Internet of Things (IoT) based product usage and Consumer’s Behavior: A Structural Model Approach

The term IoT or Internet of Things, refers to the shared network of connected devices and the technology that assists communication between devices and the cloud. Companies thus track these consumer’s data and analyze the consumer’s behavior to offer personalized products and services. However, consumers are still cynical in using IoT based products due to technology understanding level, privacy risk and information requirement. Thus to overcome these blockades, the study seeks to measure the relationship among the latent variables that affect consumer’s inclination and choices to use IoT enabled products. On the basis of motivational theories, two categories of motivational factors are fashioned: external factors such as entertainment and social interaction and internal factors such as information required, privacy risk and technology understanding level. The unidirectional relationships among these latent variables are established using the structural equation modeling (SEM). The research endeavors to offer descriptive study on the IoT based product and consumer’s behavior to augment the prevailing awareness and support firms in the process of appealing to more consumers and developing new personalized products. The major findings of the study corroborates that positive social interaction drives consumer’s behavior in using IoT based products for entertainment. The Information required is positively correlated with the desire to use IoT based products for Entertainment. Interestingly, the technology understanding level and low privacy risk do not drive consumers for IoT products either for entertainment or social interactions. The research concludes with comments on implications, limitations and recommendations for further studies.