Fall 08 Technology Acceptance of the Smart Speaker Exploring factors affecting the Use Intention of an emerging technology MSc. In Business Administration – Digital Business Track University of Amsterdam – Amsterdam Business School Supervisor: Andrea Ganzaroli June 2018 Robbert Willem de Kruijff 11861542 Statement of originality This document is written by student Robbert Willem de Kruijff who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document. I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents. 2 Preface This thesis is written as part of the Master program: Business Administration – Digital Business track, at the University of Amsterdam. The Digital Business track is considered to be a boundary spanner between the digital world, the market and other disciplines. This thesis concerns an empirical research about the acceptance of the Smart Speaker that has the goal to bring the knowledge acquired during the Master’s program into practice. I’m really grateful for the valuable comments on earlier drafts of this thesis that were given by my supervisor Andrea Ganzaroli, as well as for the clarifying insights in the field of Technology Acceptance. Furthermore, I would like to thank him for the great support he provided in the process. 3 Abstract This research contributes to the rational understanding of the acceptance of the technology known as the Smart Speaker defined as: “A hands-free speaker powered with digital voice assistant using two-way voice computing technology that is highly connected (based on Koo & Nam, 2017).” In the literature review, two fields of theory have be selected and applied being; in the first place technologies embedded in the Smart Speaker (Spoken Language Dialog System, Voice Search as application and Smart Technologies) and secondly the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), further developments of this concept (TAM2, UTAUT and HMSAM) including a case study using the TAM. Factors affecting one’s Use Intention based on the TAM and the development of the TAM, substantiated by the technology background, are explored by means of a survey amongst 182 respondents with the following research question in mind: What are motivations and perceptions that affect people’s intention of adopting the AI-based Smart Speaker? This resulted in several factors that are proven to be significantly affecting (directly and indirectly) the Use Intention of the Smart Speaker such as: Social Influence, Perceived Entertainment, Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use. Interesting observations concern the Interface Familiarity (the new era of human-computer interface with voice control) and Apprehensiveness (trust and privacy issues when using this AI-based technology). Finally, future research could be conducted in the Virtual Assistant software, not constricted to the Smart Speaker. Furthermore, one could look at specific contexts (such as the elderly or a work environment), at advertising off-screen, at the Smart Speaker with the ecosystems of large technology firms, at the actual use of the Smart Speaker in the Netherlands and at researches more experimental designs (truly experiencing the Smart Speaker for a longer period of time). 4 Table of Contents Preface 3 Abstract 4 Abbreviations 8 1. Introduction 9 1.1. A prosperous technology 9 1.2. Google, Amazon… 9 1.3. Expectations 10 1.4. Barriers 11 1.5. This Research 12 1.6. Adoption oF Spoken Language Dialog System (SLDS) 13 2. Literature Review 16 2.1. Technology review 16 2.1.1. Spoken Language Dialog System 17 2.1.2. Voice Search and Smart Technologies 18 2.2. Evolution oF the Technology Acceptance Model 21 2.2.1. Technology Acceptance Model 21 2.2.2. TAM 2 23 2.2.3. UTAUT 23 2.2.4. HMSAM 24 2.2.5. A previous case study 25 2.3. Summary oF the literature review 26 3. Variables and Research Model 28 3.1. Variables 28 3.1.1. Perceived Usefulness 28 3.1.2. Perceived Ease of Use 29 5 3.1.3. Social Influence 29 3.1.4. Perceived Entertainment 30 3.1.5. Apprehensiveness 30 3.1.6. Interface Familiarity 31 3.1.7. Web Skills 32 3.1.8. Use Intention 32 3.2. Research Model 33 3.3. Hypotheses 33 4. Method 34 4.1. Sampling 34 4.2. Measures 35 4.3. Control Variables 36 4.4. Limitations oF the design 36 4.5. Tools For Analysis 37 5. Results 38 5.1 Demographics and response rate 38 5.1.1 Demographics 38 5.1.1. Response rate 39 5.2. Analytical Strategy 39 5.2.1. Data 39 5.2.2. Normality 40 5.2.3. Computing means 41 5.2.4. Outliers check 41 5.2.5. Reliability 41 5.2.6. Correlation 42 5.3. Data Analysis direct eFFects 43 5.3.1. Result Multiple Regression Analysis (direct effects) 43 6 5.3.2. Conclusions from Multiple Regression Analysis 44 5.4. Data Analysis Indirect eFFects 45 5.4.1. Results of the mediation analysis 46 5.4.2. Conclusions from mediated effects analysis 50 5.5. Outcome model 51 6. Discussion 52 6.1. Interpreting the Results 52 6.1.1. Interface Familiarity 53 6.1.2. Web Skills 54 6.2. Limitations 55 7. Conclusions 56 7.1. Contributions 56 7.1. Managerial Implications 57 7.2. Future research 58 8. BiblioGraphy 59 9. Appendices 64 Appendix 1: The Sun’s article: Echo Breach 64 Appendix 2: Gartner’s Hype Cycles 66 Appendix 3: Description oF the Smart Speaker Technology 67 Appendix 4: Adapted Smart Speaker Use Intention Measure 68 Appendix 5: Hierarchical multiple regression 70 Appendix 6: PROCESS model 4 and output SPSS 71 Appendix 7: PROCESS model 6 and output SPSS 75 7 Abbreviations APP Apprehensiveness DV Dependent Variable HMSAM Hedonic-Motivation System Adoption Model IF Interface Familiarity IV Independent Variable H3 Hypothesis 3 M Mediator / Mean PE Perceived Entertainment PEU Perceived Ease of Use PU Perceived Usefulness SD Standard Deviation SI Social Influence SLDS Spoken Language Dialog System TAM Technology Acceptance Model TAM 2 Extended Technology Acceptance Model UI Use Intention UTAUT Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology WS Web Skills 8 1. Introduction 1.1. A prosperous technology ‘OK Google’ …‘What’s playing tonight?’, Google Assistant will show films at your local cinema. And if you add ‘We’re planning on bringing the kids’, Google Assistant will know to serve up show times for kid-friendly films. You could then say ‘Let’s see Jungle Book’, and the assistant will purchase tickets for you” (Dale, 2016). This statement in the research of Dale (2016) is a great example of voice-controlled technologies becoming more and more intelligent in mimicking the human interaction. Within this piece of innovation a couple of prosperous technologies come together in the comfort of our homes; i.e. the Smart Speaker is voice-controlled, smart (meaning that it is possible to connect it to other smart devices) and connected to the internet (providing a doorway to endless possibilities). A collaborative study of NPR and Edison Research (The Smart Audio Report, 2017) shows that nowadays 16% of Americans older then 18 already own a Smart Speaker (that’s about 39 million people). They do not only own one, but these people also seem highly satisfied. The study shows that out of the people that own a Smart Speaker 65% of the questioned volunteers could not imagine a life without one. Due to NPR and Edison Research “Smart Speakers are changing behaviours and forming new habits” (The Smart Audio Report, 2017). 1.2. Google, Amazon… In 2014 Amazon was the first one to introduce a commercialized wireless playback device that featured voice activated digital assistants. This so-called Smart Speaker is on the rise and the numbers as mentioned by the Smart Audio Report tell us the same story. Since 2014 Google came with it’s Google Home and the Google Assistant as digital assistant software 9 (Lerner, 2017), Apple couldn’t stay behind and recently launched their Apple HomePod (Jaffe, 2018). Not only the big technology firms, but also several entrepreneurs tap into this technology with more “niche” applications of the Smart Speaker such as SMARTY. SMARTY is a virtual assistant created by a startup called Siliconic Home, uniquely based on the voice of children; SMARTY positions itself as a kids-friendly Smart Speaker. The patented natural language processing technology can recognize the voices of kids, which have a significant different pitch compared to the pitch of adults (Montgomery, 2016). Another example is Olly, which is being created by a startup called Emotech in London. Olly is again different compared to the other smart speakers. This virtual assistant actually has a personality that can develop and evolve as the result of conversations with the consumer. This means Olly understands people's way of communicating, including context and an understanding whether or not information is appropriate for the user (Montgomery, 2016). Both these entrepreneurs, focusing on specific niches, confirm the great possibilities and the vast development of such technologies. 1.3. Expectations The research of Gartner shows that expectations are growing significantly and looking at their Hype Cycle, the Virtual Digital Assistant (which is the software, and thus the backbone of the Smart Speaker) went from “Innovation Trigger” to “Peak of Inflated Expectations”, as presented in Appendix 1. They predict that the next 5-10 years the technology is going to reach the productivity platform (see Appendix 1).