Innovations of Express Companies: Adoption of Protective Wearable Artificial Intelligence Devices by Couriers

Providing couriers with wearable artificial intelligence devices to prevent accidents is not only beneficial to the courier’s safety but will also save money in terms of insurance premiums for express companies; therefore, it is worth investigating what factors can influence the acceptance of wearable artificial intelligence devices by couriers. Push–pull–mooring (PPM) theory and affective event theory (AET) are integrated, to test couriers’ adoption of wearable safety detection devices. Social influence, perceived security, personal innovativeness, and affective event reaction are applied to the research model. Questionnaires are distributed among several listed express companies and 263 valid questionnaires are used for empirical testing. Empirical results indicated that social influence, perceived safety, personal innovativeness and affective event reaction are positively related to usage with coefficients 0.218, 0.301, 0.698 and 0.309. Personal innovativeness has positive moderating effects on relationships between affective event reaction, perceived security and usage, with coefficients 0.145 and 0.106; however, it has no significant moderating effect on the relationship between social influence and usage. The research aims to help support the proliferation and adoption of wearable artificial intelligence devices to optimize the current state of the express industry and improve the interaction between couriers and managers, creating an active management strategy that will allow express companies to thrive. The study not only provides insights to help express companies reduce insurance costs, but also provides recommendations for accelerating the company’s environmental, social and governance goals, leading sustainable development and building new corporate value.