Josue Kuika Watat
email: josuewatat@gmail.com

Exploring the Adoption of Multipurpose Community Telecentre in Sub-Saharan Africa

Keywords: Telecentre, Rural Empowerment, Africa, Digital Divide

In several countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, the hope rests heavily on Information and Communication Technologies for the economic, social, political and cultural development of marginalized people and communities. Therefore, Telecentres have been carefully presented to disadvantaged communities as a hub to facilitate the economic and social empowerment of rural communities. To fill the research gap observed in the literature, this study aims to explore the key determinants associated to the adoption of Telecentres in several rural municipalities in Cameroon. It intends to contextualize the UTAUT model, branching out constructs which are specific to the study environment. This qualitative study, adopting a mixed research methodology, presents the findings of an analysis of the need for digital services in several rural areas. In addition, the study fills the identified gaps observed in the emerging literature on the digital divide in rural Africa.

Introduction

The Multipurpose Community telecentres project has been adopted by several countries in search of development to break the digital divide and thus dematerialize access to public services for citizens and communities living in landlocked areas [START_REF] Dwivedi Yogesh | Common Services Centres (CSCs) as an approach to bridge the digital divide: Reflecting on challenges and obstacles[END_REF]. The deployment of ICT infrastructures and services is aligned with the aim of promoting the multisectoral development of localities that have been slow to reach the digital world. Although having dedicated enormous financial resources to the deployment, acceptance and use of ICT tools, their effective use remains a big challenge in most of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa where a large mass of people and communities reside in rural areas with limited access to technology, and a low level of digital literacy [START_REF] Mutula | IT diffusion in Sub-Saharan Africa: implications for developing and managing digital libraries[END_REF].

In Africa, the information society has for several years been encountering fundamental ethical problems which are undergoing rapid and exponential changes in the light of the globalization of different activities and fields [START_REF] Essien | Ethical Implications of the Digital Divide and Social Exclusion: Imperative for Cyber-Security Culture in Africa[END_REF][START_REF] Watat | Towards an Integrated Theoretical Model for Assessing Mobile Banking Acceptance Among Consumers in Low Income African Economies[END_REF]. The use of the internet and digital tools have become substantial when we look at the place that digital occupies in modern life and society, which happens to be an important vector for the development of several sectors [START_REF] Fuchs | Africa and the digital divide[END_REF]. In addition, the exponential growth of digital tools and the digital mutations generated in daily life of humans have given rise to another level of difficulties which integrate digital inequality and social exclusion [START_REF] Oyedemi | Digital inequalities and implications for social inequalities: A study of Internet penetration amongst university students in South Africa[END_REF].

Although digital inequalities persist in sub-Saharan Africa, the gap in the appropriation of digital technologies remains large between cities and villages to date the prospects are promising for the digital economy [START_REF] Bahia | Connected Society: The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity[END_REF]. According to United Nations, the number of people in Africa is expected to double by 2050, from more than a billion to over 2.5 billion [START_REF] Undp | Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: Inequalities in human development in the 21st century[END_REF]. The following Figure 1 shows the disparities existing in the use of mobile internet in low-and-middle-income countries.

Conceptual Framework

This section is dedicated to the theoretical description of models and theories used to address our research objectives and thus formulate our hypotheses. We propose an extension of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology by branching out constructs which are specific to the context and the study environment (Figure 2). [START_REF] Venkatesh | User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view[END_REF] set out key constructs which constitute and contribute to the formation of UTAUT:

Performance Expectancy, effort Expectancy, Social Influence and Facilitating Conditions. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technologies as modeled by Venkatesh, is one of the key theories when it comes to investigating the adoption of a Technology in different contexts of study [START_REF] Venkatesh | User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view[END_REF]. To arrive at this theory, the UTAUT model went through a rigorous review and underwent significant experimental validation of eight important adoption theories [START_REF] Venkatesh | User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view[END_REF]. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) is used in this study because it already incorporates the demographic variables(gender, age, experience), which is not the case with the original Technology Acceptance model (TAM). In fact, most of Technology adoption model like the TAM lack a variety of constructs that can influence the study context, hence the restructuring of the study in order to be able to fit into several study contexts and thus correspond to the objectives sought [START_REF] Kim | Analysis of the factors influencing healthcare professionals' adoption of mobile electronic medical record (EMR) using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) in a tertiary hospital[END_REF].

Core constructs

Performance Expectancy: "the degree an individual user believes that using the telecentre will assist in enhancing his/her performance" [START_REF] Venkatesh | User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view[END_REF]. H1: Performance Expectancy has a positive influence on Behavioral Intention to Use Telecentre (BIU). Effort Expectancy: refers to the level of facility in using telecentre services [START_REF] Venkatesh | User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view[END_REF]. H2: Effort Expectancy has a positive influence on Behavioral Intention to Use Telecentre BIU. Social Influence: refers to the measurement perceived by a user of the importance in the use of the telecentre by another user [START_REF] Venkatesh | User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view[END_REF]. H3: Social Influence has a positive influence on BIU. Management Effectiveness: It includes the specifications related to resolution of organizational problems and actions concerning staff management within the Telecentre [START_REF] Balduck | A two-level competing values framework to measuring nonprofit organizational effectiveness[END_REF]. H4: Management Effectiveness has positive influence on BIU. Programme Effectiveness: refers to specific programs and activities that the telecentre will provide as it is set up with the aim of providing a certain number of digital services to rural communities [START_REF] Sowa | No Longer Unmeasurable? A Multidimensional Integrated Model of Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness[END_REF]. H5: Program Effectiveness has positive influence on BIU. Facilitating Conditions: is defined as the firm conviction that any user has over the existence of a technical supervision in charge of supporting the operation of the telecentre [START_REF] Venkatesh | User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view[END_REF]. H6: Facilitating Conditions influence positively BIU.

Factors Used to Customized UTAUT Model

These factors are related to the specificity of the study environment as well as various development indicators of the study area. Therefore, they come as an extension of various models and theories drawn from the literature to explain and highlight the experience studied.

Awareness: It is defined as the ability to be aware of the use of a new service / product, a concept that could be beneficial in carrying out the daily tasks of a community. H7: Awareness impact positively BIU.

Culture: Cameroon has hundreds of traditional kingdoms and more than 250 dialects in all 10 regions in the country. The official languages of are French and English. However, young people have created a complex form of slang called "camfranglais" (mixture of French, English, vernacular Cameroonian phrases and even verlan) that varies between cities [START_REF] Vakunta | On Translating Camfranglais and Other Camerounismes[END_REF]. Some also use the "pijin", which is a mixture of English and slang [START_REF] Vakunta | The status of pidgin English in the Cameroonian Tower of Babel: An overview of the linguistic landscape of Cameroon which calls for the recognition of Cameroonian pidgin English as an official language[END_REF]. As for the traders, they negotiate very often in "pidjin" english (form of English Creole) for more than 50 years [START_REF] Ngefac | The social stratification of English in Cameroon[END_REF]. H8: Culture impact positively BIU.

Power Supply: The supply of electrical energy remains a real problem in sub-Saharan Africa, both for large cities and for rural areas. Although governments and international organizations have mobilized to be able to respond to electrical energy problems, there is still a huge gap between supply and demand [START_REF] Nfah | Simulation of offgrid generation options for remote villages in Cameroon[END_REF]. H9: Power Supply has positive impact on BIU.

Government Regulatory: The Cameroonian government has set up several regulations on the management and use of telecentres through the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. H10: Legal/ Government regulatory has positive impact on BIU. Accessibility: "the availability of necessary IT tools for the operation of telecentres for particular users" [START_REF] Lwoga Edda | Perception, usage and barriers towards the utilisation of the Telecentre among rural women in Tanzania[END_REF]. H11: Accessibility has a positive influence on BIU Trust: refers "to the intention to be voluntarily vulnerable to the actions of other users" [START_REF] Mayer | An Integrative Model of Organizational Trust[END_REF]. H12: trust has positive impact on BIU. Reliability: It refers to "the feeling possessed by individuals regarding the ability of the telecentre to perform all the missions assigned to it, without fail" [START_REF] Rao | Education as a Determinant of E-Governance Adoption: A Case Study of Telecenters of Karnataka[END_REF]. H13: reliability influence positively BIU. Behavioral Intention to Use Telecentre: it refers to the level of the intention to manifest a specific attitude regarding the intention to use telecentre services [START_REF] Ajzen | The theory of planned behavior[END_REF].

2.3

Methodology

This paper intend to use a mixed research method for testing and analyzing the proposed research [START_REF] Schoonenboom | Combining multiple purposes of mixing within a mixed methods research design[END_REF]. It's a method based on both quantitative and qualitative approach in the same research study to provide a response to the observed deficiencies in both methods [START_REF] Schoonenboom | Combining multiple purposes of mixing within a mixed methods research design[END_REF]. The quantitative methodology is used in this work to assess opinions, behaviors, and to induce from a much larger sample [START_REF] Schoonenboom | Combining multiple purposes of mixing within a mixed methods research design[END_REF]. Furthermore, research on technology acceptance and Digital Divide are commonly conducted using survey questionnaires [START_REF] Mackert | Health literacy and health information technology adoption: the potential for a new digital divide[END_REF]. We will therefore make use of measurable data in order to be able to address the observed experience and to exhibit research trends. To obtain respondents for our study, we are planning to investigate with local actors in rural municipalities who are directly involved in the use of Multipurpose Community Telecentres (farmers, fishermen, craftspeople, youths/students, teachers, local businessmen), as well as sports associations and various cooperatives. Ideally, World Bank estimates show a target population between 15 and 70 years old in rural sub-Saharan Africa, which corresponds to the demographic sample in our study [START_REF] Sievert | Willingness to pay for electricity access in extreme poverty: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa[END_REF]. With this methodological approach, we hope to receive at least 475 respondents to be able to conduct important analyses and make projections. Thus, we have already started discussions with various stakeholders concerned by the study and so far, the feedback is rather positive as for the impact of the study at the local level (municipality), up to the national level. Several local associations have agreed to send the survey to their members, who will be able to participate either with a version of the online questionnaire or by completing the physical questionnaire which will be sent to them. The development mechanisms of the instrument is organized according to [START_REF] Moore | Development of an instrument to measure the perceptions of adopting an information technology innovation[END_REF]. The parameters are collected on the basis of the scale existing in the emerging literature in order to consider valid allegories of each constructs so as to harmonize them with the research environment on the adoption of technologies and the digital divide [START_REF] Forman | The corporate digital divide: Determinants of Internet adoption[END_REF]. Several constructs from our study are evaluated individually in order to reflect the impression of an individual using Likert scale graduated from 1 to 7. The constructs resulting from the intention to use [START_REF] Ajzen | The theory of planned behavior[END_REF], UTAUT [START_REF] Venkatesh | User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view[END_REF], are adopted from [START_REF] Abdulwahab | A conceptual model of Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) modification with management effectiveness and program effectiveness in context of telecentre[END_REF], which contextualized the variables significantly in the acceptance of technologies in an environment marked by the permanent unavailability of technological infrastructures. Thereafter, constructs associated with accessibility [START_REF] Goncalves | Understanding individual-level digital divide: Evidence of an African country[END_REF], Trust [START_REF] Datta | Bridging the digital divide: Challenges in opening the digital world to the elderly, poor, and digitally illiterate[END_REF], and reliability [START_REF] Shiferaw | Modeling predictors of acceptance and use of electronic medical record system in a resource limited setting: using modified UTAUT model[END_REF] are borrowed from [START_REF] Chiemeke | A conceptual framework of a modified unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) Model with Nigerian factors in E-commerce adoption[END_REF]. They have effectively been used in the literature to investigate various barriers (emotional, structural) that can justify the non-adoption of technologies in sub-Saharan Africa [START_REF] Brown | Exploring differences in Internet adoption and usage between historically advantaged and disadvantaged groups in South Africa[END_REF]. This methodology implies the use of statistical tools in order to derive the results. we will use Partial Least Squares Structural Equation modelling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 3.2.8 [START_REF] Hair | A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM[END_REF]. This analysis methodology will allow us to evaluate the Path models which imply the latent constructs, observed abruptly by several hierarchical constructs [START_REF] Chin | The partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling[END_REF]. It will facilitate ideation of a structured model through the iterative assignment of the manifest variables [START_REF] Hair | Advanced Issues in Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling[END_REF].

After the quantitative analysis, will then proceed with a qualitative analysis which is also adapted to our study context regarding the exploration that we wish to conduct on real life in rural areas with the use of technology in order to better appreciate social phenomena [START_REF] Gill | Interviews and focus groups in qualitative research: an update for the digital age[END_REF]. It concentrates on dealing with the '' how '' and the '' why '' of social observations carried out, drawing its foundations from the experiences of individuals from rural communities as agents giving an explanation to their daily lives [START_REF] Gill | Interviews and focus groups in qualitative research: an update for the digital age[END_REF]. Also, it is a scientific research method used to gather non-numerical data and focuses on human demeanour from an agent's point of view [START_REF] Gill | Interviews and focus groups in qualitative research: an update for the digital age[END_REF]. This method is adopted in our study to explore in depth the adoption of Technologies in rural areas in a context where there is a lack of technological infrastructure, a constant absence of the internet, and also a gender difference in the use of technology due to the culture of the communities [START_REF] Patel | E-Learning Adoption in Rural-Based Higher Education Institutions in South Africa[END_REF]. It will allow us to formulate a theory to better understand the preferences, culture, motivations and even the lifestyle of a group of target individuals regarding its mainly inductive stages. We will start with focus groups of 10 people per sector of activity (farmers, fishermen, craftspeople, youths, teachers, local businessmen) as suggested by [START_REF] Guest | How many focus groups are enough? Building an evidence base for nonprobability sample sizes[END_REF] in order to obtain open responses from participants, responses which thus reflect feelings, thoughts, and experiences. The objective is to obtain more open information, regarding the unpredictable results that we can obtain at the level of quantitative analysis. This Focus group will allow the different participants to express themselves in a clear and open manner and to share opinions that could not be detected in terms of quantitative analysis [START_REF] Guest | How many focus groups are enough? Building an evidence base for nonprobability sample sizes[END_REF]. Depending on the interactive nature of the focus group, the debates will therefore be more fluid, participants will be inspired by the remarks and comments of others to stimulate their own [START_REF] Guest | How many focus groups are enough? Building an evidence base for nonprobability sample sizes[END_REF].

Results

A needs analysis study was conducted by AMBERO-Zebralog, a german consultancy firm on digitalisation needs in the North and South West regions. The purpose of this qualitative study was to be able to highlight the real needs in terms of digitalization of digital services based on the realities observed in the municipalities. A workshop was held in each municipality to which the concerned mayors or their representatives as well as a selection of municipal employees had been invited. Furthermore, several focus groups were held per municipalities with local stakeholder groups identified beforehand. The focus groups addressed local actors from different social groups, namely farmers and merchants, students and teachers, employment seekers, moto-taxi drivers as well as groups of women and young people. The focus groups were conducted to (1) discover the strengths and weaknesses the current provision of services in the municipality from the point of view of the citizens (phase 1). ( 2) make the participants aware of the opportunities offered by digitalisation and the potentials of digital services for the municipality by presenting start-of-the-art digital tools to ease communication between citizens and the state (phase 2). ( 3) Collect ideas for new digital services and discuss conditions for their successful implementation (phase 3). ( 4) find out the most suitable tools and places to access these services for the users (phase 4). Following the results, the overall use of Internet in the intervention municipalities is not very widespread. This varies slightly, for example digital literacy seems higher in urban or suburban areas (compared to rural areas) as well as in the South West (compared to the North region). Close to 50% of all participants (n=155) of the focus groups claim that they never use the internet. Only little more than 20% state that they are regular users of the internet.

Overall: How often do you use the internet?

The lack of internet and adequate telecommunication infrastructure could therefore be a main obstacle for the successful implementation of new digital services. It was already in the discussion in the workshops, as the debates were sometimes extremely far away from the everyday lives of the participants. It was rather difficult to talk about potential digital services in a context where most participants lack access to the internet or digital tools. How many users will be able to value the dis-cussed innovations, also compared to others in the same socio-professional category? The accessibility of the future services will determine its acceptability.

As the numbers collected in the workshops also show, mobile use is more common via SMS than via smartphone-powered messenger services such as WhatsApp. The preferred means of access to future digital services is by far the telecentre, followed by mobile means (mobile phone/ smartphone). Telecentres are seen as an important asset for the digitalization of certain services, because they are a place that could serve both to access information on the internet but also where people can be trained can learn how to make use of digital services and, as a result, improve their digital literacy.

Hence, it might be wise to make use of tools and technologies people already use, such as mobile money services. For example, participants frequently suggest the replacing of the stamp-based payment system used in municipalities with e-payment-systems (such as mobile money). highlights preferred means of access for future digital services for the North and South West regions.

This issue is also reflected in statements of the participants. Their most and major concern is the lack of connectivity, especially in the rural areas. Many participants state that creating access is key before developing municipal services. We concur with this assessment and suggest to first solve the problem of connectivity (e.g. through local community networks, well-equipped and functioning telecentres or a sufficient number of access points offered by private sector providers).

Interestingly, what is being prioritized in terms of "digitizable" services heavily depend on whom you ask. For example, municipal staff often thinks first of internal processes (such as archiving or electronic personnel files) and the provision of more strongly regulated services such as the provision of civil status documents. On the other hand, most citizens rather think of services that might help them in their everyday life. Among others, this concerns the delivery of information by the municipality (such as municipal website), but also affects policy areas such as health and sanitation, education, infrastructure, public safety or e-payments for a variety of municipal services.

Also, several citizens expect important benefits from the digitalization or, more precisely, the de-personalization of services. Some participants, especially young people or groups of farmers and merchants perceive a lack of transparency in the current proceedings. They feel they are not being treated fairly when it comes to the distribution of grants or social support programs. By shifting the process of application, decisionmaking and publication of results from a municipal agent to a transparent, electronic system, these participants see the chances of cheating, fraud, and favoritism heavily reduced. As a result, this may boost the confidence of citizens in the problem-solving capabilities and fairness of the state.

What is more, different speeds in digitalization in rural areas on the one hand and urban/ suburban areas on the other account for the divergence in perceived benefits of digital services. In rural areas (such as in Bibémi or Mayo-Oulo), long trips to the town hall or other institutions can be reduced or even completely avoided by digital payment and handling systems (for permits, certificates, applications etc.). This benefit is estimated to be less pertinent in urban areas.

For citizens, it is often not self-evident which level of state is responsible for which service, especially in a decentralizing multi-level governance system such as the Cameroonian. Consequently, participants often made suggestions for changes in services that are rather in the sovereignty of the national level.

Implications, Limitation & Future Research Direction

This research will allow organizations and governments engaged in the process of breaking the digital divide to be equipped with concepts in order to carry out their work [START_REF] Kuika Watat | Breaking the Digital Divide in Rural Africa[END_REF]. It will also enable future research to focus on the environmental and and economic factors that contribute to the acceptance of telecentres in rural areas. Furthermore, several organizations will be able to understand the different approaches to increase the rate of use of technologies in disadvantaged villages and communities by offering them a catalog of services adapted to their needs. In terms of theoretical implications, the study will serve as a theoretical basis for carrying out quantitative analyzes related to the acceptance of technologies in rural areas, according to cultural indicators. The qualitative analyzes carried out will allow the next quantitative studies to adopt a better analytical approach. However, this work has several limitations. Firstly, given the experimental nature of our study and the strong correlation between variables of the research model, expanding the sample size remains useful in order to obtain relevant results and thus ensure external validity. In the future, we plan to further expand the research model considering several technological, environmental, and psychological backgrounds. We will also study the existing disparities between men and women which are linked to current culture and practices regarding the use of ICT in households and disadvantaged communities in sub-Saharan Africa [START_REF] Nasah | The digital literacy debate: an investigation of digital propensity and information and communication technology[END_REF].

Conclusion

This research aims to be an addition to the emerging and existing literature by conducting empirical investigations on the key determinants of adoption and use of Multipurpose Community Telecentres to create value and contribute to economic, social and cultural development in rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa. We conducted a qualitative study (digital service needs analysis) in rural areas of North and South West Cameroon in order to be able to collect digital service needs of underprivileged communities. Also, we present a theoretical representation which is an extension of the UTAUT model, to which we have associated cultural factors. The development and deployment of digital tools and the increase of digital culture in rural areas are therefore a strong response to the various problems of rural exodus observed in villages [START_REF] Nasah | The digital literacy debate: an investigation of digital propensity and information and communication technology[END_REF] . With the arrival of digital solutions at telecentre, marginalized and disadvantaged communities will be able

Figure 1 .

 1 Figure 1. Rural gap in mobile internet use in low-and middle-income countries [9] This study aims to increase the existing literature on MCTs in Africa by proposing a model that extends the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, contextualized to the acceptance and Use of Telecentres in a specific environment characterized by poverty, lack of technological infrastructure and the internet. The use of the UTAUT model in this context is justified because it incorporates demographic factors and experience in the generic model. Coupled with the emerging literature on Telecentres around the world and on socioeconomic and cultural specificities in Africa, we will examine the following research question: what are the key determinants of the use and adoption of Multipurpose Community Telecentres for value creation and socio-economic development in rural areas?

  H16: Behavioral Intention to Use Telecentre has a positive effect on Telecentre User Acceptance. Telecentre User Acceptance: It focuses on the acceptance of the individual use of the Telecentre by users. H17: Telecentre User Acceptance positively impact on telecentre value creation

Figure 2 .

 2 Figure 2.Research Model

Figure 3 .

 3 Figure 3. Responses of participants in focus groups in both the North and the South West Region when asked about their internet use / n=155 -September 2018

to take the train of digital culture, thereby developing their digital potential, important for socio-economic development and fulfilment. The Telecentres will therefore be a center for developing skills, creating value and culture for rural areas.


Ms Brinda Sampat

Mr Kali

Charan Sabat
email: kalicharan.sabat@gmail.com

Antecedents to Continuance Intention to use eGovernment services in India

Keywords: eGovernment, Satisfaction, Continuance Intention, Trust, Attitude, India, Expectation Confirmation Theory, Technology Acceptance Model

There are several studies that have examined the factors that determine users' attitude to adopt eGovernment services. However, there are not many studies that have explored what makes users continue to use these services. The purpose of this paper is to identify the most salient factors that influence users to continue to use eGovernment services in India. To achieve this, the paper examines the role of confirmation and satisfaction in influencing citizens' attitude leading to intention to continue using eGovernment services. In order to investigate the key factors that affect an individual's use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) within the context of electronic government, a framework combining Expectation Confirmation Theory and Technology Acceptance Model is used to investigate satisfaction and continuity of use of eGovernment services.

Introduction

The term electronic Government or eGovernment refers to the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to disseminate information and services to the citizens, businesses' and government agencies [START_REF] Rose | Managing e-Government: value positions and relationships[END_REF]. eGovernment is an initiative that provides a single point of access to all digital services [START_REF] Anthopoulos | Applying participatory design and collaboration in digital public services for discovering and re-designing e-Government services[END_REF]. eGovernment initiatives provide enormous benefits, but to realize these benefits citizens need to adopt these initiatives and continue to use them [START_REF] Lallmahomed | Factors influencing the adoption of e-Government services in Mauritius[END_REF][START_REF] Shareef | e-Government Adoption Model (GAM): Differing service maturity levels[END_REF]. Lack of adoption of these services hinders the benefits these services aim to provide [START_REF] Ozkan | e-Government adoption model based on theory of planned behavior: Empirical validation[END_REF]. There are certain challenges in implementing and rolling out eGovernment initiatives in India. There are a few studies that have empirically examined the factors influencing citizens' adoption of eGovernment systems [START_REF] Rana | Evaluating alternative theoretical models for examining citizen centric adoption of e-government[END_REF]. Realizing a research gap in terms of an inclusive Information Technology (IT)/ Information Systems (IS) research model that can help to understand the factors that help in continued usage of eGovernment services, this study aims to fill the gap. The present study attempts to identify the various factors which influence the intention of users to continue using eGovernment services. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: The following section covers the literature review from recent studies in the context of eGovernment implementation. The next section covers the research methodology, analysis of the results and discussion. It also provides an agenda for future research.

Literature Review

The IS Continuance Model has been used to explore users continued use of an IS. A study by Bhattacherjee [START_REF] Rana | Evaluating alternative theoretical models for examining citizen centric adoption of e-government[END_REF] revised the expectation confirmation theory (ECT) and included Perceived Usefulness from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and users' satisfaction to predict continuance of eGovernment services. The TAM is the most extensively and dominant theoretical model for examining the individual's acceptance of information systems [START_REF] Lee | The Technology Acceptance Model: Past, Present, and Future[END_REF]. Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) have consistently shown of having a positive and significant effect on shaping users' attitude, thereby affecting continuance intention. These two constructs have been included in the research model. Perceived Usefulness (PU) of an eGovernment service is the extent to which a citizen believes that using the online service will enhance his/ her performance and efficiency. PU and PEOU have shown a positive effect on Attitude [START_REF] Ozkan | e-Government adoption model based on theory of planned behavior: Empirical validation[END_REF] leading to continuance Intention and Satisfaction [START_REF] Kim | Quality, Perceived Usefulness, User Satisfaction, and Intention to Use: An Empirical Study of Ubiquitous Personal Robot Service[END_REF]. This leads the researchers to hypothesize, H1: Perceived Usefulness has a positive and significant effect on Satisfaction H2: Perceived Usefulness has a positive and significant effect on Attitude H3: Perceived Usefulness has a positive and significant effect on Continued Intention Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) of an eGovernment service is the extent to which a citizen believes that using an eGovernment service will be easy and will require less effort in performing any tasks. Many researchers have established a positive relation between PEOU and Perceived Usefulness [START_REF] Abdullah | Investigating the influence of the most commonly used external variables of TAM on students' Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Perceived Usefulness (PU) of e-portfolios[END_REF] and PEOU and Attitude [START_REF] Elkheshin | Assessing the Adoption of E-government Using Tam Model: Case of Egypt[END_REF]. Thus, the researchers hypothesize, H4: Perceived Ease of Use has a positive and significant effect on Perceived Usefulness H5: Perceived Ease of Use has a positive and significant effect on Attitude

In ECT it has been proved via empirical studies that confirmation leads to satisfaction.

His results suggested that it was feasible to apply ECT to the web context. Some related hypotheses were therefore formulated based on the baseline model of ECT.

H6: Confirmation has a positive and significant effect on Perceived Usefulness H7: Confirmation has a positive and significant effect on Satisfaction Satisfaction (SAT) is referred to as Users' feelings about prior eGovernment services use. Welch [START_REF] Welch | Linking Citizen Satisfaction with E-Government and Trust in Government[END_REF] found that government website use is positively associated with egovernment satisfaction. Thus, the following hypotheses are proposed H8: Satisfaction has a positive and significant effect on Attitude to use eGovernment services H9: Satisfaction has a positive and significant effect on Continuance Intention to use eGovernment services Attitude (ATT) is defined as "one's overall evaluation of self-performance regarding a particular behaviour". The favorable or unfavorable attitude affects the users' adoption intention regarding the outcome. BI was originally developed in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). When citizens hold a positive attitude towards using online service, they are more likely to express their willingness to use it. Hence, the researchers hypothesize, H10: Attitude has a positive and significant effect on Continued Intention to use eGovernment services Self-efficacy is the ability to carry out a task without anyone's help. It means a user is confident of carrying out his tasks of using the system on his own and that he need not depend on anyone. A citizen would thus choose to use eGovernment services, if he believes he has the knowledge and skills to carry out tasks using eGovernment services. This leads the researchers to hypothesize, H11: Self-efficacy has a positive and significant effect on Continued Intention to use eGovernment services

Trust in eGovernment refers to the overall individual's reliability on eGovernment services. Lack of trust in an online system may hinder the adoption and continued use of online services. If a user trusts an eGovernment services, he/she will be more willing to avail the service and carry out transactions on it online. Studies in online adoption of services have demonstrated that trust enables people to exchange information online, share their personal details which will lead to greater adoption [START_REF] Al-Hajri | The Adoption of e-Banking: The Case of Omani Banks[END_REF][START_REF] Yu | An investigation of trust in e-banking[END_REF]. Thus the researchers hypothesize, H12: Trust in eGovernment has a positive and significant effect on Continued Intention to use eGovernment services Fig. 1 presents the conceptual model.

Methodology

This study aims to identify the factors that lead to users' continuance intention to use e-government services in India. To identify the drivers for the usage e-government services a conceptual model was developed by extending TAM to include confirmation, trust and social influence. The research process comprised of three steps. In the first step, a comprehensive literature review was performed to find appropriate variables that could extend TAM to better understand the consumers' continuance intention to use egovernment services. Followed by the review of literature in the second step, an online survey instrument was developed and sent to randomly selected participants across the country. In the third step, a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) was developed and tested using the Smart PLS 3 software.

For developing the data collection instrument for this study, established scale items were adopted from existing literature on online government services and TAM. These adopted scale items were further refined to fit into the context of this study. Before launching the survey the data collection instrument was pilot tested with few selected respondents. Based on the feedback received during the pilot testing the instrument was simplified for the better understanding of scale items by the respondents. After excluding a few items the final survey tool comprised of 32 items related to eight constructs were retained. All the items were measured using a five -point Likert scale, with anchors ranging from "Strongly disagree" (1) to "Strongly agree" [START_REF] Dijkstra | Consistent Partial Least Squares Path Modeling[END_REF].

The online survey was randomly distributed to 2000 individuals across the country. To improve the response rate, the initial mailing of surveys was followed by periodic reminder e-mails. Finally, 243 responses (a 12 per cent response rate) were obtained.

After rejecting 34 inappropriately filled responses, 209 filtered responses were separated for the purpose of data analysis. There are seven predictor variables (independent variables) in this study. According to Stevens [START_REF] Stevens | Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences[END_REF], the sample size for social science research should be greater than 15 times the number of predictor variables. Hence, the required sample size should be greater than 105 (7 x 15). The number of filtered responses was twice the required sample size.

After screening the data, the study constructs were tested for the presence of multicollinearity, reliability and validity. To inspect if multicollinearity exists amongst the independent variables the inner and outer VIF values were calculated. All the VIF values for both the inner and outer model were well below the threshold value of 5 [START_REF] Rose | Managing e-Government: value positions and relationships[END_REF]. The inner VIF values are presented in Table 1 and the outer VIF values are presented in Table 2. The evidence of construct reliability and validity is demonstrated in Table 3. The measure for consistent reliability coefficient Rho_A vary from 0.847 to 0.923 was consistently greater than the recommended value of 0.7, which indicates acceptable internal reliability for the dimensions [START_REF] Dijkstra | Consistent Partial Least Squares Path Modeling[END_REF]. The reliability levels (Cronbach's Alpha (CA) and Composite Reliability (CR)) of all the individual constructs exceeded the acceptable level greater than 0.75 demonstrating high internal consistency of the constructs [START_REF] Hair | PLS-SEM: Indeed a Silver Bullet[END_REF]. The average of the item-to-factor loadings are higher than 0.70 [START_REF] Hair | PLS-SEM: Indeed a Silver Bullet[END_REF] and the constructs indicated an Average Variance Extracted (AVE) value varying from 0.725 to 0.866, greater than the threshold value of 0.5, indicating convergent validity [START_REF] Fornell | Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error: Algebra and Statistics[END_REF]. To prove Discriminant validity the correlation between any two latent variables should be lower than the reliability of each of those variables [START_REF] Gaski | The Differential Effects of Exercised and Unexercised Power Sources in a Marketing Channel[END_REF]. The square root of AVE is used as the measure of reliability. All the latent variables for the conceptualized model had reliabilities greater than the correlations between any two constructs, indicating that each construct in the model was unique and distinct (Refer to Table 4).

Table 1. Inner VIF

Attitude

Continuance Intention

Perceived Usefulness

Satisfaction

Table 4. The Fornell-Larker criterion for Discriminant Validity

After establishing the reliability and validity of constructs, the hypothesized relations in the model were tested using PLS-SEM. The path coefficients and the corresponding p-values are presented in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Hypotheses testing and path analysis

The results support the hypotheses 4 and hypotheses 6 which indicated confirmation and perceived ease of use positively and directly influence perceived usefulness. It further establishes the role of perceived usefulness in shaping the users' attitude and satisfaction from the use of egovernment services (hypotheses 1 and 2). Perceived usefulness also directly leads to users' continuance intention (hypothesis 3). The results fail to support the relationship between satisfaction and attitude (hypothesis 8). But, attitude and satisfaction together with perceived usefulness and self efficacy can support the users' intention to continue with egovernment services (hypotheses 3, 9, 10 and 11).

The results also fail to establish any relationship between trust in egovernment and continuance intention (hypothesis 12).

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Proposed Research Model

Table 2 .

 2 Outer VIF

	Attitude		1.944
	Confirmation		1.648
	Continuance Inten-
	tion
	Perceived Useful-	1.575	2.417	1.000
	ness
	Perceived ease of		1.648
	use
	Satisfaction	1.575	1.816
	Self Efficacy		2.006
	Trust in eGovern-		1.768
	ment
	Items		VIF
	ATT1		3.277
	ATT2		3.721
	ATT3		3.404
	BI1		2.663
	BI2		3.477
	BI3		3.365
	BI4		2.437
	CON1		1.790

Table 3 .

 3 Construct reliability and Validity

	Constructs	Cronb	rho	Compo-	Average Var-
		ach's Al-	_A	site Relia-	iance Extracted
		pha		bility	(AVE)
	Attitude	0.923	0.92	0.951	0.866
			3
	Confirmation	0.841	0.84	0.904	0.759
			7
	Continuance	0.915	0.91	0.940	0.796
	Intention		5
	Percieved	0.907	0.91	0.931	0.730
	Usefulness		0
	Percieved ease	0.908	0.90	0.932	0.732
	of use		9
	Satisfaction	0.916	0.91	0.941	0.799
			6
	Self Efficacy	0.874	0.87	0.913	0.725
			8
	Trust in eGov-	0.915	0.92	0.940	0.797
	ernment		1


Kalyan Prasad Agrawal
email: kalyan@cimp.ac.in

Ashis K Pani

Rajeev Sharma

Pandemic pandemonium and remote working: an investigation of determinants and their contextual behavior in virtualization of work-from-home (WFH) process

Keywords: Work from home (WFH) process, information and communication technology (ICT), process virtualization theory (PVT)

Disruption at the physical workplace, developed by threats like the coronavirus, triggers revisiting old assumptions and exploring opportunities for new ways of remote working. With the global epidemic spreading, businesses are gearing up with the managers and their respective teams to work from home (WFH). This research has offered a setting for advancing understanding of virtualization of WFH process by exploring the factors that enable or constrain the information and communication technology (ICT) enabled virtualization of processes in employee's WFH process through empirical support for the process virtualization theory (PVT). Setting pandemic outbreak as a context, outcome of this research is reliant on two independent studies conducted to examine the influencing factors. First study conducted just before the onset of pandemic outbreak, found that parts of the constructs proposed in the PVT had expected outcomes regarding the characteristics of process virtualization. Contrary to this, second study conducted after pandemic outbreak found that major constructs proposed in the PVT behaved otherwise regarding the characteristics of process virtualization. To fill the gaps in empirical knowledge, the enablers and inhibitors so found together may be motivations to anticipate business organizations and their workforces to experiment with this form of work process, predominantly improved flexibility for organizations and employees, improved productivity, quicker responsiveness to the needs and unexpected man-made and natural disasters, lower absenteeism, improved employee retention, greater cost control, along with more general social benefits.

Introduction

Disruption at physical work place, developed by threats like the coronavirus, triggers revisiting old assumptions and exploring opportunities for new ways of remote working to stay ahead. With the global epidemic spreading, businesses are gearing up with the managers and their respective teams to work from home (WFH). The vision of having to work from home is becoming progressively more likely for a comprehensive swath of employees resulting into the disruption of modes and means of communication, team dynamics, work patterns etc. Although all processes do not qualify to be virtualized [START_REF] Overby | Process virtualization theory and the impact of information technology[END_REF], imagination of life has now become implausible discounting online processes [START_REF] Balci | Virtual or material, what do you prefer? Twenty Second European Conference on Information Systems[END_REF]. Extant literature has acknowledged multiple factors influencing the IT-enabled virtualization of several services by extensively adopting various theoretical lenses like, the diffusion of innovation theory [START_REF] Roberts | Using information and innovation to reduce costs and enable better solutions[END_REF][START_REF] Beaudry | Understanding user responses to information technology: A coping model of user adaptation[END_REF][START_REF] Agrawal | Investigating the determinants of big data analytics (BDA) adoption in emerging economies[END_REF], the technology acceptance model [START_REF] Davis | Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology[END_REF]Baker, 2010), the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology [START_REF] Davis | Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology[END_REF][START_REF] Venkatesh | User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view[END_REF][START_REF] Kim | Investigating user resistance to information systems implementation: A status quo bias perspective[END_REF][START_REF] Dwivedi | Re-examining the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT): Towards a Revised Theoretical Model[END_REF], the task-technology fit theory [START_REF] Goodhue | Task-technology fit and individual performance[END_REF]Dennis et al., 2000), and the theory of planned behavior [START_REF] Ajzen | Application of the theory of planned behavior in leisure choice[END_REF][START_REF] Kim | Consumer attitudes toward fashion counterfeits: Application of the theory of planned behaviour[END_REF]. There have been extensive use of these theoretical lenses in association with the acceptance of ICT-enabled activities for an individual level. Information systems (IS) literature is silent in measuring the process level and its associated requirements in remote working context. Initially, this study began just before the onset of pandemic outbreak to understand the influencing factors on the ICT-enabled virtualization of WFH process but soon after the announcement of COVID-19 as a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO), further extended to examine the behavior of identified factors at the intersection of separate contexts, first in pre-pandemic time and second after pandemic outbreak. This research also intends to assess whether derived factors behave as context-resistant stable factor(s) or context-driven dynamic factor(s) that can contribute to the body of knowledge in dynamic capability of firms, especially relating to remote working. These lead to the research questions (i) what are the factors that influence the ICT-enabled virtualization of processes in employees' work-from-home (WFH) process?, and (ii) is/are the assessed factor(s) context resistant stable factor(s) or context driven dynamic factor(s)?

Drawing upon the process virtualization theory (PVT) for evaluating determinants quantitatively, current study is investigating the factors that impact the ICT-enabled virtualization of processes in employee's WFH process. The rationale behind choosing it as analytical lens is grounded on its explaining and worthy concepts to measure which physical processes can (not) be virtualized and are (not) appropriate for online platforms than others [START_REF] Overby | Process virtualization theory and the impact of information technology[END_REF]. Outcomes are expected to add valuable insight in to the current body of knowledge in literature pertaining to PVT and remote working.

Theoretical background

Historically, replacements to traditional commuting immediately became important subsequent to the world oil crisis of 1970 when the concept of technology enabled remote working process became a widespread focus for academic debate [START_REF] Baruch | Inclination to Opt for Teleworking -A Comparative Analysis of United Kingdom versus Hong Kong Employees[END_REF]. Development of technologies in the last quarter of twentieth century facilitated the commercial usage of the Internet along with email and other communication tools and made the commuting more sustainable [START_REF] Siha | Telecommuting's Past and Future: A Research Agenda[END_REF]. Rapid developments in technologies and associated IT infrastructure in this century has made it more affordable and accessible thereby accelerating attention towards the technology enabled virtual working process [START_REF] Van Winden | Urban Broadband Internet Policies in Europe: A Critical Review[END_REF][START_REF] Roukis | Globalization, Organizational Opaqueness and Conspiracy[END_REF]. In order to be successful, organizations in current times need to respond and operate in a dynamic work environment by offering better service beyond traditional business hours, attracting and retaining capable workforce in a close fitting labor market and reacting to the changing global demographic with respect to the workforce [START_REF] Scholefield | Managers' Attitudes to Teleworking [online[END_REF]. Disaster, like Covid-19, is a sudden event with widespread disruptive consequences. It has disrupted the setting of work, creating an ethos of ambiguity with shifting priorities for individuals as well as organizations. Technology enabled work from home (WFH), when considered in current context, is gradually endorsed as an effective means to restore and ensure operational capacity in complicated disaster environments [START_REF] Alvaro | Lessons Learned from September 11th: Telework as an Organizational Resource to the Business Continuity Planning[END_REF]. Moreover, it enables a relocation of available work tasks across distributed workforces when allocated work locations are inaccessible (due to geographical lockdown) and hazardous (due to virus transmission). For organizations that operate under such circumstances, WFH plays a critical role in ensuring the continuation of tasks at hand (Noelle [START_REF] Donnelly | Disrupted work: home-based teleworking (HbTW) in the aftermath of a natural disaster[END_REF]. Influential factors for ICT-enabled virtualization of WFH process is arguably non-existent in academic research. As current study first aims to investigate the factors that impact the ICT-enabled virtualization of processes in employees' WFH process, the term 'work-from-home (WFH)' in this study is used in alignment with the terms used by other scholars in the literature (Morgan, 2004; [START_REF] Sanchez | Teleworking and Workplace Flexibility: A Study of Impact on Firm Performance[END_REF] and express it as 'full-time paid employees conducting their jobs from home using information and communication technologies (ICT).'

Research model

A process, as defined in the literature of PVT, is a group of multiple steps meant to accomplish an objective of a phenomenon [START_REF] Overby | Process virtualization theory and the impact of information technology[END_REF]. It is either physical or virtual. In physical process there is physical interaction between people or between people and objects. On the other hand in virtual process there is no physical interaction between people or between people and objects. Process virtualization is the setting in which a physical process shifts to a virtual process. The rationale behind choosing PVT as analytical lens is grounded on its explaining and worthy concepts to measure which physical processes can (not) be virtualized and are (not) appropriate for being conducted online than others [START_REF] Overby | Process virtualization theory and the impact of information technology[END_REF]. Few studies [START_REF] Balci | Virtual or material, what do you prefer? Twenty Second European Conference on Information Systems[END_REF][START_REF] Graupner | Process digitisation in retail banking: An empirical examination of process virtualization theory[END_REF][START_REF] Ofoeda | Virtualization of government-to-citizen engagement process: Enablers and constraints[END_REF] have been identified from the literature for its applicability in several other contexts. Thus it provides the ideal beginning point for investigating the WFH process between employee and employer. Process virtualization theory proposes the independent variables in two groups, first group constitutes the characteristics of the process and second group constitutes the characteristics of the virtualization mechanism. First group is further comprised of sensory requirements, relationship requirements, synchronism requirements, and identification and control requirements. Considering all other things constant, these constructs are perceived to have resistance on process virtualizability. Here sensory requirements refer to the "need for process participants to be able to enjoy a full sensory experience of the process and the other process participants and objects. Sensory experience of the process includes seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting" [START_REF] Overby | Process virtualization theory and the impact of information technology[END_REF]. The lesser the sensory requirements of a process, the greater is the amenability of the process to being conducted virtually and vice-versa. Below hypothesis is established.

H1: The higher the sensory requirements of the WFH process, the lower is the amenability to being conducted virtually and vice versa.

Relationship requirements state "the need for process participants to interact with each other in a social or professional context" [START_REF] Overby | Process virtualization theory and the impact of information technology[END_REF]. Social interactions among people leverage knowledge, grow trust and develop friendship [START_REF] Overby | Process virtualization theory and the impact of information technology[END_REF]. In general, relationships in physical settings are resilient and more advanced and therefore negatively influence the intention to practice processes online [START_REF] Balci | Virtual or material, what do you prefer? Twenty Second European Conference on Information Systems[END_REF]. Building upon these results, below hypothesis is established.

H2: The higher the relationship requirements of the WFH process, the lower is the amenability to being conducted virtually and vice versa.

Synchronism requirements refers "the degree to which the activities relating to a process need to follow immediately with minimal delay" [START_REF] Overby | Process virtualization theory and the impact of information technology[END_REF]. In physical process participants and objects can interact usually without any delay. Therefore more the synchronism requirements relating to a process, less likely the process is to being conducted virtually and vice versa. Building upon all these outcomes into the WFH perspective, below hypothesis is established.

H3: The higher the synchronism requirements of the WFH process, the lower is the amenability to being conducted virtually and vice versa.

Next independent variable representing the characteristics of the virtualization mechanism is identification and control requirements. It refers "the degree to which process participants need credentials of other process participants and the capability to regulate their behavior" [START_REF] Overby | Process virtualization theory and the impact of information technology[END_REF]. As physical inspection of others to endorse their identity cannot be done by process participants in processes which are virtual they are susceptible to identity deception and control difficulties. Building upon these, following hypotheses are established.

H4: The higher the identification requirements of the WFH process, the lower is the amenability to being conducted virtually and vice versa.

H5: The higher the control requirements of the WFH process, the lower is the amenability to being conducted virtually and vice versa. For the purpose of this study all measurement items were developed and ranked on a fivepoint Likert scale from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5) [START_REF] Likert | A technique for the measurement of attitudes[END_REF].

Post pilot study, for the exploration of the PVT in the employee's work from home context, final sample data using same survey instrument for both studies, Study-1 and Study-2, were collected through online setting from managers and business executives representing leading service sector organizations across India. To have a representative sample for the Study-1 (pre-pandemic time), 154 (40.2%) questionnaires out of 383 were received (Oct-Nov 2019) and for Study-2 (representing pandemic time), a total of 516 participants were targeted (Apr-May 2020) and 296 (57.4%) questionnaires were considered further. In the model (Figure 2 and Figure 3), results show that all hypothesized paths in both studies are significant. As shown in Table 5, identification requirements and control requirements are found to have significant positive effects on intended WFH process virtualization. Further, the R-square value of 0.574 demonstrates that good variance can be explained. As shown in Figure 3 and represented in Table 6, sensory requirements, relationship requirements and identification requirements are found to have significant positive effects on WFHPV. The R-square value of 0.658 demonstrates that good variance can be explained in the dependent variable. The result is intelligible for a WFH process virtualization context. Conventionally, presence and need of physical interaction discourages a participant in a virtual process to establish a sensory connection to objects and/or participants [START_REF] Overby | Process virtualization theory and the impact of information technology[END_REF]. This is well supported in Study-1 relating to sensory requirements. In pandemic era, the nature of work is increasingly remote, online, stress free and safer. Considering the mandate to maintain physical distancing [START_REF] Harris | COVID-19[END_REF] as one of the evident choices left before organizations in the pandemic age, higher sensory requirements, as found in Study-2, relating to touch, see, hear, smell, and taste rather facilitated the ICT-enabled virtualization of WFH process. Likewise, as a general acceptance, physical environments usually have established and stronger relationships. This is well supported in Study-1 relating to relationship requirements. Considering social distancing [START_REF] Harris | COVID-19[END_REF], which refers in this context a set of measures established to avoid the spread of a contagious disease by keeping a physical distance among people and decreasing the frequency of people coming into close contact with one another especially at workplace, as an obvious choice available for organizations amid corona crisis, higher relationship requirements, as found in Study-2, rather turned as enabler to the ICT-enabled virtualization of WFH process. As defined in original PVT [START_REF] Overby | Process virtualization theory and the impact of information technology[END_REF], synchronism requirements is the degree to which the activities in a process need to occur quickly with minimal delay. Both the studies have found worthy support to this end.

Data analysis and findings

Increasing adoption of various face to face communication technologies by organizations in recent times has narrowed the scope of identity spoofing and real time recognition system has also diluted several identification issues integrated in the organizational work portfolio. The hypothesis relating to identification requirements is therefore stable and not supported in both the studies. As hypothesized, Study-2 found support for control requirements which demonstrates that capability to regulate the behavior of WFH process participants outweigh the degree to which process participants need credentials of other process participants.

To effectively increase technology enabled virtualization, organizations should understand the type of determinants that drive and motivate employees to conduct services through WFH virtualized process. As such, availability of single pane of glass access to all services, intensive networking and socializing, seamless access to data, upgraded equipment and Internet connectivity, all the support when and where needed, strong security, ability to use any app, on any device, anytime, from anywhere without inconvenience altogether seem to have diluted the motivation of resistance of discussed constructs to ICT-enabled intended virtualization of WFH process.

Theoretical contributions and practical implications

Present study aims to contribute to the restricted number of studies on virtualization of processes (Barth et al., 2011a[START_REF] Barth | Which processes do users not want online?: Extending the process virtualization theory[END_REF][START_REF] Balci | Virtual or material, what do you prefer? Twenty Second European Conference on Information Systems[END_REF][START_REF] Graupner | Process digitisation in retail banking: An empirical examination of process virtualization theory[END_REF][START_REF] Ofoeda | Virtualization of government-to-citizen engagement process: Enablers and constraints[END_REF]). Specifically, this is the first study to contribute elaborated insights on ICTenabled virtualization of work-from-home process, largely to the body of knowledge on virtualization of processes, workforce engagement, and associated factors like sensory, relationship, synchronous, identification and control requirements on the remote working. By exploring the behavior of context dependent determinants relating to process virtualization in remote working, the learning outcomes also deepen deliberations on the quality, involvement, delivery and execution of virtual processes across firms.

To this end, present study contributes greatly to the body of knowledge in remote working under full virtual setting with emphasis on extended flexibility for employees and organizations, improved productivity, lower absenteeism, better employee retention, extended cost control, along with more general social benefits. This benefits scholars understand behavior of each construct separately as no evidence exists about their interrelationships. Moreover, this research also assesses the behavior of derived factors and categorizes them into context-resistant stable factor(s) and context-driven dynamic factor(s), thereby contributing to the body of knowledge in dynamic capability of firms, especially relating to remote working. Such dynamic capabilities, if attained by the organizations, in terms of crafting, fine-tuning, implementation, and renovation into the design and set-up of business models, may exploit their ability to assimilate, build, and reconfigure internal competences leading to changes in the business environment thereby making them able to redesign and adjust business models and preserve costeffectiveness over the long term [START_REF] Teece | Business models and dynamic capabilities[END_REF]. Other than research, this study, by informing the management of organizations and key policymakers, also provided significant contributions to practice as it could equip practitioners with extended information on what employees intend virtualization of processes and how they can maximize benefit out of it, both under normal circumstances and in context driven testing times. At present, pandemic has augmented the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) all around the technological as well as social setting [START_REF] Saleh | Business excellence in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment (BEVUCA)[END_REF]. Since VUCA landscape is still unpredictable [START_REF] Fletcher | Digital transformation during a lockdown[END_REF], so practitioners, amid pandemic crisis, can also utilize the discussed setting to measure varying processes and sub-processes under WFH virtualization for their amenability by considering their process characteristics.

Limitations and directions for future research

Given the context driven dynamic nature of factors proposed in PVT, future research can complement the model proposed here to conceptualize and validate the discussed relationships in the virtualization of similar processes under different contexts. Moreover, scholars could also examine the impact of demographic characteristics relating to different firms across industries on the process virtualization of remote working. Furthermore, future studies can assess the generalizability of findings of this study under 'new normal' settings. Finally, the outcomes of this study can be useful to explore other settings where complete physical process can be virtualized using information and communication technology, like in service sector organizations.

Conclusion

Primarily, to fill the gaps in empirical knowledge, this research has established a setting for advancing understanding of virtualization of work from home (WFH) process using process virtualization theory (PVT). Pandemic has made process virtualization obligatory for all sectors, especially business organizations. ICT-enabled virtualization of processes is not considered now as an option or an available add-on that may be used when required rather it is becoming a need towards attaining digital maturity as early as possible. Therefore the enablers and inhibitors found in this study together may be motivations to anticipate business organizations and their workforces to experiment with this form of work process, predominantly given the speedy growth of advance information and communication technologies. These motivations include improved flexibility for organizations and employees, improved productivity, quicker responsiveness to the needs and unexpected man-made and natural disasters, lower absenteeism, improved employee retention, greater cost control, along with more general social benefits. Being only empirical study conducted so far in this context, the results enrich the existing knowledge domain by providing unique and elaborated understanding of the context dependent influencing factors that impact intended ICT-enabled virtualization of processes in employee's WFH process. Other than research, this study also provided significant contributions to practice as it could equip practitioners with extended information on what employees intend virtualization of processes and how they can maximize benefit out of it, especially in testing times. Practitioners, amid COVID-19 crisis, can also utilize the discussed model to measure varying processes and sub-processes under WFH virtualization for their amenability by considering their process characteristics.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Research model for WFH process virtualization (adapted and modified from Overby, 2008)

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. PLS-SEM result showing β-coefficient and R-square values (Study-1)

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. PLS-SEM result showing β-coefficient and R-square values (Study-2)

  [START_REF] Venkatesh | User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view[END_REF][START_REF] Graupner | Process digitisation in retail banking: An empirical examination of process virtualization theory[END_REF] with appropriate revision to ensure the consistency of the survey items in line with the setting of current study.

	4	Research methodology
	Measurement items for this research were adapted from the review of extant literature
	(Balci, 2014b; Barth et al., 2011b; Overby et al., 2008; Overby et al., 2010; Balci et
	al., 2013;

Table 1

 1

represents the demographic distribution and sample characteristics of the respondents involved in both studies. Structural equation modelling (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS) regression is used for the evaluation of proposed model in SmartPLS 3.0

[START_REF] Hair | A Primer on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM)[END_REF]

, as presented in Table

3

, 4 and 5.

Table 1 .

 1 Summary of demographic statistics (Study-1 and Study-2)

	Category	Study-1		Study-2
		Number	Percent Number	Percent
	Gender
	Male	96	62.3	153	51.7
	Female	58	37.7	143	48.3
	Age (years)
	<=30	44	28.6	60	20.3
	31-45	58	37.7	128	43.2
	46-60	38	24.7	62	20.9
	>60	14	9.1	45	15.2
	Education
	Professional	36	23.4	55	18.6
	Masters	54	35.1	130	43.9
	Bachelors	47	30.5	60	20.3
	Others	17	11.0	51	17.2
	Work experience (years)
	<=10	99	64.3	172	58.1
	>10	55	35.7	124	41.9
	Firm age (years)	Percent (%)
		Study-1		Study-2
	<=10	29.2		22.6
	11-20	27.9		38.9
	21-30	26.6		25.3
	>30	16.2		13.2

Table 2 .

 2 Constructs, item description, and factor loading (Study-1 and Study-2)

	Construct and item description	Factor loading (***p<0.001) Study-1 Study-2
	Sensory requirements (SenR)
	SenR1: While working on official assignments it is important to me to see the relevant documents holding their hardcopies in hand	0.980***	0.876***
	SenR2: I intend to see and listen to the concerned office colleagues and clients physically while working on official assignments	0.982***	0.733***
	SenR3: It is not important to me to utilize office infrastructure while per-forming my job duties (reverse)	0.943***	0.947***
	Relationship requirements (RR)
	RR1: To me, the social and professional interaction with the concerned of-fice colleagues and clients is necessary and important	0.906***	0.793***
	RR2: I like seeing and talking to the concerned office colleagues and/ or clients	0.899***	0.759***
	RR3: I intend to establish a personal relationship with my office colleagues and/ or clients	0.906***	0.893***
	RR4: Individual interaction with my office colleagues and/ or clients is not important to me while following the WFH process	0.900***	0.888***
	Synchronism requirements (SynR)
	SynR1: I get bothered if the processing does not start straightaway with the availability of input	0.934***	0.981***
	SynR2: I like to receive immediate confirmation of the input submission without delay via any form of mail or acknowledgements	0.957***	0.972***
	Identification requirements (IR)
	IR1: To me, it is necessary to verify my identity while conducting ICT-enabled WFH process	0.985***	0.907***
	IR2: Authentication tools are important to me in ICT-enabled WFH process 0.979***	0.923***
	Control requirements (CR)
	CR1: I have restricted command over my official data and information while conducting the ICT-enabled WFH process	0.952***	0.927***
	CR2: When conducting the ICT-enabled WFH process I get worried to
	think about losing my personal/official data and information by clicking the	0.937***	0.944***
	inappropriate link(s)
	Intended ICT-enabled virtualization of WFH process (WFHPV)
	WFHPV1: In future I expect to use the ICT for the WFH process	0.868***	0.864***
	WFHPV2: In future I intend to explore the ICT use for the WFH process	0.948***	0.950***
	WFHPV3: Given a choice I would like to use the ICT while conducting the WFH process	0.700***	0.690***
	WFHPV4: I will rate the ICT use for the WFH process as satisfactory	0.944***	0.946***

Table 3 .

 3 Outcomes of Cronbach's α, Composite Reliability and AVE (Study-1 and Study-2)

	Constructs	α	Study-1 CR	AVE	α	Study-2 CR	AVE
	SR	0.879	0.943	0.892	0.822	0.891	0.734
	RR	0.963	0.982	0.964	0.858	0.902	0.698
	SynR	0.896	0.925	0.759	0.952	0.976	0.953
	IR	0.926	0.947	0.816	0.806	0.911	0.837
	CR	0.967	0.979	0.938	0.858	0.933	0.875
	WFHPV	0.882	0.944	0.894	0.893	0.924	0.754
	CR=Control requirements; IR=Identification requirements; SynR=Synchronous requirements;
	RR=Relationship requirements; SenR=Sensory requirements; WFHPV=WFH process virtualization

Table 4 .

 4 Outcome of discriminant validity (Study-1 and Study-2)

Table 5 .

 5 Statistical analysis outcome (Study-1)

	Constructs	β coefficients	P-value	Result
	SR -> WFHPV	-0.460	<0.001	H1:Supported
	RR -> WFHPV	-0.097	<0.05	H2:Supported
	SynR -> WFHPV	-0.280	<0.05	H3:Supported
	IR ->WFHPV	0.586	<0.001	H4:Not supported
	CR -> WFHPV	0.522	<0.001	H5:Not supported

Table 6 .

 6 Statistical analysis outcome (Study-2)

	Constructs	β coefficients	P-value	Result
	SR -> WFHPV	0.328	<0.001	H1:Not supported
	RR -> WFHPV	0.891	<0.001	H2:Not supported
	SynR -> WFHPV	-0.695	<0.001	H3:Supported
	IR ->WFHPV	0.099	<0.01	H4:Not supported
	CR -> WFHPV	-0.168	<0.001	H5:Supported


Anubhav Mishra
email: anu.mishra@gmail.com

Anuja Shukla
email: anuja.gshukla@gmail.com

Psychological determinants of consumer's usage, satisfaction, and word-of-mouth recommendations toward smart voice assistants

Keywords: Smart voice assistant, psychological factors, word-ofmouth

AI-based voice assistant (VA) technologies are facing an unprecedented growth. VA are available as a standalone device like Amazon Echo dot or Google home and also as an extension such as Google maps and OK Google. Extant research has mostly focused on the device specific characteristics to explain the adoption of VA. In this research, we take a different approach and examine the psychological determinants of VA adoption. We look at how factors such as playfulness, escapism, anthropomorphism, and visual appeal of VA influence the attitudes (hedonic and utilitarian) of consumers. Moreover, we also examine the effects of psychological characteristics of VA on usage intentions and satisfaction, which lead to a favorable word-of-mouth (WOM) behavior that is critical for adoption of a technology. Using a structural equation modeling approach, our results suggest that psychological factors have a significant positive influence on both attitudes. Hedonic attitude further influences satisfaction and utilitarian attitude positively impacts usage and satisfaction, which have a positive association with WOM. Our research offers useful insights to marketers to increase the VA adoption and makes contributions to the literature.

Introduction

Rapid technological advancements have given rise to various innovative products which fulfils the need of the modern era consumer. Every decade sees a change in how humans interact with the technology. The journey has computers has followed evolution from desktop to world wide web, to mobile phones, to touch screen and now smart phones and smart devices to block chain technology (Hughes, Dwivedi, Misra, Rana, Raghavan, & Akella, 2019). The penetration level of these smart products differ according to the adoption and diffusion rate of these technologies in developing and developed economies across the globe. After the COVID-19 pandemic the dependence of human race on AI (Artificial Intelligence) based products and services have in-creased many fold due to social distancing norms, sanitization issues and growth in work from home culture. The role of AI has significantly increased in the field of management (Dwivedi, et al., 2019) and marketing in the recent times although it is widely used in other sciences for more than half a century [START_REF] Jarek | Marketing and artificial intelligence[END_REF]. The large amount of data present online through smart phone devices or big data systems makes AI an important part of marketing research conducted by various online shopping or service providers portal. According to Oxford Dictionary, AI is "the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages" ("Definition of artificial intelligence in English by Oxford Dictionaries", 2019). With the development in the field of artificial intelligence new technologies are being offered to the consumers in the form of voice, text and image recognition, autonomous vehicles and robots. The practical application of voice recognition is avail-able in smart phones (e.g. Google Assistant). The current research focuses on smart Voice-interaction technologies such as smart speakers like Google Home and Alexa. The word "Smart" refers to "self-monitoring analysis and reporting technology."

Extant research in technology adoption mostly focuses on the usefulness and ease of use factors that are specific to device characteristics [START_REF] Alalwan | Factors influencing adoption of mobile banking by Jordanian bank customers: Extending UTAUT2 with trust[END_REF]. In a recent research, Dwivedi et al. (2019) propose that attitudinal disposition toward technology is vital in influencing the behavioral tendencies to adopt technology. Psychological factors that appeal to hedonic experience (e.g., visual appeal or playfulness) significantly influence the adoption of emerging technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality ( [START_REF] Demirkan | Developing a framework to improve virtual shopping in digital malls with intelligent self-service systems[END_REF]. However, research on impact of such factors in context of smart voice assistant is in nascent stage (Hugehs et al., 2019). We try to address this research gap in present study. We look at the antecedents to the attitudes (hedonic and utilitarian) to examine the adoption and usage behavior. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of psychological factors such as anthropomorphism, playfulness, visual appeal, and escapism on usage and satisfaction with smart voice assistants. Furthermore, we also look at the word of mouth (WOM) recommendation, because a positive WOM increases the changes of technology diffusion (Dwivedi et al, 2019).

2

Literature Review

Smart consumers

Consumers are co creating and experiencing the latest smart technologies in services context like hospitality and tourism [START_REF] Neuhofer | Smart technologies for personalized experiences: a case study in the hospitality domain[END_REF] and retail [START_REF] Pantano | Entertainment in retailing: The influences of advanced technologies[END_REF]. The term 'Smart' represents the social, economic and technological advancements driven by rapid innovations in information and communication and connected technologies [START_REF] Demirkan | Developing a framework to improve virtual shopping in digital malls with intelligent self-service systems[END_REF]. Smart technology is defined as 'value-creating connected and synchronised smart objects or devices that interact with one another, sense the environment, and guide and control their functions autonomously' (Roy, Balaji, Sadeque, Nguyen, & Melewar, 2017). The active users who voluntarily extend efforts to directly help others in the smart service scape are referred to as 'smart consumers'. The extant literature have been developed to understand the variables of consumer experience co-creation. However, the literature is still at an initial stage in understanding the conceptual relationships of 'smart consumer' experience co-creation. Although there has been a lot of research concerning brand equity and customer experience (Kumar, Dash, & Malhotra, 2018), none has been able to connect it to the smart services context and specifically to smart consumers.

Smart technologies

Infusion

Smart Voice Assistant and psychological factors

Smart voice assistants play an important role in understanding consumer the consumer faces several trust issues in its adoption [START_REF] Foehr | Alexa, can I trust you? Exploring consumer paths to trust in smart voice-interaction technologies[END_REF]. Smart voice assistants work on the philosophy of capability, context, dependence, multidimensionality, separability, and applicability [START_REF] Alter | Making sense of smartness in the context of smart devices and smart systems[END_REF]. A voice assistant may be termed as smart voice assistant if it can: Capture information, Transmit information, Store information, Retrieve information, Manipulate information, Display information [START_REF] Alter | Making sense of smartness in the context of smart devices and smart systems[END_REF]. Chatbots provides engaging and interactive customer service (Chung, Ko, Joung, & Kim, 2018). Smart voice interaction technologies (SVIT) are also termed as voice user interfaces (Kendall, Chaudhuri, & Bhalla, 2020). Consumers use SVIT for three kinds of interaction: looking up, learning and leisure [START_REF] Kendall | Understanding Technology as Situated Practice: Everyday use of Voice User Interfaces Among Diverse Groups of Users in Urban India[END_REF].

Research has shown that today, consumers are not only willing to accept SVITs but also build various types of relationships with the devices. At the same time, prom-inent SVITs like smart speakers (e.g., Amazon Echo, Google Home) have sparked pri-vacy and data security concerns of consumers, suggesting that the adoption of such smart technologies require considerable levels of consumer trust. Although research shows a considerable understanding of factors influencing smart technology adoption and the relationship types that result from consumer-smart technology interaction, implications on how consumers initially develop and afterwards maintain trust in these smart technologies is scarce.

Despite the recent research interest in SVITs in the fields of human-computerinteraction, consumer behaviour, and marketing (e.g., Ehret and Wirtz 2017; Verhoef et al.

2017; De Keyser et al. 2018), the definition for smart technology with voice -interaction functions is not very clear. Researchers are having different opinions for it. From the literature three categories of definitions can be identified. First, there are definitions that conceptualize SVITs mainly with reference to their underlying software components or computational infrastructure, for example, natural language processing, artificial intelligence (AI), or cloud computing (e.g., Luger To respond to their users' vocal requests, SVITs are equipped with highly sensitive always-on microphones that scan their spatial environment for predefined activation terms (e.g., "Alexa", "Hey, Google"). This always-on feature of SVITs has raised serious privacy and data security concerns. It has thus been argued by researchers that SVITs constitute an element within a larger economic order of what has been termed "surveillance capitalism". Anthropomorphism is another psychological mechanism explaining the adoption and diffusion of smart speakers can be found in the voice based interaction mode between consumers and SVITs (Bort 2016). Consumers tend to anthropomorphize objects and products, meaning that they ascribe uniquely human like attributes, cognitive patterns, intentions, motivations, and emotions to non-human entities, such as technology. Consumers have been found to exhibit a tendency to anthropomorphize objects particularly if they are alone (i.e., if they desire social interaction) and have a need for affection toward their environment. With regard to SVITs, this latter motivation is of particular importance, it is closely connected with consumers' desire to explain, predict and eventually master a technology within its environment. This means that SVIT users who are not aware or bothered about the privacy concerns while interacting with them are more likely to anthropomorphize the technology.

In response to consumer tendencies to humanize SVITs, marketers of smart technologies implemented tactics in their persuasion repertoire that facilitate the anthropomorphism of products (Aggarwal & McGill 2011). Researchers argue that this is also the case for SVITs such as smart speakers. First, the voice-based mode of consumertechnology interaction facilitates consumer tendencies to anthropomorphize the technology, given that this mode of interaction is usually reserved for human-to-human exchange (Nass & Brave 2005). Second, the naming of the voice -interaction software with which users of smart speakers interact, often suggests human like associations, like "Alexa" or "Siri". While Amazon's software developers justify their choice of the term "Alexa" as a "wake word" (note the anthropomorphic suggestion implicitly included here) because of its rarity as a first name and its special combination of soft vowels and the letter x (Bort 2016), the fact that the software was given a female first name particularly activates anthropomorphism. These anthropomorphic associations are emphasized in advertising of the Alexa. In video commercials, the smart speakers are not marketed on the basis of their technical specifications. Instead, the idea of SVIT as a helpful humanoid is conveyed. "Alexa" is thus portrayed as more than essentially a collection of software codes, constituting a "happy helper" within the private parts of consumers' day-to-day lives (Phan 2018).

In

Conceptual Model

Recent research suggests that attitude is a critical antecedent to technology usage and adoption behavior (Dwivedi et al., 2019). In our research we include two aspects of attitudehedonic and utilitarian (Spangenberg, Eric, Voss, & Crowley, 1997) to examine the influence of both attitudes on usage and satisfaction with technology (see Figure 1). In this study, we explore the device characteristics and psychological benefits of using voice assisted devices that form the attitude which leads to usage and satisfaction with the technology (Alalwan, Dwivedi, & Rana, 2017). Moreover, word-of-mouth recommendations are vital for information diffusion and technology adoption (Mishra, Maheswarappa, Maity, & Samu, 2018). We also analyze the impact of usage behavior and satisfaction on WOM intentions that may help us to understand the further adoption of voice assistants.

Research Methodology

The questionnaire was designed using standard items from the past literature. The data was collected online. Two video that reflect the meaning of smart voice assistant were inserted in the google form. The data was analyzed using PLS SEM technique. A total of 120 valid responses have been used in the analysis (65% males, average age 25.5 years). We used income and employment status as control variables in this study.

Data Analysis

Measurement model

We tested for reliability and validity indices as recommended in extant research. All the outer loadings are above 0.8, AVE is above 0.5, and Composite reliability is more than 0.7 [START_REF] Hair | A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM)[END_REF]. All VIF values are less than 5, and HTMT values (discriminant validity) are less than 0.9 [START_REF] Hair | A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM)[END_REF]. Thus, we conclude that the measurement model is valid and reliable.

Structural Model

The structural model was evaluated using bias corrected bootstrapping resampling procedure at 5000 sub samples. The results are given in Table 1. First hypothesis had three sub parts. Impact of visual appeal on hedonic attitude (H1a, β =0.01, p= 0.97) was found to be insignificant where as other two hypotheses (H1b, H1c) which suggested impact of visual appeal on Usage (β =0.18, p= 0.08) and satisfaction (β = 0.3, p= 0.02) were found to be significant. Escapism significantly impacted hedonic attitude (H2a, β =0.18, p=0.03) and satisfaction (H2b, β =0.22, p=0.02) but had no impact on usage (β =0.1, p= 0.16). Hedonic and utilitarian attitude was significantly impacted by Anthromorphism (H3a, β = 0.29, p= 0.049; H4a, β = 0.37, p= 0.003) and playfulness (H3b, β = 0.37, p= 0.003, H4c, β = 0.53, p<.001). Impact of Anthromorphism was not significant on usage (H3c, β = -0.07, p= 0.57) but impact of playfulness was found to be significant on usage (H4c, β = 0.53, p<.001). H3d and H5awere insignificant whereas H4b, H4d, H5b, H6a, H6b, H7 and H8 were supported (see Table 1).

6

Discussion and Implications number of individuals who have tried voice assistants on smart phones is 146.6 million compared to more than 50 million for smart speakers (Voice assistant consumer adoption report, 2018). Consumers view voice assistants on smart phones as utilities first, for example, the convenience of voice interactions for searching or asking for directions has replaced the touch interaction with the smart phones.

The findings suggest that psychological acceptance and gratifications derived from SVITs are critical antecedents to the hedonic and utilitarian attitude toward technology usage. Users find SVITs playful, they enjoy the experience, and use SVIT as an escape mechanism. Users perceive these devices having certain element of human and interact accordingly. The results reveal that hedonic attitude may not lead to usage but influence satisfaction, whereas utilitarian attitude lead to usage and satisfaction. Users are more likely to recommend SVIT when they are satisfied with the device.

Our study reaffirms the findings of Dwivedi et al. (2019) about the importance of attitude in technology usage behavior. The novel contribution of this study is to cement the role of psychological aspects in technology usage. We integrate elements from sociology and psychology research to arrive at antecedents to attitudinal parameters. The design and human like appeal of SVIT can improve the chances of adoption. Hence, we suggest marketers to stress these two aspects in their communication to users for increasing the usage and satisfaction. Voice assistants provide elements of playfulness and a new fantasy world where users talk to them as humans. We believe that firms should try to make the interactions with SVIT more human like to make consumers engages and satisfied.

Limitations

Out study has certain limitations. We accept that the sample size is low, but since the data collection is still in process, we are hopeful to have a relatively larger sample size in few weeks that should add to robustness and generalizability of results. We did not specifically looked at the language aspect of voice assistants. In India, users use a variety of languages, which SVIT may not be able to interpret at times leading to dissatisfaction. Further research can examine the role of interactions using multiple languages. Another interesting extension could be the impact of gender of voice assistant and how it affects the users' attitudes and behavior.

  of smartness into different contexts has been a recent trend, with some prominent examples including smart tourism (Neuhofer, Buhalis, & Ladkin,, 2015), smart retailing (Roy et al., 2017), smart cities (Letaifa, 2015). The extant marketing literature defines the smart technology environment as the platform where several smart devices are consistently working for consumers to live with greater comfort (Cook & Das, 2004). But in fact at the heart of the smart environment is not the devices, but the users, referred to as smart consumers (Cook, Augusto, & Jakkula, 2009; Mavrommati & Dar-zentas, 2006). Chen et al. (2018) define smart consumers as those consumers who voluntarily engage and are competent to participate in experience sharing. User experience sharing behaviour may be defined as 'customers initiation effort made for the direct benefit of others in their service network' (Chen et al., 2018).

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Conceptual Model We propose the following hypotheses based on the conceptual model-H1: Visual appeal is positively related with (a) Hedonic Attitude, (b) Usage, and (c) Satisfaction. H2: Escapism is positively related with (a) Hedonic Attitude, (b) Usage, and (c) Satisfaction

  and Sellen 2016; Cho 2018; De Keyser et al. 2018; Lopatovska and Williams 2018; Myers et al. 2018). Second, researchers conceptualize SVITs by discovering their possible range of abilities (e.g., online shopping or controlling other smart devices; Cowan et al. 2017; Li and Lee 2017; Manikonda, Deotale, and Kambhampati 2017; Porcheron et al. 2017; Chen and Wang 2018; Knote et al. 2018; Santos et al. 2018). Third, another category of definitions conceptualizes SVITs by relating the concept with consumer technologies available in the market, such as Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri (Moorthy and Vu 2014; Kiseleva et al. 2016; Vyturina et al. 2017; Lopatovska et al. 2018).

  humanizing technology, consumers not only consider anthropomorphic cues but regard technologies as social actors with which they form interpersonal relationships. Consumer culture theory has recently shown increased interest in the characteristics and dynamics of these interpersonal consumer-smart technology relationships Although Schweitzer et al.'s work (2019) provides a good overview of the different types of relationships between consumers and SVIT, it disregards contextual influences on consumer-smart technology relationships (as proposed in Verhoef et al. 2017 and Woodall et al. 2018) and does not explain how trust in smart technologies and relation-ships may codevelop.

Prior research suggests that smart voice interaction technology (SVIT) is more used by the smart phone users in comparison to smart speaker users[START_REF] Foehr | Alexa, can I trust you? Exploring consumer paths to trust in smart voice-interaction technologies[END_REF]. The