Consumer Resistance to Innovation in Services: Challenges and Barriers in the Internet of Things Era

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to be the next phase of the Internet revolution and to transform consumers’ service experience. It nevertheless raises challenges on innovation in services. Based on Ram and Sheth's () theoretical framework, this work attempts to provide a better understanding of the barriers that lead to consumers’ resistance to smart services as an innovation. To this end, our research adopts an integrative framework that combines functional barriers, psychological barriers, and individual barriers to explain consumer resistance to smart services. Structural equation modeling was used to test this theoretical framework. Our research enriches the existing literature by (1) adapting Ram and Sheth's () theoretical framework to the evolution of digital technologies (technological vulnerability barriers), (2) taking into account the ideological aspect of resistance (ideological barriers), and (3) considering dispositional variables (individual barriers). Moreover, it highlights the key role of skepticism toward IoT devices as a mediator between technological vulnerability barriers and individual barriers on the one hand and consumer resistance to smart services on the other.

Understanding consumer resistance to the consumption of organic food. A study of ethical consumption, purchasing, and choice behaviour

“…Second, IRT is the most proven and validated framework to study the barrier or consumer resistance. It has been tested widely in technological product literature such as Internet banking (Lian and Yen 2013), mobile banking (Chaouali and Souiden 2018), buying cars online (Molesworth & Suortti, 2002), smart product and services (Juric & Lindenmeier, 2018;Mani & Chouk, 2018), social media (Chen and Kuo 2017; Lian and Yen 2013), and thus would be a reliable tool for adaptation in organic food context. Lastly, IRT comprehensively explains all the major sources of consumer resistance in the form of functional and psychological barriers.…”

Contemporary Issues and Critical Challenges on Innovation in Services

“…Mani and Chouck () employ the Ram and Sheth () model to explore the barriers leading to consumers’ resistance to smart services in an Internet of Things (IoT) context. Resistance and adoption of innovations may be explained by different factors (Kleijnen, Lee, and Wetzels, ; Ram, and Sheth, ).…”

“…Mani and Chouck () note it would be interesting to study different service sectors such as tourism and that given their study was in France, it would be interesting to study other countries so as to identify cultural differences in terms of resistance behavior. Further, because they use videos to present smart services they believe future research could focus on real use of smart services and examine other outcomes such as consumer potential dissatisfaction or distrust in the services.…”

Smart Products: Conceptual Review, Synthesis, and Research Directions*

“…This approach illustrates how the concept of smart products has evolved within and across disciplines. In this regard, the analysis also addresses the repeated calls for research beyond disciplinary boundaries and the application of new approaches and methods in emerging topics such as intelligent technologies or IoT (e.g., Bstieler et al, 2018; Mani and Chouk, 2018; Noble and Spanjol, 2019).…”