Predicting consumer intention toward eco-friendly smart home services: extending the theory of planned behavior

Abstract

Although smart home services have been acknowledged to promote environmental protection, few studies have explored the willingness of consumers to adopt eco-friendly smart home services. This study aims to investigate the influencing factors that affect Chinese consumers’ intention to adopt eco-friendly smart home services. The theory of planned behavior is used as the basic theoretical background and is further extended by adding the constructs of environmental knowledge, ambiguity tolerance, compatibility, and living habits. Data were collected from 629 respondents in China through a self-administered questionnaire survey and analyzed by structural equation modeling. Results indicate that attitude and perceived behavioral control have positive and significant effects on consumers’ intention toward adopting eco-friendly smart home services, whereas subjective norm does not have any effect. Moreover, environmental knowledge, ambiguity tolerance, compatibility significantly and positively affect consumer intention toward eco-friendly smart home services. Living habits have a negative effect on consumers’ intention under eco-friendly smart home services context. The implications for promoting the popularization of smart home services are discussed to motivate consumers to adopt eco-friendly smart home services on the basis of empirical results.