Internet of Things: Exploring households’ intention to use smart home technology

Smart home technology, an application of Internet of Things (IoT), provides householders with e.g., comfort, control and convenience. The technology has been around for sometimes, but its prevalence is not yet widespread, and thus the potentials have largely been underestimated. This paper aims to explore the antecedent factors influencing the adoption of smart home technology through analysis of a survey data comprising of 156 households. This paper, in addition to Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), applies an analytical thinking method called “Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis” to analyze the data. The SEM results indicate that consumer perceived innovativeness, perceived newness, social influence and attitude toward using smart home technology are notable antecedents of intention to use. Moreover, the results show that the perceived cost negatively affect the intention to use. FsQCA results, while confirming SEM findings, strengthen the results by revealing that there is no single solution that lead to the outcome, but multiple configurations of conditions lead to the outcome of interest. This paper contributes to the literature of IoT, in particular to smart home research. Some practical implications and research recommendations are discussed.