The role of motivators, barriers, attractiveness, and positive emotions on consumers’ intention to adopt and resist self-driving delivery robots

The use of autonomous robots has gained notion in the digital age and self-driving delivery robots are no exception. Many countries have started trialing the use of self-driving delivery robots in last-mile deliveries, making it vital to consider consumers’ intentions to adopt or resist them. This study aims to examine both adoption and resistance intentions collectively and has applied the Artificial Intelligence Device Use Acceptance framework, Behavioral Reasoning Theory, and Innovation Resistance Theory. An online survey was administered to the people residing in Singapore and a total of 637 valid responses were collated. Thereafter, structural equation modeling was conducted to uncover perception differences between experienced self-driving delivery robot respondents and non-experienced respondents. Moreover, this study also conducted the total effect analysis and found the main determinants of adoption intentions to be positive emotions and attractiveness for both groups. Meanwhile, the main determinants of resistance intentions are value barriers and communication barriers. Technology developers should focus on addressing the barriers to effectively address the concerns that cause experienced and non-experienced consumers to resist self-driving delivery robots, and marketing efforts should focus on associating positive emotions with the robots so that consumers are more optimistic and more likely to adopt them.