The intention to use drone technology in Thailand's construction industry.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Drones are widely perceived as gadgets of leisure that are utilized for aerial photography with photos and video from a top view. In fact, drones are used in various types of industry and business. It can be used in the construction industry for moving and assembling the building materials. However, in the construction industry in Thailand, drones may be used only for monitoring the progress of the construction works. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the users’ perceptions on the effect of drone technologies in business performance focusing on the business core functions. This research also examines the acceptance of drone technology in part of the Heavy-Duty Lifting Process from the users with limited or no experience with the use of drone technology within Thailand’s construction industry. The study employed the structural equation modeling (SEM) as a theoretical framework to guide the study. The framework of this study is relevant to the seven factors which are self-efficacy, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use and relative advantage, compatibility, and attitude toward using and behavioral intention to use. Two hundred and fifty samples participated in this survey study by answering the online questionnaires about their attitudes toward the use of drone technology in the construction industry. The numerical data was used to identify the factors which impact the technology acceptance for the adoption of drone technology in the construction industry. Data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS for Windows. The results suggested that the relative advantage of drone technology to the users’ work was found to be the strongest determinant of intention to adopt the technology. The ease of use was found to be the strongest predictor of the perceived usefulness followed by the relative advantages of the target technology.