Chinese consumers’ adoption intention toward smart closet: a perspective of psychological needs and motivations

ABSTRACT

Tackling the problem of ‘having a closet full of clothes but nothing to wear’, Smart Closet emerged in recent years as a digital closet assistant. This study investigates Chinese consumers’ adoption intention toward Smart Closet from a perspective of psychological needs and motivations, integrating the Technology Acceptance Model and Self-Determination Theory. A total of 346 data was collected via an online survey. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Results indicated that two of the three basic psychological needs (autonomy and relatedness) had positive impacts on consumers’ motivational perceptions (usefulness and enjoyment) of Smart Closet, which in turn, positively influenced their adoption intention. Additionally, consumers’ fashion consciousness was found to have moderating effects on the adoption process. This paper not only lends managerial implications to practitioners pertaining to the implementation of Smart Closet, also provides a reference for validating the integrated framework of TAM and SDT.

KEYWORDS:

• Smart Closet
• technology acceptance model
• self-determination theory
• motivation
• Chinese consumer

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval statement

This study is reviewed by and conducted with the approval of an institutional review board (IRB).

Permission to reproduce material from other sources

There are no excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties included in this study.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.