Abstract

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize the sub-factors of safety perception that consumers have regarding unmanned stores and investigate how consumers' safety perception influences their trust, satisfaction, and continuous intention to use unmanned stores. To segment consumers' safety perception of unmanned stores, we collected and analyzed news articles from portal sites using Text-Mining techniques, resulting in five sub-factors: ‘Security’, ‘Crime’, ‘Equipment and facilities’, ‘Hygiene and health’, and ‘Disasters and accidents’. An online survey was conducted through respondents aged 19 to 69 who have experienced unmanned stores within the past six months. Measurement items for this study were developed based on the items used in previous studies and structural equation model was employed to test the hypothesized relationships. The results revealed that consumers' safety perception significantly influences their trust, satisfaction, and continuous intention to use unmanned stores. Among the five factors, consumers' safety perception of security, equipment and facilities, and hygiene and health had significant static effects on trust. In the case of security and hygiene and health factors, trust statically mediated the relationship between safety perception and satisfaction, and satisfaction statically mediated the relationship between trust and continuous intention to use. Based on these findings, we suggested theoretical and managerial implications and concluded with the study’s limitations and directions for future study.