“Motivations and barriers to embracing augmented reality: An exploratory study with Vietnamese retailers”

The most crucial key to successfully approaching customers is enhancing the interac- tion experience between customers and retailers. This study explores the motivations for adopting augmented reality (AR) in retailing small and medium-sized retailers in Vietnam. A structured questionnaire was delivered to a total sample of 302 Vietnamese retailers and got 215 clean and valid responses. The survey was conducted both on- line and offline for ten months, from February 2021 to December 2021. The chosen surveyors are retailing managers and owners of retailing firms. These firms sell fash- ion products, technology gadgets, and household products. The data were statistically analyzed using Smart PLS software and the partial least equation structural model. The findings indicate three direct, positive, and significant factors that influence the retailer’s AR adoption, including (1) organizational attitude toward AR, (2) organiza- tional innovativeness, and (3) competition pressure in which organizational attitude toward AR and organization innovativeness are two critical motivational drivers. The competition pressure has been identified as the challenge barrier. The cost barriers af-fect organizational attitude toward AR but do not significantly influence AR adoption. Along with theoretical contributions, this paper also gave some theoretical and practical implications for retailers who have the intention to adopt AR and integrate AR into their current retailing system.


INTRODUCTION
Augmented reality (AR) is a cutting-edge technology that combines virtual content with the real-world environment of a customer (Hinsch et al., 2020). First time introduced in the 1950s in the cinema industry , then adopted in airlines and military in the 1970s (Kumar, 2021), but when smartphones, mobile users, and e-commerce boomed in some recent years, augmented reality (AR) have been popularly used in marketing and retailing industry. As the symbols of experiential marketing, benefits of in-store environment enhancement (Bonetti et al., 2018), and customers' shopping experience optimization (Pantano, 2015), AR and VR (Virtual reality) have drawn the attention of both academics and practitioners. By integrated AR applications in retail, enterprises provide an experiential-centric platform for customers (Porter & Hepplemann, 2017) in which customers have opportunities to "try on" products from a distance. As a result, the AR application is one of the most promising (Kumar, 2021) and practical tools for digital marketing and sales (Chylinski et al., 2020) because AR supports the functions of mutual interaction among customers and brands. For example, in the AR application of Maybelline on Shopee and Lazada, customers may try various color swatches on their lips. Then they may be aware of which lipstick swatches fit with their own before making any further behavioral intentions without any physical interaction at the brick-and-mortar store. This function is one of the absolute benefits of AR applications (Fan et al., 2020) that fulfill the traditional online business's limitations and experiential challenges. According to Chylinski et al. (2020), by integrating realistic virtual technologies, AR applications assist digital affordances that enhance customer experience and urge customers to respond to brands' products/services. Also stated by Hilken et al. (2017), the virtually -enhanced marketing environment -creates the virtual marketing context for the customer that triggers the "situated -cognition" in which customers easily interact with the brand and their products and gain the actual try-on experience as the typically physical environment.
As being used in the retailing sector, AR and VR have equipped a solid weapon for retailers in competition and brought customers a better experience, especially with purely E-business enterprises. The traditional brick-and-mortar retailers surpass the online ones in terms of hands-on experience. In contrast, the E-retailers have the advantage of approaching a more significant number of customers. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses; hence, by adopting AR and VR technologies and integrating them into the current retailing system, retailers may exploit the advantages of each model to overcome their current challenges. Although recognizing the benefits of AR in optimizing the customer experience and smoothing customer journey, however, the decision to adopt AR technology requires numerous conditions, including financial and technological investment (Fan et al., 2020), peer pressures from competitors, and customer preferences (Nikhashemi et al., 2021).
Moreover, until now, AR and VR have still been considered innovations that only innovators who love to experience new technologies may try and consume. Therefore, understanding the troublesome stimuli of retailers is crucial in both practical and academic fields. Most research focuses on customers' adoption and opinions, whereas the research with retailers is quite limited. Moreover, research in this field mainly highlighted the technological aspects (Fan et al., 2020) rather than actual usage and innovation adoption.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought numerous landmark changes to the whole society, creating "golden" opportunities for the E-commerce and E-business sectors. It cannot be denied that online business has developed so fast and step by step, replacing the role of traditional physical stores in the retailing system. However, the coronavirus and social distancing have pushed the integration of technology innovation into business and administration to a higher level (Nguyen & Tran, 2022). However, being dominated by the retailing system, lacking sensory experience has put barriers and challenges to developing online business activities (Heller et al., 2019). So then, marketing researchers and practitioners have tried integrating AR and VR technologies into retailing and marketing to enhance the sensory experience to customers by allowing them to have feelings of touch, which is missed in regular online business stores.
The core concept of augmented reality (AR) is augmenting and digitalizing the product's design, information, and functions in the real world (Do et al., 2020). AR is specifically defined by Carmigniani and Furht (2011) as "a real-time direct or indirect view of a physical environment that has been augmented by adding virtual computer-generated information". As Caboni and Hagberg (2019) discussed, AR has three distinct elements: augmented content, augmented real environment, and augmented experience. Augmented content is defined as digitalizing the contents, including photos, product design, video clips, and other types of information, by re-producing in 2.5D or 3D. The augmented real environment brings AR users to the context where they may have perceptions and feelings as real. Finally, augmented experience enables users to interact with AR content provided by brands in real-time, affecting their sensory experience.
In retailing, AR has been applied by retailers worldwide, especially in dynamic business re- Although widely used in other markets, the adoption of AR in the Vietnamese retail sector has still been limited. Both retailers and consumers are eager to these innovative applications due to their advances and benefits to customer experience. However, more stimuli and supported conditions are required to reach further development levels. This study combined three different theoretical models, including the technology acceptance model (TAM), the stimuli-organism-response (SOR) model, and the Technology-Organization-Environment model (TOE), to explore the stimuli and barriers to AR adoption in retail enterprises. The TAM model has been widely used in research technology adoption studies.
In contrast, the SOR has been used to determine the influenced factors, attitudes, and opinions, then the behavioral reaction of the customer under the effects of stimuli. The TOE model approaches technology adoption from the other side with TAM. The decision to adopt any technology innovation relies much on technical aspects, but it also mainly depends on organizational and environmental context (  H2: Perceived ease of use significantly affects organization's attitude toward AR.
H3: The organization's attitude toward AR significantly affects AR adoption of retailers.
H4: The cost barrier significantly affects organization's attitude toward AR.
H5: The cost barrier significantly affects AR adoption of retailers.
H7: Organization innovativeness significantly affects AR adoption of retailers.
H8: Competition pressure significantly affects AR adoption of retailers.

METHODS
This study is conducted to determine the motivations and challenges of augmented reality (AR) in the retailing sector, where the SME was the focus. A five-phase procedure was adopted to execute the statistical analysis, including: (1) reviewing the literature and developing a research model, hypotheses, (2) pre-testing measurement constructs and items , then developing the final questionnaire, (3) preliminary testing both online and offline, (4) collecting the responded data and taking analysis with SPSS and Smart PLS software, (5) writing the manuscript.
Initially, the structured questionnaire consisted of 6 measures and 28 items. Previous research and scales were adopted to construct the measures and items for this study. However, statements were adjusted and modified for a better fit to the context and culture of local business, then translated into Vietnamese. The scale for perceived usefulness and ease of use was adopted from Cabero-Almenara et al.

RESULTS
The partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM) and Smart PLS statistical software were employed to develop the theoretical model and interpret the variables. Hair et al. (2019) recommended a two-step process for PLS-SEM analysis, which includes evaluating the measurement and structural models.  (Table 1).  2015) recommended the HTMT because of its superior reliability. To meet discriminant validity between two reflective conceptions, the HTMT value must be smaller than 0.90. All the results in Table 2 -HTMT are less than 0.90. As a result, the measurement model had sufficient convergent and discriminant validity.

Structural model assessment
The structural model was evaluated using a 5000-subsample bootstrapping approach. Hair et al. (2016) proposed utilizing the SRMR value to evaluate the structural model's quality; the SRMR value should be less than 0.10. The SRMR score of 0.057 -less than 0.10 -in the model fit summary indicates a strong model fit for theory testing ( Table 3). The percentage of variance in the dependent variables explained by the independent variables in the model is represented by R2, which is the primary technique to quantify the model's prediction accuracy. The R2 values of ARA = 0.501 and ATT = 0.475 all surpassed the substantial level of R2 > 0.26, as reported in Table 3 and compared to Cohen (2013 Table 3 all exceeded "0," demonstrating that AR adoption and organizational attitude toward AR are both predictively relevant. The path coefficients (values) show the degree of change in the dependent variable for each independent variable, according to Gronemus et al. (2010). Table 4 shows that all presented hypotheses have a positive and significant link because the values of all pathways are greater than 0. Because all p values were less than 0.05, the route coefficients for seven of the eight associations were statistically significant (Table 4). H5 was rejected because the p-value was greater than 0.05. All the other hypotheses are correct. Cost constraints are one of four discovered variables of organizational attitude toward AR that has a negative impact, while others have a positive impact. Organizational attitude toward AR, organization innovativeness, and competition pressure are all elements that influence AR adoption.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
In recent years, along with the fast digitalization movement, retailers in specific must challenge with technology updates by which new and advanced technology must be considered and researched to integrate into the current system. These activities may enhance the customer experience and optimize responses along the customers' shopping journey. By equipping the ability to interact and experience product information and functions in real-time and with the most realistic Theoretically, this paper contributed to the existing literature on experiential marketing by exploring determinants that influence the intention to adopt AR. The organizational attitude toward AR has been determined as the mediating factor in the re- Practically, from the exploratory research, this paper has some recommendations and implications for remailers if they have the intention to adopt and integrate AR into their current system.
First, having a positive attitude toward AR must be one of the necessary conditions for the faster and easier adoption of AR. AR and other technological advances require a lot of effort and resources to understand and adopt fully. Hence, the positive perspective toward AR may be considered the first cornerstone in digitalizing the retailing system and augmenting all contents.  Second, retailers must innovate their current system and make it more innovative for customers.
Omnichannel is an example of combining different and separated channels into one integrated system. Customers will have a similar experience with enterprise in all channels and touchpoints regardless of the physical or online environment. Innovativeness and digitalization have brought fair competition for small enterprises compared to the giant players.
Third, although the cost has been identified as not directly impacting AR adoption, it still signifi-cantly influences attitude toward AR. Hence, researching and choosing an appropriate scale may enhance the positive attitude rather than doing nothing and keep an out-of-date opinion that AR and VR are technologies and applications reserved for giant enterprises.
Fourth, cooperating with AR allowed companies to determine the most effective roadmap for AR integration into the current system. This action will help retailers increase competitive advantages and avoid peer pressure from competitors with a clear and systematic development plan to adopt AR.

CONCLUSION AND LIMITATIONS
This study explored key motivators and barriers to AR adoption in retailing sectors. Quantitative research methods with PLS-SEM analysis techniques were used to analyze proposed hypotheses. The findings show that organizational attitude toward AR plays the role of mediating factors among relationships in the proposed model. Although not directly impacting AR adoption, cost barriers have an indirect impact on organizational attitude toward AR. The organizational attitude toward AR was affected by four major factors, while three factors determined the AR adoption.
Although contributing to both literature and practice, several limitations could be fixed and overcome in future research. First, the quantitative research method only helps determine the relationship, but it could not provide further explanation for retailers' insights. In the subsequent studies, a qualitative research method should be used to explore the hidden aspects of each identified factor. Second, the number of research participants is small compared to millions of retailers on the market. Third, the reason and challenges for why retailers do not have the intention to adopt AR also need to be examined.