Exploring the Antecedents of Consumer Electronics IoT Devices Purchase Decision: A Mixed Methods Study

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Consumer Internet of Things (CIoT) is an emerging area being represented by a variety of smart consumer electronic (CE) devices. Often times, there are significant security and privacy issues with these devices, which are unknown to the users when they decide to purchase. While existing CE literatures have investigated the technical aspects of securing a device or protecting privacy, what effects these factors have on the purchase decision of the users of CIoT devices is unknown. The current work attempts to solve this gap in CE knowledge by investigating how security affects the purchase decision, what personal factors are relevant in this scenario, and what effects does framing have on the purchase decision. A mixed-method study design is used for data collection combining semi-structured interviews and a stated-choice experiment. An Exploratory Factor Analysis is used for identifying the personal factors. A Multinomial Logit Model approach is used for testing the proposed causal model. Security has the highest effect on purchase decision, followed by price, functionality, and aesthetics & coolness. The effects of framing are also established in relation to gain frames. Based on the results different buyer categories are identified, and the research implications are discussed from a CE community perspective.