Evaluate the Consumer Acceptance of AIoT-Based Unmanned Convenience Stores Based on Perceived Risks and Technological Acceptance Models

Abstract

As the Artificial Intelligence Internet of Things (AIoT)-based unmanned convenience stores stand out in an increasingly challenging market, the consumer experience is more important than ever (CustomerThink, 2018). By employing new technologies, 7-Eleven, a leading chain convenience store in Taiwan, launched X-Store in 2018. While AIoT-based unmanned technology can help solve the problem of manpower shortages in the future, a question arises: will people accept this new technology for shopping? In view of this and based on the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study adds perceived risk as another variable to explore the impact of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and attitudes toward using unmanned technology etc. factors on the purchase intentions of consumers in unattended convenience stores. The study further employs SPSS software for reliability and validity analyses, descriptive statistics, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and structural equation modeling (SEM) in order to explore the causal relationship among the variables herein. The main empirical findings show that consumers’ perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness positively affect consumers’ attitudes toward making purchases in X-Store, and via the moderating effect, perceived usefulness and attitudes toward X-Store consumption impact consumers’ behavioral intention of purchasing products in X-Store. In addition, perceived risk has a significant moderating effect on attitudes toward using X-Store and behavioral intentions. The empirical results also reveal that male consumers have significantly greater perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitudes toward using, and behavioral intentions in comparison with female consumers. Finally, this study presents conclusions and recommendations based on the research results as reference for unattended convenience store operators and follow-up researchers.