Augmented Reality (AR) technology adoption has been growing worldwide in recent years. The potential of AR to blend digital information into the physical world has been a challenge for both academia and industry, who attempt to realize and anticipate its impact on users’ perceptions, adoption intention and use. The present paper is an empirical study aimed at making substantial suggestions and investigating an integrative theoretical paradigm which attempts to establish the significance of specific factors which allow using mobile augmented reality apps in shopping malls. The study employs information from the extant literature with a view to extending the Unified Theory on Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The results show that performance expectancy, enjoyment and reward are direct determining factors of adopting the specific technology in shopping malls, whereas facilitating conditions, social influence, innovativeness and trust exert an indirect effect on behavioral intention adoption. The research findings have far-reaching theoretical and practical implications for the development, marketing and application of mobile AR apps in the context of the specific contemporary form of shopping.

The banking sector has been considered as one of the primary adopters of Information and Communications Technologies. Especially during the last years, they have invested a lot into the digital transformation of their business process. Concerning their retail customers, banks realized very early the great potential abilities to provide value added self-services functions via mobile devices, mainly smartphones to them; thus, they have invested a lot into m-banking apps’ functionality. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought out different ways for financial transactions and even more mobile users have taken advantage of m-banking app services. Thus, the purpose of this empirical paper is to investigate the determinants that impact individuals on adopting or not m-banking apps. Specifically, it examines two groups of individuals, users (adopters) and non-users (non-adopters) of m-banking apps, and aims to reveal if there are differences and similarities between the factors that impact them on adopting or not this type of m-banking services. To our knowledge, this is the second scientific attempt where these two groups of individuals have been compared on this topic. The paper proposes a comprehensive conceptual model by extending Venkatech’s et al. (2003) Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) with ICT facilitators (i.e., reward and security) and ICT inhibitors (i.e., risk and anxiety), as well as the recommendation factor. However, this study intends to fill the research gap by investigating and proving for the first time the impact of social influence, reward and anxiety factors on behavioral intention, the relationship between risk and anxiety and the impact of behavioral intention on recommendation via the application of Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) statistical techniques. The results reveal a number of differences regarding the factors that impact or not these two groups towards m-banking app adoption; thus, it provides new insights regarding m-banking app adoption in a slightly examined scientific field. Thus, the study intends to assist the banking sector in better understanding their customers with the aim to formulate and apply customized m-business strategies and increase not only the adoption of m-banking apps but also the level of their further use.

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Artificial intelligence agents (chatbots), which are programs to communicate with users primarily in customer service contexts, are an alternative interaction channel supporting businesses in the digital environment and vital components in customer service. The present empirical paper, which is aimed at identifying and discussing the factors motivating nonusers to adopt the specific technology in mobile contexts, proposes a comprehensive conceptual model, which combines the UTAUT 2 behavioral theory with variables of mobile service quality contexts, such as information quality, privacy concerns, interface, and equipment, as well as trust and mobility factors. Data analysis, based on the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) statistical method, revealed that performance expectancy, facilitating factors, hedonic motivation, mobility, trust, and service quality positively affect nonusers’ behavioral intention to adopt chatbots. In addition, equipment, interface, and trust have a significant impact on users’ trust in the context of mobile chatbots. Personal data privacy issues also have a negative effect on trust, in contrast to effort expectancy, which positively affects performance expectancy. As mobile service quality factors have not been investigated before in the context of chatbots, the findings of the present research are expected to provide useful insights both to academia and the business industry.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of various factors on suppliers' level of use of business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐marketplaces by examining three basic variable domains; suppliers' internal environment, their external environment and the characteristics of the adopted B2B e‐marketplace.Design/methodology/approach: A conceptual framework is developed based on extended literature review and examined on data collected from 87 suppliers that currently use Greek B2B e‐marketplaces. Factor analysis and multiple discriminant analysis are applied to test the framework and its related hypotheses.Findings: Several hypotheses are formulated leading to the development of the proposed “B2B e‐MarkFLU” conceptual framework. The research results show that factors from all the examined variable domains influence suppliers' level of use of B2B e‐marketplaces. However, the B2B e‐marketplace's characteristics are regarded as the most important of the three categories because of its higher impact on the involved suppliers, whereas the factors from the external environment have the lowest impact.Originality/value: The research helps to fill an existing gap in the study of B2B e‐marketplaces' post‐adoption stage, as there have been extremely limited empirical studies after their adoption phase. To our knowledge, this paper comprises the first empirical attempt aimed to investigate thoroughly the three aforementioned variable domains by researching suppliers' active participation in B2B e‐marketplaces.