Factors that determine residents’ acceptance of smart city technologies

Abstract

ABSTRACTWhile some cities attempt to determine their residents’ demand for smart-city technologies, others simply move forward with smart-related strategies and projects. This study is among the first to empirically determine which factors most affect residents’ and public servants’ intention to use smart-city services. A Smart Cities Stakeholders Adoption Model (SSA), based on Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2), is developed and tested on a mid-size U.S. city as a case study. A questionnaire was administered in order to determine the influence of seven factors – effort expectancy, self-efficacy, perceived privacy, perceived security, trust in technology, price value and trust in government – on behaviour intention, specifically the decision to adopt smart-city technologies. Results show that each of these factors significantly influenced citizen intention to use smart-city services. They also reveal perceived security and perceived privacy to be strong determinants of trust in technology, and price value a determinant of trust in government. In turn, both types of trust are shown to increase user intention to both adopt and use smart-city services. These findings offer city officials an approach to gauging residential intention to use smart-city services, as well as identify those factors critical to developing a successful smart-city strategy.