Delivery robots from UTAUT2 perspective in Finland

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to enhance knowledge of peoples’ intentions to use delivery robots. Significant growth in e-commerce, high costs of last mile deliveries, and rising customer expectations of delivery conditions are pushing companies to find new solutions for last mile deliveries. Innovation can be more efficient and more sustainable, but it will only be a success if the audience accepts it. Therefore, it is important for logistics, retail, and marketing professionals to understand the factors that influence on consumers’ intentions to use delivery robots to be able to design, develop, and promote delivery robots properly. To fulfill the purpose of the study a main research question “Which factors influence on consumers’ intentions to use delivery robots in Finland?” will be answered.

The research was limited to Finland to keep the study manageable and to enhance the knowledge of Finnish professionals in the field of delivery robots. The topic is also very current as the first delivery robots in Finland have been in use only a short time and only in a limited area of certain cities. Existing studies have suggested that behavioral intention is the main predictor of use behavior, and due to the novelty of delivery robots in Finland behavioral intention is the main dependent construct in this study.

The theoretical framework of this study is based on Autonomous Delivery Vehicle Acceptance Model (ADVAM) that has a strong basis in Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model in consumer context. This technology acceptance model is applicable in quantitative research which is why the quantitative research method for this study was chosen. Based on the theoretical model eight hypotheses were formed to answer the research question. To perform the empirical study a survey was conducted using Webropol’s survey tool. The data was gathered for one week period with anonymous survey where the survey link was sent through different social media channels. Total of 115 responses were collected and analysed with SPSS Statistics and SPSS Amos software using confirmatory factor analysis.

Based on the analysis performed social influence and price sensitivity revealed to have the strongest influence on intentions to use delivery robots among respondents. Additionally, effort expectancy was proven to have slight positive influence on the behavioral intention. However, facilitating conditions and perceived risk did not have significant influence on the intentions to use delivery robots. Similarly, age, gender and earlier use of delivery robots did not have significant effect on behavioral intention. The constructs of hedonic motivation and performance expectance needed to be removed from the model as first the model yielded a poor fit. Meaning, the original theory-based model did not have good reliability in this study. The results can’t be directly generalized to Finnish population as the respondent sample did not fully represent Finnish demographics. Overall, the results of this study provide more information and knowledge about relatively new delivery concept, supplementing the existing knowledge gap of peoples’ acceptance of delivery robots.