Cybersecurity in Consumer Adoption of Smart Home Technology

The highly anticipated smart home technology for everyday life has been growing over the past quarter century. Using standard technology adoption models, previous research produced conflicting results that did not reflect the market accurately. Amongst the indicated challenges for the future of smart home technology is the commonly overlooked barrier cybersecurity. To better understand the market’s expectation we conducted consumer interviews that produced a modified model for smart home adoption in the Canadian market. The resulting adapted model proposes a link between cybersecurity and the behavioral intent of potential consumers. Components of the cybersecurity determinant are identified as trust, safety, and privacy which are moderated by the consumer's level of technical knowledge. Implications of our findings could improve the performance of smart home technology in the market and inspire the creation of innovative solutions that increase the security of the IoT industry.