Abstract
With the rapid growth of the sharing economy, access-based services have emerged as an alternative and/or complementary to traditional ownership-based services. The access-based services are enabled by means of Smart Product-Service Systems (SPSSs) that integrate smart products and e-services into a single solution. However, there is a lack of studies that cover the acceptance factors for both smart products and e-services of SPSSs. Therefore, it is important to have a study to explore the factors that influence the acceptance of SPSSs. This study develops a conceptual framework which consists of the perceived interactivity of mobile apps and the particularity of the smart shared products as antecedents apart from perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, as suggested by the Technology Acceptance Model. To test the research framework empirically, a self-reported online survey was conducted among bike sharing program users in China. A total of 520 valid responses were collected, and the partial least-square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was used to examine the research model. The empirical results suggest that the perceived interactivity of mobile apps and the particularity of smart shared products are two significant sets of antecedents that influence consumers’ perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, and the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are preconditions for the acceptance of SPSSs. The findings generate practical suggestions for SPSSs providers to increase the network size of users, improve the interactivity of mobile apps, and manage the distributions of service points.
Highlights
With the rapid growth of the sharing economy, access-based services have emerged as an alternative and/or complementary to traditional ownership-based services [1,2,3]
Based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) [12], the current study examines the following two research objectives: (1) from the perspectives of the usage of mobile apps and smart shared products in Smart Product-Service Systems (SPSSs), the study aims at providing a model on the acceptance of SPSSs in sharing economy through introducing two types of antecedents: perceived interactivity of mobile apps and the particularity of smart shared products; (2) when SPSSs usage is affected by the perceived interactivity of mobile apps and the particularity of smart shared products, how are these antecedents related to the motivational determinants of consumers’ technology acceptance?
This study shows that when consumers feel an SPSS is easy to use, the smart shared products have a large number of users, and the smart shared products are a close substitute for owned products, the consumers will perceive SPSS as useful and they have a stronger intention to use it
Summary
With the rapid growth of the sharing economy, access-based services have emerged as an alternative and/or complementary to traditional ownership-based services [1,2,3]. The access-based services are enabled by means of Smart Product-Service Systems (SPSSs) that integrate smart products and e-services into single solutions [6,7,8]. Smart products make use of information and communication technology (ICT) to collect, process, and produce information, while e-services are web portals or apps which facilitate the communication between service providers and consumers [7]. Bike sharing systems are SPSSs that include mobile apps (as e-services) and smart bicycles (as smart shared products) integrating with sensors and the global positioning system (GPS). For success in launching an access-based service, the design of an SPSS is critical – including the design of smart products and the design of e-services. Users will only accept an SPSS if they accept both the smart product and the related e-service
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