The voice era: Future acceptance of digital voice assistants and how they will transform consumers' online purchasing behaviour

Abstract

Digital voice assistants (DVAs), such as Amazon Alexa, are causing upheaval in the marketplace due to their enormous potential in e-commerce. Despite this potential, because this technology is cutting edge, there remains a lack of insight into the main drivers of DVA use in e-commerce and voice-commerce (v-commerce). Drawing on theoretical foundations, such as the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the ‘unified theory of acceptance and use of technology’ (UTAUT), this study aims to explore the key determinants behind the use of DVAs. Specifically, it proposes ten hypotheses that are tested with quantitative data obtained through an online survey from a diverse sample of 315 participants in several countries. Regression analysis was employed to identify eight factors that will have an influence on the future acceptance of v-commerce, in which trust, social influence and hedonic motivation have the greatest effect. Since v-commerce is still relatively unknown to consumers, the focus of any strategy should include confidence-building, enjoyable and motivating activities and social programmes. Companies should be transparent about the data they plan to collect and process and give consumers options as to how they can get informed and address perceived privacy concerns. This would enable DVA manufacturers to speed up consumer adoption of a new technology that has been around for some years but has still not become mainstream. Brands should keep up to date with these technologies and start experimenting and partnering with DVA vendors, such as Amazon, Google or Apple, by selling utilitarian and low-involvement products and services.