The swift progress in autonomous delivery solutions has drone food delivery envisioning as a revolutionary change in the last-mile logistics. The technical feasibility of drone delivery services is being proved through pilot projects run by food delivery giants, but consumer acceptance is the key factor for large-scale deployment. Still, there is not a lot of empirical re-search investigating the consumers' behavioural intentions regarding the acceptance of drone food delivery. In this paper, the authors are aiming to fill this gap by looking at the psychological and social factors that consumers consider when deciding whether or not to use drone delivery services.
The study combines an integrated framework that uses the Technology Acceptance Model along with the Theory of Planned Behaviour to guide the entire process. Through this research, the prior models are augmented by including perceived innovativeness and perceived risk, thus capturing the allure of technological novelties and at the same time, the concerns related to uncertainty and safety. A total of 422 people has participated in an online survey. The data reveal that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived innovativeness have a positive impact on consumer attitudes toward drone food delivery, whereas perceived risk has a significant negative effect on both attitude and perceived behavioral control. Behavioral intention is significantly predicted by attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, with attitude being the most important predictor. The integrated TAM–TPB model accounts for a moderate level of variance. Multi-group analysis also confirms that age affects the strength of some of the relationships, indicating that young consumers are influenced more by innovativeness and risk perceptions, while social influence is more significant among older consumers.
This research extends the TAM–TPB model in the drone food delivery domain and contributes to the theory by offering an empirical validation. From a management point of view, the results suggest that it is very important to balance the promotion of innovation with the use of trust-building strategies in order to reduce perceived risks and increase consumer acceptance.
