CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISSCUSSION
4.8 Discussion of Results
4.8.3 Comparative Analysis of Pharmacy-UTAUT's Explanatory Power . 101
variance explanation of final Pharmacy-UTAUT to behavioral intention is as high as 75%
after comparison, which is superior to original TAM and UTAUT and applicable for the new model explaining the intention of IT use in Chinese retail pharmacy. This study indicated that the following two reasons dominated:
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1. Compared with the TAM, the final Pharmacy-UTAUT adds social influence.
The testing results of theoretical hypothesis show that social influence is the core influencing factor to the intention of IT use in Chinese retail pharmacy. In addition, for Chinese retail pharmacies, social influence can be further subdivided into industry support and government policy based on the results of both reliability and validity tests.
Therefore, this study adopts this correction—the informational connotation to further expand social influence.
2. Compared with the UTAUT model, the final Pharmacy-UTAUT is re-introduced with attitude. According to the testing results of theoretical hypothesis, attitude is the core influencing factor to the intention of IT use in Chinese retail pharmacy, and ranks first in terms of the overall effect among the four core influencing factors. There is no doubt that attitude is the most important explanatory factor to the intention of IT use in Chinese retail pharmacy.
4.8.4 Practical Significance and Management Recommendations
The results of empirical research herein have practical and guiding significance for improving the intention of IT use in Chinese retail pharmacy and furthering the informatization construction of retail pharmacies in China to some extent, which is mainly reflected in the following three aspects:
1. The determination of the significant influencing factors of the intention to use IT in retail pharmacies will help retail pharmacy managers, IT enterprises and governments to take the initiative to further IT usage strategies of retail pharmacy.
This study found that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence (industry support and government policy), and attitude, are the significant factors affecting the intention of Chinese retail pharmacies to use IT. All of them influence behavioral intention in a direct or in direct form, or in both direct or indirect form.
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With respect to the significant impact of the extent individuals perceived which IT improves work output (performance expectancy), retail pharmacy managers should pay attention to IT training for their employees so that the employees would understand the benefits of IT to their work. IT companies should integrate their IT with the working procedures of retail pharmacies, in an attempt to satisfy the actual work demand of retail pharmacies. Besides, local governments should strengthen IT promotion and propaganda, so that retail pharmacies can further understand the potential long-term benefits of using IT for enterprise development.
With respect to the significant impact of the extent individuals perceived which IT can be easily used (effort expectancy), retail pharmacy managers should select retail pharmacy IT that is consistent with enterprise IT learning ability and use ability from the perspective of enterprise resources. Under the premise that system safety and stability are guaranteed, IT enterprises should simplify IT operation processes and reduce operations. Meanwhile, it is required to improve IT adaptability to different preferred retail pharmacies through intelligent design. What is more, local government should, before licensing franchise to retail pharmacies, (1) organize retail pharmacies to conduct training on the use of basic IT, (2) pay attention to specific requirements of informational GSP supervision and management, and (3) reduce IT entry barriers for retail pharmacies.
With respect to the significant impact of the degree of IT enjoyment and pleasure (attitude), retail pharmacy managers should pay attention to cultivating a cultural and management environment for a positive attitude forward corporate IT use and enhancing the sense of identity and responsibility for IT use. IT enterprises should make their IT more user-friendly and interesting in terms of interaction with users.
Local governments should emphasize on informational GSP supervision and management and strengthen the propaganda of support policies to provide a fair and orderly development environment for IT use in retail pharmacies.
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With respect to the significant impact of the extent to which an individual perceives that an important person around him or her believes that he or she should use the IT system, retail pharmacy managers should strengthen their attention to industry trends related to the use of information technology and government policies so that enterprises will be in an active position in IT competition. IT enterprises should build an industrial IT platform to allow retail pharmacies to interact through problem communication and evaluation and feedback. Local governments should enact relevant support policies to facilitate IT use in retail pharmacies in terms of finance, taxation and credit, etc.
Given that the influencing factors are of causal association, the three parties to the IT construction of chain pharmacies should enhance mutual communications and utilize their advantages to construct a systematic and scientific pharmacy IT use ecosphere. Finally, the impact of various factors on the intention of IT adoption will be enhanced maximally.
2. The effect of the significant influencing factors of the intention to use IT in retail pharmacies not only helps the government, IT enterprises and retail pharmacy managers selectively balance existing resources, but also enhance the total benefits of promotion strategy.
This study found that the five influencing factors were divided into attitude, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, industry support, and government policies according to their overall effect on behavioral intention. In practice, the three parties to the IT construction of chain pharmacies should pay attention to the significant impact of (a) attitude, (b) performance expectancy and effort expectancy, and (c) industry support and government policy.
3. The identification of significant moderators for IT use in Chinese retail pharmacies helps governments, IT enterprises, and retail pharmacy managers to selectively adopt strategies based on different characteristics of retail pharmacies.
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Having a moderation effect on part of theoretical paths, gender, age, pharmacy type, and pharmacy professional level are significant moderators to the intention of IT use in Chinese retail pharmacies. The impact of perception of the extent to which IT improves work output (performance expectancy) to the extent to which IT use makes the respondents feel enjoyment and pleasure (attitude) was significantly enhanced in the older group, individually operated pharmacies and the group with lower pharmacy professional level. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the use of promotion strategies of performance expectancy when demand promotion influences attitude in the retail pharmacies with the characteristics above. So, it is also required to pay attention to the use of promotion strategies of effort expectation when demand promotion influences attitude in the individually operated retail pharmacy and those with low pharmacy professional level. Among the retail pharmacies which are dominated by female workers, more attention should be paid to the use of promotion strategies of effort expectancy when demand promotion influences attitude.