Perceived Usability Pathways and Key Determinants of Behavioral Intention and Use in Smart Office Furniture: A PLS-SEM Study

This study examines the acceptance-related and usage patterns of smart office furniture among Chinese office users. Building on UTAUT2 and a usability-oriented perspective, we compare five alternative structural models that assign different roles to perceived usability in explaining intention and self-reported use of smart office furniture. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling on 239 valid responses, and comparing explanatory performance with out-of-sample prediction, we found that the model in which perceived usability and behavioral intention jointly predict use performed slightly better, although two specifications should be regarded as closely competing alternatives. Results show that facilitating conditions, effort expectancy, price value, and habit are positively associated with behavioral intention, whereas habit, perceived usability, and behavioral intention are positively associated with self-reported usage behavior. Robustness checks with sedentary-context controls indicate that discomfort is positively associated with adoption intention, whereas posture-management tendency is positively associated with self-reported usage behavior. Overall, the main pattern of associations remains broadly similar. The findings suggest a cross-sectional intention–behavior pattern among experienced Chinese users and offer actionable implications for usability-centered design, service delivery, and health-needs-based market segmentation.