Connecto ergo sum! an exploratory study of the motivations behind the usage of connected objects

Identifying the Key Drivers and Barriers of Smart Home Adoption: A Thematic Analysis from the Business Perspective

Smart homes embrace advanced technologies and the connectedness of devices that aim to increase consumers’ life quality. They are based on data integration over shared platforms collected via sensors and wireless networks. However, although consumers’ current and potential adoption of smart homes have received some research interest, there is a low number of studies considering the foreseeable future of smart homes from the business perspective. To fulfill this gap in the literature, this study presents the results of an exploratory research attempting to reveal the foresight of the business side regarding the penetration of smart home technologies (SHTs) into consumers’ lives. Based on the opinions of industry experts collected through 13 semistructured in-depth interviews, numerous drivers of and barriers to SHT adoption are uncovered and displayed in their intertwined relationship in a thematic map. In creating this map, the qualitative data gathered through the interviews are integrated with widely used theories/models of technology adoption in the literature to develop a full-fledged set of determinants. As a result, drivers of SHT adoption (five sub-themes) and barriers that hinder smart home penetration (eight subthemes) were determined. Drivers consist of relative advantage, enjoyment, image enhancement, modern and multifunctional design, and consumers’ technology innovativeness. In contrast, the main barriers are high cost, complexity, lack of compatibility, lack of trialability, lack of observability, lack of a trusted brand in the market, lack of facilitating conditions and support services, and consumers’ technology anxiety. This rich set of SHT adoption determinants can be used in future studies to examine their relative impact on consumers’ adoption of SHT.

The smarter, the better?! Customer well-being, engagement, and perceptions in smart service systems

Smart service systems – that is, configurations of smart products and service providers that deliver smart services – are striving to increase the smartness of their offering, but potential consequences for customer well-being are largely overlooked. Therefore, this research investigates the impact of smartness on customer well-being (here, self-efficacy and technology anxiety) through (1) customer engagement with different smart service system actors (here, smart products and service providers) and (2) customer perceptions (here, personalization and intrusiveness perceptions) and their associated importance (here, need for personalization and intrusiveness sensitivity). A scenario-based experiment (n  = 730) – which is preceded by a systematic review to conceptualize smartness – shows that customers perceive more personalization than intrusiveness in case of higher levels of smartness, resulting in customer engagement with the smart product and to some extent with the service provider. Via customer engagement with the smart product, higher levels of smartness stimulate self-efficacy, especially for customers with a high need for personalization. When customers' need for personalization is high and their intrusiveness sensitivity is low, higher levels of smartness also reduce technology anxiety via customer engagement with the smart product. Hence, the conclusion is: “The smarter, the better!”, whereby the relationship between smartness and well-being (here, self-efficacy and technological anxiety) is significantly influenced by customer heterogeneity. These findings help business practitioners in boosting customer well-being by increasing customer engagement through higher levels of smartness of their service system.

•Higher levels of smartness improve customer well-being through customer engagement. •Customers perceive more personalization than intrusiveness when smartness increases. •Personalization and intrusiveness affect engagement with smart service system actors. •Customer engagement with smart products boosts customer well-being. •Smartness–well-being relationship is subject to customer heterogeneity.

Factors influencing internet usage for health purposes

Purpose

The objective of this paper is to analyse the simultaneous effect of intention, attitude, knowledge, injunctive norm, descriptive norm, facility access, perceived Internet health information, hedonic motivation, utilitarian motivation, and perceived threat of non-communicable diseases (NCD) on Internet usage for health purposes.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical data were collected through a survey. The respondents of the survey are 369 Jakarta residents. Multiple regression analysis was conducted.

Findings

Internet usage for health purposes is significantly affected by intention, knowledge, descriptive norm, and the perceived threat of NCD. Internet usage for health purposes is not influenced by attitude, facility access, perceived Internet health information, hedonic and utilitarian motivation.

Research limitations/implications

This research was conducted only in Jakarta. It also employed a purposive sampling technique. Future research should be conducted in other locations and used a probability sampling technique.

Practical implications

To improve the level of Internet usage for health purposes, it is essential to increase the public’s intention to use the Internet for health purposes, their knowledge on Internet usage for health purposes, and their awareness of the dangers of NCD. It is also important to persuade the community influential leaders/persons to use the Internet for health purposes.

Originality/value

This study is the first to develop and test an Internet usage for health purposes model that involves intention, attitude, knowledge, injunctive norm, descriptive norm, facility access, perceived Internet health information, hedonic motivation, utilitarian motivation, and perceived threat of NCD.