Extending UTAUT2 for elderly high-speed rail adoption: Incorporating novel health and transportation independence moderators in an urban-rural comparative analysis

This study extends the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) by incorporating health status and transportation independence as novel moderators to examine high-speed rail adoption intentions among elderly populations in Thailand. Using structural equation modeling on survey data from 2936 elderly respondents (1470 urban and 1493 rural), this study investigated the determinants of adoption intentions and their variations across geographical contexts. Results reveal that social influence, facilitating conditions, and effort expectancy are the strongest predictors of behavioral intention in both urban and rural settings, while performance expectancy and price value showed non-significant effects, challenging conventional UTAUT2 assumptions. The extended model explains 65.0 % of variance in urban contexts versus 51.5 % in rural contexts. Health status demonstrates significant moderating effects on multiple relationships, particularly in urban settings, while transportation independence shows minimal moderation. Age moderates several relationships primarily in urban contexts, whereas gender shows no significant moderating effects. Hedonic motivation significantly influences rural but not urban adoption intentions. These findings challenge universal assumptions about technology acceptance and highlight the importance of context-specific approaches for elderly transportation technology adoption. The study contributes to theory by validating an elderly-specific UTAUT2 extension and provides practical implications for developing targeted strategies to enhance high-speed rail adoption across diverse elderly populations.