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

Abstract

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.