Key determinants for the slow pace of smart home adoption : a study of digital consumer insights

• Autor(a) principal: Wißmann, Corinna Sarah
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/29729
• topic: Smart home; Smart technology; Technology adoption; Internet of things; Netnography; Digital insights; User perspective; Casa inteligente; Tecnologia inteligente; Adoção de tecnologia; Internet das coisas; Netnografia; Insights digitais; Perspectiva do usuário; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

The smart home concept has been on the market for several years now. Its intelligent technology promises to improve living quality by enriching the consumer’s daily life with more convenience and time. Yet, it has failed to establish in the homes of mass-market consumers. Existing academic research already spend time examining the concept and its barriers. Nevertheless, empirical evidence about insights from a consumer perspective is still scarce, even though it is considered to be crucial information for facilitating the implementation and acceptance of new technology concepts. The underlying dissertation aims to understand consumer attitudes and opinions towards the topic in order to discover the reasons hindering the smart home adoption. Therefore, an online netnography was conducted. Results identify numerous pain points that are deeply anchored in the product itself: technological problems, system complexity, investment efforts, and trust issues among others. It is now the responsibility of the businesses in the industry to cooperate and to solve first and foremost the problem of interoperability among devices by establishing industry standards. Simultaneously, the usage must be simplified so that all consumers, also those who are not technology affine, are able to intuitively use the products. Additionally, companies must focus on building trust, reinforcing transparency and assuring cybersecurity.