How perceived security risk affects intention to use smart home devices: A reasoned action explanation

Abstract

Smart home devices form a significant part of the consumer IoT market yet they have potential security risks. Little is known about how security risk perceptions influence householders’ decisions to adopt smart home devices. In order to examine how perceptions of security risks influence intentions to use smart home devices, we test a new model of how perceived security risk affects intention to use smart devices. This model draws on the reasoned action approach from social psychology and proposes that security risk perceptions have an indirect effect on smart home adoption decisions by influencing cognitions that have a more immediate, effect on adoption intentions. The results demonstrated that perceived security risk does have an effect on intentions to use smart home devices and both attitude to use of smart home devices and perceived control over secure use of these devices play a role in this effect, confirming the value of modelling perceived risks as determinants of more direct cognitive antecedents of consumer intentions. We also investigated the role of age and education in smart home adoption decisions and found that older and more highly educated people are more likely to take their own assessments of security risk into account when they make decisions about adoption of smart home devices. Given the role of perceived security risk in influencing consumers’ intentions to use smart home devices, enabling, influencing, and guiding consumers to develop the knowledge and skills they need for secure use of smart home devices is of particular importance. The findings of this study suggest several paths of action for information security professionals to achieve this.