external devices, such as watches and clothing) and insideable (implanted devices, such as identification chips or chips that control technological devices) ...human-capacity enhancing technologies has opened an ethical debate about their development and use in society. Based on data from an international sample of 1563 digital natives, a model is proposed and tested (1) that introduces ethical judgment and its five dimensions (“moral equity”, “relativism”, “utilitarianism”, “egoism” and “contractualism”) to explain intention to use intelligent capacity-enhancing technological devices; (2) that helps to explain the technological leap involved in moving from wearing technologies to incorporating them into the human body, through the moderating role that technology type has in the relationship between ethical judgment and intention to use. The results showed that: (1) Ethical judgment is key for the acceptance of wearables and insideables, and has greater explanatory capacity for insideables than for wearables; (2) “Egoism” has the highest explanatory power for intention to use insideables and “utilitarianism” is the most important dimension for intention to use wearables. Finally, a series of operational implications are proposed to guide the development and commercialisation of devices, while taking into account the ethical judgment of the users.
•The advent of human-capacity enhancing wearable and insideable technologies has opened an ethical debate.•Ethical judgment is key for the acceptance of wearables and insideables by digital natives.•Egoism has the highest explanatory power for intention to use insideables for digital natives.•Utilitarianism is the most important dimension for intention to use wearables for digital natives.
Society has already accepted the use of physical implants that increase an individual's seductive power as well as technological implants that correct physical disabilities. Various companies are ...currently developing technological implants to increase the innate capacity of the human body (insideables) (e.g., memory implants). Public acceptance of this new technology has not yet been investigated in academic research, where studies have instead focused on the ethical and evolutionary implications of insideables. The main aim of this study is the development of a model, namely the Cognitive-Affective-Normative (CAN) model, for assessing the acceptance of new types of technological products. The CAN model combines the cognitive variables perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, as well as the normative variable subjective (or social) norm, from the TAM models with the affective variables positive emotions, negative emotions and anxiety. The CAN model was tested on a sample of 600 randomly selected individuals through structural equation modeling. Data were obtained from a self-administered, online survey. The proposed model explains 73.92% of the intention to use the technological product in the very early stages of its adoption, that is, its early acceptance. Affective and normative factors have the greatest influence on the acceptance of a new technology; within the affective dimension, positive emotions have the greatest impact. Any technology acceptance model should thus consider the emotions that the new technology produces, as well as the influence of the social norm.
•Public acceptance of implants has not yet been investigated in academic research.•CAN model explains 73.9% of the intention to use insideables.•Affective and normative factors have the greatest influence on the acceptance.•Within the affective dimension, positive emotions have the greatest impact.
Theoretical models play a vital role in understanding the barriers and facilitators for the acceptance or rejection of emerging technologies. We conducted a narrative review of theoretical models ...predicting acceptance and adoption of human enhancement embeddable technologies to assess how well those models have studied unique attributes and qualities of embeddables and to identify gaps in the literature. Our broad search across multiple databases and Google Scholar identified 16 relevant articles published since 2016. We discovered that three main theoretical models: the technology acceptance model (TAM), unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), and cognitive–affective–normative (CAN) model have been consistently used and refined to explain the acceptance of human enhancement embeddable technology. Psychological constructs such as self-efficacy, motivation, self-determination, and demographic factors were also explored as mediating and moderating variables. Based on our analysis, we collated the verified determinants into a comprehensive model, modifying the CAN model. We also identified gaps in the literature and recommended a further exploration of design elements and psychological constructs. Additionally, we suggest investigating other models such as the matching person and technology model (MPTM), the hedonic-motivation system adoption model (HMSAM), and the value-based adoption model (VAM) to provide a more nuanced understanding of embeddable technologies’ adoption. Our study not only synthesizes the current state of research but also provides a robust framework for future investigations. By offering insights into the complex interplay of factors influencing the adoption of embeddable technologies, we contribute to the development of more effective strategies for design, implementation, and acceptance, thereby paving the way for the successful integration of these technologies into everyday life.
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