Consumer self-service technology adoption in multiple service industries in Saudi Arabia

The current convergence of information and communication technology (ICT) is found to be creating new opportunities. Business organizations are leveraging this technology in
response to the need for greater business integration, flexibility, and agility. One of the technologies that have been utilized quite aggressively by firms is the Self-Service Technologies (SST). Although the proclaimed benefits of SSTs are enormous, few institutions which have adopted the SST have achieved its intended objectives. Even
thought the use of the SSTs in the service settings within the developed economies has attained an increasing level of acceptance by consumers, little is known about the consumer‟s adoption in the Arab world, particularly in Saudi Arabia which is still lack of research in this area. Therefore, the main aim of this thesis is to explore the SST adoption in multiple sectors in Saudi Arabia as well as the usage of all types of SST. The main focus of this thesis, is to explore the consumers‟ adoption of the SSTs through the users‟ seek values. The users‟ seek values construct is a new construct proposed in this study to
complement the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) framework. The research model composes of four variables: the antecedents of users‟ seek values; the users‟ seek values;
the customers‟ intention to use the SST; and the customers‟ adoption of the SST. Using a mall-intercept technique, a sample of 400 respondents was collected in three major cities in Saudi Arabia. The hypothesis was tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results showed that, for the antecedent factors, demographic profiles and personality traits were found to influence the users‟ seek values. In addition, users‟ seek values were found to mediate the relationship between the consumers‟ characteristics and their intention to use the SST. In addition, the intention to use the SST also mediates the
relationship between users‟ seek values and the SST adoption. Finally, the direct positive relationship between customers‟ intention and adoption was also confirmed. The research concluded with a discussion on the management implications as well as the recommendations and the future research that need to be carried out.