“We know everything about you…”: A Conceptual Model on the Acceptance of Smart Products

Technological advances make products increasingly smart. Such smart innovations seem to have certain characteristics. In this paper, we present different traits and take into account that these types of innovations differ in their future development stage from the current accessible form. In the case of autonomous vehicles, consumers already imagine the completely intelligent innovation whereby the car drives autonomously whilst the passenger is not involved in driving. However, this distinctive type is supposed to be available in the future, since at present only partially automated driving functions are developed. In general, it is expected that in the future development stage of smart innovations that include a high degree of autonomy, human interaction with the innovation itself will be reduced or even obsolete. These special characteristics of smart innovations led researchers to question the suitability of available acceptance models. With regard to the special future characteristics of smart innovations, we review previously used variables for the investigation of innovation acceptance and other related concepts to examine their suitability. The result is a conceptual model to be utilized for the investigation of Smart Product acceptance. This model will be tested and applied within a user experience study for fully autonomous cars.