Factors affecting the adoption of drone delivery

Abstract

Drones, otherwise known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), have a high potential for parcel delivery. Drone delivery may be faster, less expensive to maintain, and more eco-friendly compared to traditional delivery such as delivering with trucks. Drones are not in commercial use now, but many companies such as Amazon and Google have done pilot tests and it will probably be common in the near future. However, regardless of a firm’s decision, many customers responded that dislike the idea of drone delivery. Therefore, this study explores the factors affecting adoption of drone delivery among United States citizens. The results demonstrate that among the perceived attributes of drone delivery, relative advantage of speed, relative advantage of environmental friendliness, complexity, performance risk, and privacy risk affect the adoption of drone delivery. In addition, personal innovativeness also positively affects the adoption. Furthermore, this paper shows the determinants of the adoption of drone delivery is different according to the customer’s living area.