With the advancement of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and the shifting paradigm of residential environments, the Smart Home has evolved beyond simple automated devices into a customized, intelligent living space for residents. For the sust...
With the advancement of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and the shifting paradigm of residential environments, the Smart Home has evolved beyond simple automated devices into a customized, intelligent living space for residents. For the sustainable growth of the smart home industry, it is essential to identify users' actual continuance intention beyond initial adoption. However, previous studies have shown limitations in explaining complex user behaviors by treating the smart home as a single technological service or relying on fragmented adoption theories.
Accordingly, this study divided the Smart Home IoT system into the Residential Space IoT System (security, interoperability, reliability, convenience) and the Device IoT System (personal innovativeness, ease of use, controllability, perceived cost), and constructed a research model integrating the Value-based Adoption Model (VAM) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). In addition, perceived value and perceived usefulness were set as mediating variables to analyze the structural relationship of how these factors affect continuance intention to use.
For the empirical analysis, a survey was conducted on 358 users with experience using Smart Home IoT systems, and a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis was performed using Smart PLS 4.0.
The results of the study are as follows. First, among the characteristics of the Residential Space IoT System, interoperability, reliability, and convenience had a significant effect on both perceived value and perceived usefulness. On the other hand, security had a significant effect on perceived value but did not have a significant effect on perceived usefulness. Second, among the characteristics of the Device IoT System, personal innovativeness, ease of use, and controllability had a significant effect on both perceived value and perceived usefulness, whereas perceived cost had no significant effect on either mediating variable. Third, both perceived value and perceived usefulness had a significant effect on continuance intention to use, and perceived usefulness, in particular, was confirmed to be the strongest core factor driving continuance intention to use.
This study holds academic significance by presenting an original research model that integrates VAM and TAM while securing high explanatory power by dividing the smart home system into space and device dimensions. Practically, it suggests that going beyond simple functional competition, maximizing reliability, interoperability, and ease of use to allow residents to experience actual daily efficiency (usefulness) is a core strategy for smart home companies to improve user retention.