The Relationship between Practitioners’ Trust in the City and Their Adoption of the Virtual Convention Platform—A Case Study of Virtual SEOUL 2.0

Abstract

Many conferences, exhibitions, and trade shows planned in the early days of COVID-19 were canceled or postponed, and only some events were able to convert quickly to virtual events by using existing virtual conference and exhibition platforms. This study examined whether the virtual convention platform, combined with advanced technologies, can enhance the trust in Seoul city and further influence the attitude and intention to use Virtual SEOUL 2.0. Furthermore, this study applies the Extended Technology Acceptance Model (ETAM) framework to identify external variables that affect perceived usefulness and ease of use and describes how practitioners embrace the new convention technology of Virtual SEOUL 2.0. The 300 usable survey data were collected and used to identify the proposed hypothesized relationship of seven latent constructs. The hypothesized relationships were tested by structural equation modeling (SEM). The analytic results confirmed the proposed hypothesized relationship among these seven constructs (Personal innovativeness, Perceived ease of use, Perceived usefulness, Perceived trust of Seoul, Perceived enjoyment, Attitude toward using Virtual SEOUL 2.0, and Intention to use Virtual SEOUL 2.0). More interestingly, the study’s findings provide that perceived trust in a smart city is an essential factor that directly or indirectly enhances users’ intention to use technology.