Exploring the Determinants of IoT Adoption: Findings from a Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) heralds a new era of disruptive technologies that provide organizations with both benefits and challenges. However, organizational adoption of IoT is not yet widespread and greater understanding of the phenomenon is required. This study examines the existing literature on the key determinants (drivers, benefits, barriers, and challenges) that influence the adoption of IoT by organizations. Therefore, this paper presents findings from a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and concept matrix approach to identify these IoT adoption determinants at the organizational level. The key constructs of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) were examined in relation to the determinants identified to understand applicability of this theory in the IoT context. Future research will complement these findings through an empirical investigation. Therefore, the overall aim of this research is 1) to generate a model that outlines the determinants influencing organizational IoT adoption and 2) to ascertain the applicability of UTAUT in understanding IoT adoption and to further enrich UTAUT by contextualizing its constructs to the IoT phenomenon.

Towards a more in-depth understanding of the IoT Paradigm and its challenges

“…(Carcary et al, 2018) Literature Review (Atzori, Iera and Morabito, 2010;Miorandi et al, 2012;Singh, Tripathi and Jara, 2014;Li, Xu, and Zhao, 2015;Gil et al, 2016;Burhanuddin et al, 2017;Sethi and Sarangi, 2017;Ray, 2018) Literature Survey (Gubbi et al 2013;Borgia 2014) Despite being a current trend, our initial research did not return secondary studies conducted systematically, nor did they present the methodology followed, nor the research questions that the papers intended to answer. The papersexcept in (Whitmore, Agarwal and Da Xu, 2015;Carcary et al, 2018) -do not present the research protocol or make explicit the study properties (research questions, search strings, databases, selection criteria, selected articles, among others). For this reason, we have not performed a Quality Assessment since there is no methodology related information to be evaluated.…”

“…From the selected papers, seven essential topics were addressed ( Figure 1):  Concepts -Presenting discussions regarding the fundamentals, definitions, and visions behind the IoT paradigm; Articles (Atzori, Iera and Morabito, 2010;Bandyopadhyay and Sen, 2011;Miorandi et al, 2012;Gubbi et al, 2013;Borgia, 2014;Singh, Tripathi and Jara, 2014;Li, Xu and Zhao, 2015;Madakam, Ramaswamy and Tripathi, 2015;Gil et al, 2016;Trappey et al, 2017;Carcary et al, 2018).  Technology -Introducing enabling technologies and solutions to develop and deploy IoT applications.…”

“…This step resulted in the inclusion of three new articles. The review steps resulted in 15 articles, composing the final set: (Atzori, Iera and Morabito, 2010;Bandyopadhyay and Sen, 2011;Miorandi et al, 2012;Gubbi et al, 2013;Singh, Tripathi and Jara, 2014;Borgia, 2014;Whitmore, Agarwal and Da Xu, 2015;Li, Xu and Zhao, 2015;Madakam, Ramaswamy and Tripathi, 2015;Gil et al, 2016;Sethi and Sarangi, 2017;Trappey et al, 2017;Burhanuddin et al, 2017;Ray, 2018;Carcary et al, 2018). See the details of each step in Table 2.…”

“…Besides, they also describe fundamental requirements along with implementation challenges and future directions. The work of (Carcary et al, 2018) argues that the adoption of IoT is not yet widespread and examines the existing literature on key determinants (drivers, benefits, barriers, and challenges) that influence the adoption of IoT by organizations.…”

“…Atzori, Iera and Morabito, 2010;Gubbi et al, 2013;Madakam, Ramaswamy and Tripathi, Refers to systems not needing direct human intervention to perform established actions such as data capture, autonomous behavior, and reaction (Atzori, Iera, and Morabito 2010;Miorandi et al 2012;Gubbi et al 2013;Borgia 2014;Li, Xu, and Zhao 2015;Burhanuddin et al, 2017;Ray, 2018;Carcary et al, 2018(Chlamtac, Conti, and Liu 2003;Nami and Sharifi 2007;Gusmeroli, Sundmaeker, and Bassi 2015) Context-awareness: The use of context to provide task-relevant information and/or services to a user.…”