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Technology Adoption in the Digital Entertainment Industry during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Extended UTAUT2 Model for Online Theater Streaming

While the digitalization of products and services in the entertainment industry has gained momentum in the last decades, online theater streaming is a relatively new phenomenon boosted by the COVID-19 restrictions, which created new market opportunities—and demand—for theaters’ online presence. This study investigates a new online platform providing theater streaming services in Hungary from a customer-centric, technology acceptance point of view. The survey-based study is designed to examine which factors of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) model are—and were—relevant in the under-researched live performance art sector of the digital entertainment industry under the unprecedented, coercive conditions of pandemic lockdowns. The results of the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) show that habit is the most influential factor of theater webcasting adoption (before hedonic motivations and price value), suggesting that the new habits formed during the COVID-19 lockdowns might serve as a basis of a sustainable digital business model for theatres in the post-pandemic era as well. The analysis also tested for potential generational differences between cohorts of users, finding no significant ones, which suggests that, under this specific set of social, technology and market conditions, all generations react similarly and are equally relevant for widening the customer base. Keeping in mind some limitations (self-reported and cross-sectional data), these empirical results can not only enrich the scientific body of knowledge but can also serve as the basis of future marketing and communication strategies developed by partitioners.