Exploring consumers’ adoption and recommendation in smart retailing: a cognitive absorption perspective

Because of the rapid development of the Internet of Things, the business mode of the retail industry has changed tremendously. Smart retail is increasingly receiving academic attention. However, research on smart retail has mainly focused on shopping utility and consumers’ interactions with smart technology rather than consumers’ perceptions and feelings regarding smart technology. In order to fill this void, this paper incorporates perceptions (i.e., cognitive absorption) into the technology acceptance model to investigate consumer intention in smart retail. In total, 322 consumers with experience using smart retail technology are surveyed, and SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) is used for analysis. According to the findings, cognitive absorption has a considerable influence on consumers’ perception of the usefulness and ease of use of smart retail technology, which, in turn, affects consumer adoption and recommendation intentions on this smart technology. Theoretical and practical recommendations are made, as well as future research directions.