Smart home concept: Drivers and barriers among Thai consumers towards the intention to use smart home.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand the key drivers and the barriers towards the intention to use smart home products on Thai consumers. As this advanced technology concept is now becoming an uprising trends among all countries in the world. It is, therefore, essential for smart home company in Thailand to understand potential factors that will affect the decision to convert to smart home appliances. The assumption of this research is based on the six potential group of variables which are energy and cost savings, health consciousness, privacy and personal security concerns, familiarity to technology, perceive reliability of products and cultural dimension (imitation effect vs. innovation effect). The result is developed from the analysis of the potential variables towards to intention to purchase smart home of a total 300 respondents (n=300), who live in Bangkok, Thailand. The results show that several tested factors give positive relationship to the intention to use smart home (key drivers), while some showed negative relationship to the intention to use smart home (key barriers).