Relocation Intention of Elderly to a Smart Retirement Village: Integration of TPB and TAM

This paper aims to propose a conceptual framework to examine the relocation intention of the elderly to a Smart Retirement Village (SRV) in Malaysia based on the Theory of Planned behaviour and Technology Acceptance Model. Smart retirement Village is the extension from the existing Retirement Village, which includes smart home technologies to better assist the daily activities of the elderly. Issues of population ageing, need for adequate housing, retirement villages built globally and locally and reasons to relocate to a retirement village are justified. Past studies have attempted to use the Theory of Planned Behaviour to study the intention to buy or relocate to a Retirement Village. However, the smart home technology aspect is often neglected and the target samples are not elderly. Even though retirement village is in infancy stage in Malaysia; however, it can serve as a promising Long-Term Care (LTC) for the elderly to spend their golden age in a safer and better environment while providing independence for them. The outcome of this study will be useful for the public and private sectors which providing services for the elderly, in housing sector and smart home technology sector. Demographic ageing or population ageing is a type of demographic event where there is growth in the number and proportion of older people in their population. It is one of the most crucial demographic events occurred in the 21st century. Currently, the health care system in Malaysia is focused on short-term care and hospitalization. Therefore, there is a crucial call to increase the facilities and infrastructure to address the needs of the elderly in Malaysia, especially in Long-Term Care provision. A smart retirement village can generally be defined as a community for the elderly that provides a variety of accommodation, service, and facility to meet their unique requirements, with the inclusion of the smart home technologies. Currently, there are four retirement villages built in Malaysia. Purpose – The purpose of the research is to test the applicability of both theories, the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Technology Acceptance Model in the context of smart retirement village. Due to the scarcity of research regarding SRV in Malaysia, factors influencing the relocation intention of older people to a SRV are still under explored in Malaysia