Are you ready to be delivered by autonomous ground vehicles? The impact of relative advantages, personal sustainable norms, and positive anticipated emotions

Lately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing demand for the circular economy, the delivery sector has undergone significant transformations. The advent of autonomous ground vehicles, which enable faster, cleaner, and safer deliveries, is one solution whose value is explored in this article. The study investigates consumer acceptance of AGVs using the Technology Acceptance Model. It identifies acceptance factors related to technological, psychological, and sociological aspects derived from AGV characteristics, with an emphasis on personal sustainable norms. Demographic differences are observed across gender, age, and city size. The study uses the quantitative approach with SEM-PLS. The data was collected from the Prolific platform in the United States. A total of 305 respondents were analyzed using SmartPLS4. Results highlighted the importance of forming a positive attitude with perceived ease of use, usefulness, relative advantages, and personal sustainable norms and rejected the role of emotions. The findings provide an understanding of the AGVs' benefits for the circular supply chain and indicate future research directions.