Two-Stage Structural Equation Modeling-Artificial Neural Network on Veterinary Telemedicine

With the advanced technological progression, pet health issues have the opportunity to be addressed through telemedicine. The objective of this research is to investigate the elements that influence pet owners’ behavioral intention to use veterinary telemedicine services. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) was used as the evaluation model. The model was analyzed by the combination of partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and multilayer perceptron artificial neural network (ANN). The data analyzed were extracted from 242 pet owners. The result reveals the acceptance of the proposed hypotheses and FC as the biggest influence (β =0.309). The ANN confirms the existence of facilitating condition as the strongest predictor to behavior intention (NI=1). Several recommendations were provided such as regular user trials, a 24-hour online consulting service, the addition of home care services, provide health promotions to veterinary telemedicine service users, adapt user needs to veterinary telemedicine services, evaluate technology and service providers, expand access to veterinary care, provide outreach for prospective users of veterinary telemedicine services so that these users do not have difficulty implementing the available services, and improve relationships and engagement between veterinarians and pet owners to access veterinary. The theoretical and practical implications were also discussed.