A FRAMEWORK FOR BEHAVIORAL INTENTION TO USE SMART HOME TECHNOLOGIES FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE IN SAUDI ARABIA

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2023-07-07

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Saudi Digital Library

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Despite the growing concerns to enhance the standard of living of elderly people globally through the use of smart home technologies (SHTs), many elderly people are not fully keen on using smart home technologies in their daily life. In addition, most studies have focused on the technological aspects of smart homes while giving less attention to the behavioral aspects. Importantly, many contextual and demographic factors have not been investigated such as culture influence and technology awareness to enhance the behavioral intention to use SHTs among the elderly. Based on these research problems, this study has four research objectives. First, it investigates the existing SHTs solutions for elderly people in smart homes. Second, it identifies the factors that affect elderly behavioral intention to use smart home technologies. Third, it also develops a framework that supports elderly behavioral intention to use smart home technologies, and fourth, it validates the proposed smart home technologies framework. The significance of smart home technologies to provide home care for elderly people in a cost-effective manner requires that the research objectives are achieved. The theoretical framework of this thesis rests on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model by combining the model traditional factors/variables (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating condition) with the contextual factors (culture influence, technology awareness, region, and education) that affect the elderly people to use smart home technologies. This study uses these contextual factors to advance the UTAUT model from elderly people’s perspective to interpret their theoretical, practical, and managerial significance. Moreover, the study employs the quantitative methodology to survey 486 elderly people in Saudi Arabia. ivThe study applies the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) via SmartPLS software to perform the data analysis. Results reveal that culture influence and technology awareness are significant factors in determining the behavioral intention to use SHTs among elderly people. The findings also show that attitude mediates the relationships between performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and behavioral intention. Also, this study finds that region and education moderate the relationships between culture influence, technology awareness, and behavioral intention. Thus, the study supports five direct hypotheses but unsupported two direct hypotheses. Also, five indirect hypotheses out of six were supported and one unsupported. This study has theoretical implications for the UTAUT theory by extending it using culture influence, technology awareness, attitude, education, and region. The findings of this study also have practical implications for the government. The government may focus its attention and strategies on the provision of SHTs to elderly people as part of the Saudi Vision2030 to ensure human capital development and an improved standard of living. Moreover, stakeholders and policymakers could understand the elements needed to support the long term viability of SHTs among elderly people in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, this research adds to the body of knowledge on the UTAUT model and SHTs among elderly people by focusing on the crucial factors influencing the elderly’s behavior intention to use SHTs, which would provide a significant direction for future work. In the future, we will carry out a longitudinal study to establish whether determinants of behavioral intention to use SHT are time driven, which will require to be tested on a wider scale and in different geographic regions.

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smart home technologies, UTAUT model, culture influence, technology awareness, elderly people

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