INTRUSIVE SMART HOME ASSISTANTS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY AND SCALE DEVELOPMENT

Despite having many useful capabilities, more recently smart home assistants (SHAs) have also raised negative feelings and doubts which may cause resistance among potential users. However, current research has neither examined SHAs from the perspective of resistance nor its specific drivers (inhibitors). We address this gap and adopt a mixed-method research design with two studies that build on each other. Study 1 (N=10) elicits the belief structures underlying resistance to SHAs. Study 2 (N=276) builds on these findings and delves deeper into the understanding of one novel identified inhibitor, namely “perceived intrusion”, by taking initial strides towards creating a measurement instrument. Our results contribute to the previously under-researched “dark side” of smart consumer IT by examining the phenomenon of resistance. This way, we hope to inspire future research to expand on our findings, as well as apply our measurement instrument in other smart product contexts

Perceived creepiness in response to smart home assistants: A multi-method study

Smart home assistants (SHAs) have gained a foothold in many households. Although SHAs have many beneficial capabilities, they also have characteristics that are colloquially described as creepy – a fact that may deter potential users from adopting and utilizing them. Previous research has examined SHAs neither from the perspective of resistance nor the perspective of creepiness. The present research addresses this gap and adopts a multi-method research design with four sequential studies. Study 1 serves as a pre-study and provides initial exploratory insights into the concept of creepiness in the context of SHAs. Study 2 focuses on developing a measurement instrument to assess perceived creepiness. Study 3 uses an online experiment to test the nomological validity of the construct of creepiness in a larger conceptual model. Study 4 further elucidates the underlying behavioral dynamics using focus group analysis. The findings contribute to the literature on the dark side of smart technology by analyzing the triggers and mechanisms underlying perceived creepiness as a novel inhibitor to SHAs. In addition, this study provides actionable design recommendations that allow practitioners to mitigate end users’ potential perceptions of creepiness associated with SHAs and similar smart technologies

Are You Trying to Be Funny? The Impact of Affiliative Humor of Smart Home Technologies on Human-Like Trust

Smart home technologies (SHTs) perform tasks in the most intimate areas of life and therefore require blind user trust from the start. To build this trust, vendors often rely on creating human-like interactions with devices, such as by incorporating humor. Although humor in SHTs is becoming more advanced, e.g., through advanced joke selection algorithms, its actual impact is largely unexplored. In this work, we address this gap and study the impact of affiliative humor as a human-like characteristic on perceived social presence and initial trust in SHTs. To this end, we conducted a vignette-based experiment with potential users (N=63). Our results contribute by uncovering the mechanisms underlying humor as a trust-building characteristic in SHTs. Moreover, in this way, we also provide important insights for the design and communication of SHTs, which can be valuable for vendors to foster perceived human-likeness and thus initial user trust in smart technologies

Consumers’ resistance to digital innovations: A systematic review and framework development

Consumer resistance is one of the major causes of failure of any innovation. Despite rising academic interest, the non-adoption of digital innovation or consumer resistance has received less scholarly attention as compared to the factors driving the adoption of digital products and services. The existing research on consumer resistance is also in siloes, running across multiple verticals, spanning from resistance to green products to the Internet of things (IoT). The current study provides a systematic review of the extant literature on consumer resistance to digital innovations by utilising the systematic literature review (SLR) methodology. A total of 54 studies were selected for content analysis to isolate thematic foci, identify research gaps, recommend future research avenues and develop a framework. Our analysis revealed that the extant literature could be grouped under broad research themes, namely resistance to digital innovations, organisational resistance to technological innovations, resistance to technological healthcare innovations and consumer resistance to innovations (offline). The results of this SLR study are expected to galvanise future research in this area from the theoretical as well as from a practice-oriented perspective by providing various actionable inputs to combat consumer resistance to digital innovations.publishedVersio

Consumers’ resistance to digital innovations: A systematic review and framework development

Consumer resistance is one of the major causes of failure of any innovation. Despite rising academic interest, the non-adoption of digital innovation or consumer resistance has received less scholarly attention as compared to the factors driving the adoption of digital products and services. The existing research on consumer resistance is also in siloes, running across multiple verticals, spanning from resistance to green products to the Internet of things (IoT). The current study provides a systematic review of the extant literature on consumer resistance to digital innovations by utilising the systematic literature review (SLR) methodology. A total of 54 studies were selected for content analysis to isolate thematic foci, identify research gaps, recommend future research avenues and develop a framework. Our analysis revealed that the extant literature could be grouped under broad research themes, namely resistance to digital innovations, organisational resistance to technological innovations, resistance to technological healthcare innovations and consumer resistance to innovations (offline). The results of this SLR study are expected to galvanise future research in this area from the theoretical as well as from a practice-oriented perspective by providing various actionable inputs to combat consumer resistance to digital innovations.publishedVersio

Exploring the Digital Transformation Based on Big Data with Ubiquitous Internet of Everything

Digital technologies present both game-changing opportunities for and existential threats to companies. Digital services in consumer-facing organizations offer novelty value propositions, closer consumer relationships and higher automation of consumer-facing processes. Facing big digital data streams generated by ubiquitous Internet of Everything(IoE) and savvy customers with mobile computing and social media, this paper focuses on digital transformation journeys seeking digital capabilities and digital leadership to upgrade organizational performance, one is discovering big data value, the other is dual methods with agile. The finding provides practical implications that can help guide practitioners in digital transformation

Transformational design for food systems: cultural, social and technological challenges

Due to climate changes, resources availability and evolving markets, the food system is developing towards an articulated and complex ecology, with fast transformations occurring in food production, preparation, delivery and disposal. In this context, innovation is needed not just to ideate solutions to deal with a fast-changing system but also to accompany the change adopting a systemic long-term approach. We reflect on the transformational potential of design in the food sector enabled by digital technologies, one of the current major drivers of change. We define two levels of changes implying digital technologies, those that radically change the food system and those enabling changes within a given system. These levels are exemplified with case studies documented in literature and with students’ projects showing how transformational design can help grasp the complexity of current problems, and question the current status quo by facilitating a dialogue among stakeholders to stimulate behaviour change without prescribing it. In this article we encourage a paradigm shift of design from craft activity to a holistic approach of systemic thinking where the designer assumes the role of promoter and facilitator of change. Reflections on challenges at cultural, social and technological levels are provided in the conclusion section

When Intelligence is (Dys)Functional for Achieving Sales Performance

Using two different samples of salespeople, the authors investigate how a combination of general mental ability (GMA) and specific skills and capabilities (social competence and thinking styles) allows salespeople to reach their sales goals. The study finds evidence for an interaction between GMA and social competence. If combined with high social competence, high GMA leads to highest sales performance; if combined with low social competence, high GMA leads to lowest sales performance. In addition, interaction effects between GMA and a judicial thinking style were found. Salespeople high on GMA have the most potential for attaining high levels of sales performance when combined with specific skills; when lacking these skills they may become the firm’s worst performers.sales;knowledge;general mental ability;knowledge based marketing;thinking styles

Factors influencing touristic consumer behaviour

Purpose – This paper aims to present a content analysis of two major constructs among tourism settings, namely involvement and emotions, strictly related to tourist behaviour, due to the fact that there are still some critical gaps in the knowledge about tourists’ emotions and involvement. Design/methodology/approach – An in-depth content analysis of involvement and emotions was adopted as the methodological approach. This methodology addressed an amalgam of different definitions, frameworks, mixed theoretical and practical applications and approaches, results, comparisons as well as a blend of a set of scales of involvement and emotions by confrontating of authors. Findings – The major findings state that emotions and involvement demonstrate greater progress and scientific development to the level of tourism, marketing and consumer behaviour, representing an important issue for the integrated tourism experiences. Originality/value – This study presents a critical reflection on the importance of emotions and involvement in specific contexts of leisure and tourisminfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Agile and frugal strategies for the handling of increased uncertainty

Increased uncertainty and customer needs that change radically within a few days lead to socio-economic changes. Conventional management concepts no longer work in a business paradigm that calls for quick reactions and continuous business model innovations. Keeping the existing business running as efficiently as possible and at the same time exploring new opportunities for the future requires agility, flexibility, and openness. Organizational resilience helps to reposition over a crisis. For those who are open to novel approaches, the concept of frugal innovation creates new opportunities: targeted and cost-efficient satisfaction of client expectation, reduced to what the user needs at the moment. This article explains inter-organizational agility as the basis for frugal solutions. We suggest a value-adding strategy with fewer resources as the first step towards responsible corporate management