A Study of the Adoption of Internet of Things among German Consumers

Thiel, Bastian Leonard

4. term

Economics and Business Administration (International Marketing), Master

2019

Internet of Things (IoT) får stigende opmærksomhed blandt private forbrugere, men adoptionen ligger under de forventede niveauer, og der findes begrænset forskning om drivkræfterne i Tyskland. Denne afhandling har til formål at identificere, hvilke faktorer der bestemmer tyske forbrugeres intention om at adoptere IoT, så virksomheder bedre kan målrette deres produkter. Studiet anvender en udvidet Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), der integrerer tillid og social indflydelse sammen med oplevet nytte og oplevet brugervenlighed, og tester hypoteser ved hjælp af lineær og multipel regressionsanalyse på surveydata fra 158 potentielle tyske IoT-forbrugere. Resultaterne viser, at tillid har en særlig stærk effekt på adoptionsintentionen, og at oplevet nytte, social indflydelse og oplevet brugervenlighed også er statistisk relevante. Den udvidede TAM opnår høj forklaringskraft for, hvorfor forbrugere har intention om at adoptere IoT, og studiet bidrager ved at fokusere på forbrugernes perspektiv og sammenkoble tillid og social indflydelse med den klassiske TAM i en IoT-kontekst.

Internet of Things (IoT) is attracting growing attention among private consumers, yet adoption lags behind forecasts and evidence on drivers in Germany is limited. This thesis aims to identify the factors that determine German consumers’ intention to adopt IoT, providing insights for companies to better position their offerings. An extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is proposed that incorporates trust and social influence alongside perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, and hypotheses are tested using linear and multiple regression on survey data from 158 potential German IoT consumers. Findings show that trust has a particularly strong effect on adoption intention, with perceived usefulness, social influence, and perceived ease of use also statistically significant. The extended TAM achieves high explanatory power for why consumers intend to adopt IoT, and the study contributes by focusing on the consumer perspective and linking trust and social influence to the classic TAM in an IoT context.

[This summary has been generated with the help of AI directly from the project (PDF)]

Internet of Things ; Information System ; Innovation Adoption Behaviour ; Intention to Adopt ; Technology Acceptance Model ; Trust ; Social Influence ; Perceived Usefulness ; Perceived Ease of Use

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