Freedom from Feardom – Harnessing Women Empowerment through Personal Safety Mobile Applications

Abstract

Whilst the world is witnessing the impact of technology proliferation on human lives and livelihoods, the personal safety of women, though paramount, is still technologically under-addressed. This study empirically investigated the perception of Indian women (N = 210) towards personal safety apps and their intention to accept them to ensure personal safety. This study uniquely blended the Fogg behaviour model, which comprises motives, abilities and triggers, with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which comprises perceived usefulness, ease of use and behavioural intentions. Structural equation modelling using SmartPLS 4 was used to analyse the model. Some exciting outcomes emerged from this study. The motives namely subjective norms, facilitating conditions and perceived trust, significantly impacted women’s perceived usefulness of personal safety apps, while the perceived risk was insignificant. The significant impactors of women’s perceived ease-of-use of personal safety apps include the abilities of self-efficacy and technology stress, but exclude perceived behavioural control. With regard to the trigger, only response efficacy impacted women’s behavioural intentions to use personal safety apps, while the magnitude of noxiousness and exposure expectancy did not. Women’s perception of the usefulness and ease of use of personal safety apps significantly impacted their behavioural intentions, ultimately impacting their perception of personal safety. Further, this study presented implications to theory and practice before concluding by stating research limitations and future directions.