This study examines how smart-retail technologies shape shopping experience and loyalty in the do-it-yourself (DIY) sector, focusing on the mediating roles of empowerment, trust and flow across cultural contexts.
A multi-method, three-study design was employed. Study 1 used a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) survey of 309 Chinese DIY customers, Study 2 replicated the survey with 273 Australian consumers and conducted multi-group analysis and Study 3 implemented a 2 × 2 experimental vignette to test empowerment and trust cues across both countries.
Results extend the technology acceptance model (TAM) by indicating that empowerment, trust and flow mediate the pathway from adoption perceptions to satisfaction and loyalty. Empowerment was found to be culturally contingent: attenuated in China and prone to decision fatigue in Australia. Trust appeared to substitute for empowerment in collectivist contexts, while flow emerged as a culturally stable mechanism. These counterintuitive findings suggest boundary conditions for empowerment theory; as evidence from a single study, they warrant replication before firm generalisation.
By integrating psychological mediators and cross-cultural comparisons, this study advances understanding of how smart technologies influence experiential and relational outcomes. It refines TAM, challenges assumptions of empowerment's universal benefits and provides actionable guidance for retailers designing culturally calibrated technologies.
