Despite Industrial Revolution 4.0-related awareness, assessment, support, and training from the government and relevant agencies, the adoption rate of digital technologies usage is relatively slow. Such technologies include intelligence conversational agents/chatbots-artificial intelligence (AI)/virtual assistant, which are used by Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in supporting their business operation in areas such as sales and marketing, conversational commerce, customer service support, data analytics, and organisation sustainable development. Therefore, this particular work explored the extrapolative elements for explaining the Malaysian SMEs intention to utilize intelligence conversational agents for an e-commerce system. The study was born out of the researcher’s enthusiasm to proffer measures that could motivate SMEs, which functioned as the country’s economic backbone, towards becoming accustomed to the rapid technological developments and evolving innovations advanced by digital technologies. In this research, the constructs of the unified theory of technology acceptance and use of technology (UTUAT) model were reviewed and synergised into the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework, with perceived cost and perceived technology security to propose an improved conceptual framework. The integrated conceptual framework proposed established 11 factors (i.e. employees technology know-how, performance expectancy, perceived relative advantage, perceived technology security, chief executive officer (CEO) and manager characteristics, perceived adoption cost, facilitating condition, social influence, hedonistic drives, and normative and mimetic pressures) in promoting and aiding future research, as well as serving as guidance for delineating and predicting the adoption of intelligence conversational agent among SMEs in Malaysia.
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In-Text Citation: (Ikumoro & Jawad, 2019)
To Cite this Article: Ikumoro, A. O., Jawad, M. S. (2019). Intention to Use Intelligent Conversational Agents in e-Commerce among Malaysian SMEs: An Integrated Conceptual Framework Based on Tri-theories including Unified Theory of Acceptance, Use of Technology (UTAUT), and T-O-E. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(11), 205–235.
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