Title: Adoption of online pharmacies in India: an empirical study

Authors: Brinda Sampat; Kali Charan Sabat

Addresses: NMIMS – Global Access School for Continuing Education (NGA-SCE), NMIMS University, Mumbai, India ' GD Goenka University, Gurugram, India

Abstract: Online pharmacies are the websites and mobile phone applications that are engaged in the online sale of healthcare products and services. The purpose of this research is to examine the adoption of online pharmacies in India. To achieve this, a conceptual model was developed by extending the technology acceptance model (TAM) to include trust and perceived risk. The conceptual model was empirically tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). Results revealed trust and perceived usefulness as the two key factors that influence consumers' attitude and behavioural intention towards the adoption of online pharmacy in India. The results also indicated that perceived risk was significantly associated with a user's attitude and behavioural intention in negative relation, which indicates that risk concerns deter customers from purchasing healthcare products and services from online pharmacies. Understanding the factors that affect usage behaviour, online pharmacists can develop suitable business strategies to ensure that an increased number of people use this new service innovation.

Keywords: online pharmacy; e-pharmacies; technology acceptance model; TAM; adoption; innovation; perceived ease of use; PEOU; perceived usefulness; trust; risk; attitude; behavioural intention; India; consumers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2022.127613

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2022 Vol.29 No.4, pp.449 - 478

Received: 04 Jul 2019
Accepted: 28 Sep 2020
Published online: 13 Dec 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article