A hybrid approach to discern customer experience for facilitating the adoption of smartwatches

ABSTRACT

Smartwatches had been anticipated to gain momentum as a daily device regarded as a fashion accessory. Contrary to expectations, the pace of adoption rate is slowing down and no one can deny that smartwatches currently fall into a ‘chasm’. This research focuses on the customer experiences accumulated in textual form on ‘Amazon.com’ and attempts to reorganise the influential constructs affecting the adoption of smartwatches. To this end, we conduct a hybrid approach that integrates a qualitative and quantitative approach. First, the apparent constructs are identified and categorised through an exhaustive review of the latest research. Second, LDA-based topic modelling is applied to uncover customers’ topics consisting of contextually associated terms. Comparing with the apparent constructs, we discover two newly emerging constructs: ‘relative superiority’ and ‘consumer rights’. Third, ex-post analysis is performed to acquire greater depth and breadth in understanding human desires inherent in each construct. Based on a total of 12 key constructs, 5 human desires are proposed as a result and discussed to support the establishment of R&D planning and marketing strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Smartwatch adoption
• customer experience
• human desire
• strategic planning

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) under Korea government(MOE) [NRF-2017R1D1A1B03036178].

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) under Korea government(MOE) [NRF-2017R1D1A1B03036178].

Notes on contributors

Mintak Han

Mintak Han received the BS in Industrial Engineering and the PhD in technology management from Seoul National University, in 2014 and 2019, respectively. He is currently an assistant professor with the department of industrial and management engineering, Myongji University, Rep. of Korea. His research interests are in text analytics and new service/business innovation. Currently he has been studying application of big data analytics and machine learning techniques in the field of technology management.

Sungjoo Lee

Sungjoo Lee received her BS and PhD in technology management from Seoul National University, Rep. of Korea, in 2002 and 2007, respectively. After spending six months as a senior researcher at the Ubiquitous Computing Innovation Center, she moved to the UK to work as a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge. She is currently a professor at Ajou University, Rep. of Korea. Her research interests include technology foresight and R&D management.

Jeeeun Kim

Jeeeun Kim works as a research professor at Tae-Joon Park Institute at Pohang University of Science and Technology, Rep. of Korea. She received her a BS in Philosophy and a PhD in technology management. Her main research interest is to establish a new paradigm of convergence research fields. She has studied technology-humanity convergence, a methodology to combine humanities theory with convergence technology development. Recently she has been conducting a study of a problem-solving methodology based on consilience with deep learning.