Mobile Augmented Reality Apps in Shopping Malls in Greece: Exploring Users’ Behavioral Intentions

摘要

The ability of Augmented Reality (AR) to blend digital information into the physical world has enhanced its vast range of applications potential. It has, thus, increased the number of smartphone AR users and challenged researchers and a number of industries to try to understand and anticipate its impact on people’s perceptions, adoption intention and level of use. The present paper explores a specified number of underlying factors, which affect the behavioral intentions of smartphone users towards applying AR in shopping malls in Greece. The relevant theoretical constructs are combined with information in the extant literature with a view to extending the Unified Theory on Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) proposed by Venkatesh et al. in 2003. The research, based on data drawn from a sample consisting of university students, elaborates on the proposed conceptual framework and examines AR use in terms of Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, Facilitating Conditions, Behavioral Intention, Reward and Enjoyment. It also examines the framework on the basis of the demographic characteristics of the respondents. The results enhance perceptions about the users’ perspective of AR applications and provide meaningful insights to both the academia and AR practitioners.