Evaluating Critical Success Factors for Acceptance of Digital Assistants for Online Shopping Using Grey–DEMATEL

Abstract

Conversational digital assistants (CDAs), driven by artificial intelligence, are emerging innovative technologies to assist customers with online shopping. Despite the benefits of CDAs, customers resist their use for online shopping. Hence, studying what factors motivate consumers to adopt OSAs is necessary. The study first identifies twelve CDA acceptance factors through a literature review and expert opinion. It then uses a unique grey-DEMATEL method to evaluate the cause-and-effect relationships among the factors. The grey-DEMATEL approach effectively analyzes causal interactions among elements, overcoming the bias of imprecise human judgments in real life. The authors find that the critical cause factors that affect other factors of CDAs’ adoption are anxiety, trust, social presence, enjoyment, and humanness. Managers and policymakers can use the study’s findings to drive CDAs’ acceptance. The study uniquely identifies the critical success factors for CDAs’ acceptance for online shopping and analyzes their causal relations in a grey environment.

Keywords:

• Digital assistants
• conversational commerce
• technology acceptance
• online shopping
• electronic commerce
• multi-criteria decision-making
• DEMATEL
• grey system theory

Disclosure statement

The authors report that there are no competing interests to declare.

Data availability statement

There is no data associated with the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chetanya Singh

Chetanya Singh is a full-time Research Scholar in Management Studies Department at ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior, India. She is an MBA in Marketing from Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, India. Her research areas are marketing, artificial intelligence, consumer behavior, e-commerce, and technology acceptance.

Manoj Kumar Dash

Manoj Kumar Dash is an Associate Professor in Management Studies Department at ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior, India. He is M.A and MPhil in Economics, MBA in Marketing, and Ph.D. from Berhampur University, Odisha. His areas of interest are marketing analytics, sustainability marketing, and consumer decision modeling.

Rajendra Sahu

Rajendra Sahu is a professor in Management Studies Department at ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior, India. He is a Ph.D. from IIT Kharagpur. His areas of interest are enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, knowledge management, e-governance, system analysis and design, modeling and simulation, and cost accounting.

Gaurvendra Singh

Gaurvendra Singh is a postdoctoral fellow in Management Sciences Department at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India. He is Ph.D. in Management from ABV-IIITM, Gwalior and M. Tech from IIT Delhi. His research areas are Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Resilience, Industry 4.0, Operation Research, and Multi-criteria decision-making.