Table 2.
Determinants of drone technology adoption
| Main category | Determinants | Theoretical Perspective | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Survey/Expert | Literature Review (LR) | |||
| MARKET | Industrial trends (M1) | Organizations engaged in drone technologies must align more closely to market needs and engage in market value research to understand industry trends and market orientation for maximum product absorption. Industrial trends for drone technologies favor its adoption, as can be seen in various applications, but diffusion and absorption of drone technologies are yet to happen | Survey | Ali et al. (2021), Ali et al. (2022) |
| Customer’s perspective (M2) | The customer’s perceived ease of use and usefulness of a technological product, image, experience, work-related relevance, and quality output of technology becomes a criterion for its absorption | Survey |
Rogers (1995) Venkatesh and Davis (2000) |
|
| Competitive benchmarking (M3) | Competitive benchmarking offers security, long-term benefits, and a better image, so innovative technology should be integrated into a system based on its ability to strengthen benchmarking parameters. Efforts should be made to commercialize innovations based on benchmarking | Survey | Datta (2011) | |
| Target market (M4) | Integration of innovative technologies can offer market shares, productivity, or profitability in the short term. However, for sustained organizational performance and long-term success, commercialization of innovative technologies is a must. That too is in the right target market, which can absorb the product to drive its demand | Survey | Tsai and Yang (2013) | |
| TECHNOLOGY | Product/ material offering (M5) | Drones must be made of lighter materials in terms of their hardware and software so that drones will fly at a height with excellent speed. For drone delivery systems to be more effective, better payloads, better technologies, and longer battery lives are important factors. These factors contribute to improving the operational efficiencies of drone delivery systems | Survey | Agatz et al. (2018) |
| Product objectives (use and applications) (M6) | Drone technology serves a specific purpose and gradually evolves to perform other associated objectives. Clarity on specific objectives is a must for inclusion and use in a system | Survey | Otto et al. (2018) | |
| Product/Process ideation (M7) | Drones can pick, inspect, and deliver the items if drones are used as delivery drones and hence are required to cover distances in length and heights. The ideation of a drone should have flexibility as far as its processes and operations are concerned. Shorter routes, suitable locations of takeoff and landing, and availability of recharging vertiports can improve the quality of its operations | Survey | Cooper (2008); Cohen (1993) | |
| Knowledge transfer (M8) | Technical specification of innovative technology is identified, which defines its requirements and identifies the gaps related to its functions, operations, material, components, parts, etc., for which knowledge transfer is a must. Operations and use of drones require knowledge for accurate data collection and data processing procedures; hence without specific knowledge, integration of drone technologies seems complicated | Survey | ||
| COMMERTIAL | Strategic alliances (M9) | Drone technologies are expensive and need continuous financial support, which sometimes is beyond organizational capability. Also, new partnerships must explore new markets in the event of the unreadiness of specific markets | Survey | Ali et al. (2021) |
| Overcoming regulation (M10) | Drone technology is interpreted as invasive by many non-users as its flying operation is seen as a privacy intrusion. Legal frameworks and policies are a must for operations, equipment damage, failure, cyber-attacks, industrial espionage, and control insurance claims | Survey |
Pauner et al. (2015) Otto et al. (2018); Mohammed et al. (2014) |
|
| Cost modelling (M11) | Unlike other technological products, Drone is cost-intensive as manufacturing, operations, and maintenance requires continuous investments. So, the return on investment must exceed over initial investment for its proper absorption. However, this seems complicated as drone technologies evolve with time and require ongoing funding. However, owning a drone and using it for deliveries could lower costs than delivery trucks | Survey | French (2017) | |
| Value offering (M12) | Adoption and absorption of technology are relatively easier if the value offered by its integration and continuous use outweighs the investment in terms of financial returns, improved image, and long-term sustainability | Mozaffari et al. (2019) | ||