Do You Recommend This? Exploring the Role of Presence, Self-efficacy, and Usability in the Willingness to Adopt and Recommend a VR Application

Despite the market potential of many XR applications, numerous companies struggle to produce applications able to reach widespread adoption. Several studies indicate a connection between the willingness to recommend an XR application and the adoption of that application. However, the main variables involved in the willingness to recommend have not been studied much within the domain of XR. In this study, we focused on the willingness to recommend a Virtual Reality (VR) emergency training. General practitioners and elderly-care students used a VR training application, after which we measured XR assessment dimensions, such as presence, usability, attention, pleasure, learning, and adoption. The results revealed three dimensions able to explain 75% of the recommendation willingness: usability, usefulness, and joy. These dimensions can be used by researchers and developers to continuously and consistently compare XR training applications on market potential and decide to launch or first improve an XR application.