During the last couple of decades, information technology has become a ubiquitous
part of almost all areas of everyday life; exercise and sports being no exception. Sports
technology can be defined as digital entities, with which one can measure, record and
analyse data on sports and physical activity, and refine it according to the needs of its
users. This kind of technology has already been researched quite extensively. The
majority of this research has concentrated on the effects of sports technology on the
level of physical activity of its users, and on the adherence of users to different kinds of
physical activity recommendations. In addition to this, within this research, sports
technology has been seen as a measurement tool: the interest has been either on the
accuracy of the data produced by the technology or on the level of physical activity as
measured by sports technology. However, the relationships between sports technology
and its users has hardly be
en researched. To address this identified gap, this thesis
(based on phenomenographic approach) concentrates on this relationship: why is
sports technology used, for which purposes it is used, what kind of meanings are
assigned to it and what kind of feelings are connected to its use? As a result of this
thesis, a theory on the agency of use of sports technology, and a model of the context of
use of sports technology and its dimensions are presented. This theory describes its
core category – the agency of use of sports technology – through four different
categories. These categories are exercise and sports, sociality, technology, information
and service, which are further described by 17 subcategories. The agency of use is
influenced by a Giddensian structure of being a decent exercising citizen, which is
present in the Finnish society. The presented theory is situated on the continuum from
utilitarian to hedonic motives of use. Together these components form the value, which
is the basic motive of a user to use sports technology and through which the
continuous use is maintained so that the agency of use can take form. The context of
use of sports technology consists of four dimensions: the real-world context of use, the
individual self, sociality, and community and society. This model of the context of use
is broader than the concept of context commonly used within the research of
information systems science. The results presented also widen the traditional way of
explaining the adoption and use of technology within information systems science into
the direction of understanding the relationship between technology and its users. As
practical implications, the developers of sports technology can utilise the results of this
thesis to better understand the meanings and expectations connected to use of sports
technology. This new understanding could be incorporated into the development
processes of their products and services.
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