Why Do Users Switch to Smart Homes? A Push-Pull-Mooring Framework

The switching behavior of smart home users plays an important role in the performance of smart home providers. This study investigated the factors influencing consumers' decisions to switch household products, with a particular focus on the impact of push, pull, and mooring factors, and aims to explore the differences in switching behavior between traditional and smart home users. Data were collected from an online questionnaire of 412 Chinese participants and the hypotheses was validated employing structural equation modeling. The results substantiated the positive effects of mooring factors (variety-seeking and habit), the push factor (dissatisfaction), and the pull factors (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived convenience, perceived innovativeness, and perceived trust) on users' intentions to switch. Notably, the study found that the pull effect had the greatest influence. Variety-seeking emerged as the primary influencing factor in the mooring effect, and perceived convenience was identified as the main driving factor in the pull effect. These findings provide valuable insights to assist smart home providers in selecting effective promotion strategies, as well as help smart home manufacturers and users develop and adapt their future marketing strategies accordingly.