Persuasive Software Features in a Health Behavior Change Support System for Microentrepreneurs: Perceived Persuasiveness, Effort and Effectiveness

This study explores perceptions of persuasive software features and their influence on perceived persuasiveness, effort, and effectiveness in a health behavior change support system (HBCSS) for microentrepreneurs. We examined a subset of 113 participants in randomized controlled trial study by using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). We found that 69.7% of Computer-Human Dialogue Support features (R²=0.697) were explained largely by System Credibility and Primary Task Support features. Additionally, 59.5% of Perceived Effectiveness (R²=0.595) and 32.8% Perceived Effort (R²=0.328) variances were explained by Perceived Persuasiveness. Furthermore, our predictive model yielded a high out-of-sample predictive power. In conclusion, our findings provide practical guidance for designing HBCSS for microentrepreneurs by explaining the interaction between persuasive software features, perceived persuasiveness, effort and effectiveness.