IoT Smart Home Adoption: The Importance of Proper Level Automation

The word “smart” has been used in various fields and is widely accepted to mean intelligence. Smart home service, one of the representative emerging technologies in the IoT era, has changed house equipment into being more intelligent, remote controllable, and interconnected. However, the intelligence and controllability of a smart home service are contradictory concepts, under certain aspects. In addition, the level of intelligence or controllability of a smart home service that users want may differ according to the user. As potential users of smart home services have diversified in recent years, providing the appropriate functions and features is critical to the diffusion of the service. Thus, this study examines the smart home service features that current users require and empirically evaluates the relationship between the critical factors and the adoption behavior with 216 samples from Korea. The moderating effect of personal characteristics on behavior is also tested. The results of the analysis provide various theoretical and practical implications.