Last-Mile Delivery Drone Acceptance: Increased knowledge does not imply increased acceptance

Driven by emerging technologies and increasing clarity in regulations, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or ‘drones’, are expected to take on a major role in smart cities of the future. Their applications are ever-growing and vary from agriculture to surveillance to logistics. However, studies that document public acceptance towards drone use in the last-mile parcel delivery sector are still in their infancy, more less so such that also point to effective methods on how to influence and subsequently raise it. This paper’s contribution consists of first constructing a conceptual model to measure technology acceptance of delivery drones, and then assessing it by applying it in one specific scenario: providing people with first-hand Drone Simulator experience as means to increase this delivery drone acceptance, wherein the novelty of this study lies.