A Cross-Temporal Comparative Study on the Consumer Acceptance Mechanism of Drone-Based Last-Mile Delivery

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-787-3_71How to use a DOI?

Keywords

drone-based last-mile delivery; consumer acceptance; cross-temporal analysis; extended UTAUT model; structural equation modeling (SEM)

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the rapid development of the low-altitude economy and instant retailing, whether drone-based last-mile delivery can gain consumer acceptance has become a key issue for its commercial promotion. Based on an extended UTAUT model, this study constructs a structural equation model using 2025 sample data and conducts a cross-temporal comparison with findings from an existing 2023 study. The results show that performance expectancy and time constraints exert significantly positive effects on behavioral intention in both periods, constituting stable core drivers of consumers’ adoption of drone-based last-mile delivery technology. Effort expectancy and service responsiveness shift from insignificant to significantly positive influences, indicating that consumers’ evaluation focus has gradually expanded from outcome benefits to a comprehensive assessment of performance, convenience, and reliability. The effect of delivery mode expectancy changes from significant to insignificant, suggesting that the marginal influence of delivery touchpoints and receiving modes has weakened. Further analysis shows that these changes are closely associated with the improvement of policy regulation, the enhancement of technological maturity, deeper market penetration, and the expansion of instant consumption demand. Based on these findings, this paper proposes managerial implications and policy recommendations at the levels of enterprises, government, and scenario stakeholders, so as to provide references for the promotion of drone-based last-mile delivery services and the development of low-altitude logistics.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Danyang Shen
AU  - Jie Yang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/29
TI  - A Cross-Temporal Comparative Study on the Consumer Acceptance Mechanism of Drone-Based Last-Mile Delivery
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 4th International Conference on Management Innovation and Economy Development (MIED 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 717
EP  - 732
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-787-3_71
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-787-3_71
ID  - Shen2026
ER  -