Purpose: This study analyzed the effect of digital transformation environmental factors on digital transformation execution and the moderating effect of age by using age as a moderating variable for small business owners. Digital transformation enviro...
Purpose: This study analyzed the effect of digital transformation environmental factors on digital transformation execution and the moderating effect of age by using age as a moderating variable for small business owners. Digital transformation environmental factors were classified into performance expectations, effort expectations, social influences, and facilitating conditions based on the Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology.
Research design, data, and methodology: 366 questionnaires collected from small businesses owners residing nationwide were used for empirical analysis.
The results of the study using SPSS v25.0 and Process macro v4.2 as analysis tools.
Results: First, Among the factors influencing the implementation of digital transformation, it was found that the facilitating conditions had the greatest effect and the effort expectation had the least effect. Second, it was confirmed that age significantly moderate the relationship between effort expectancy, social influence and facilitation conditions of digital transformation environmental factors and digital transformation execution, but did not moderate between performance expectations and digital conversion execution.
Third, the effect on digital transformation execution was different by age group, and important factors were different for each age group.
Implications: The applicability of Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology are meaningful in that they presented a theoretical basis for future research on digital transformation. In addition, future studies exploring other factors that can accelerate digital transformation and this study used age as a moderating variable, but a review of other demographic variables as a moderating variable and an approach of a mediating model that includes mediator(s) are proposed.