Technology acceptance of connected services in the automotive industry

Connected Services constitute a very recent development in many industries and bridge service and product offerings. In the consumer business, one of the most prominent examples is “TeleServices” in the automotive industry: through a mobile data connection, diagnoses, maintenance, and also repair tasks can be performed on the vehicle while being on the road. Efficiency and security gains for both the driver and the manufacturer of the vehicle make such services a highly attractive development. Nevertheless, research and also practical experience on the acceptance and usage of such services is very limited, especially in the B2C area. The work of Clemens Hiraoka therefore contributes to the academic and managerial of technology-intensive services in at least three ways: First, the rich body of technology acceptance model (TAM) research is analyzed and consequently extended for its application on Connected Services in B2C. The theoretical framework is expanded to also include the role of traditional marketing elements such as branding and pricing. Second, this doctoral dissertation bases all quantitative analyses on a large sample of real customers, with both motivation and usage data combined. Although the risks associated with self-reported usage data (common method bias) are well known in research, very few authors are able to address it as Clemens Hiraoka does in his work, using both attitudinal and behavioral data. From there, structural equation modeling (SEM) is applied to uncover the relevant factors for accepting and using Connected Services.