Understanding the Internet of Things ecosystem: multi-level analysis of users, society, and ecology
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-07-2016-0035 |
| Pages | 77-100 |
| Date | 09 January 2017 |
| Published date | 09 January 2017 |
| Author | Dong-Hee Shin,Yong Jin Park |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information policy |
Understanding the Internet of Things
ecosystem: multi-level analysis of users,
society, and ecology
Dong-Hee Shin and Yong Jin Park
Dong-Hee Shin is a Full
Professor at School of
Media and Communication,
Chung-Ang University,
Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Yong Jin Park is an
Associate Professor at
School of Communications,
Howard University, USA.
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to conduct socio-technical analysis of the rapidly evolving Internet of Things
(IoT) ecosystem and industry, including such factors as market growth and user experiences, policy
and the impact of IoT on various areas.
Design/methodology/approach –By applying a multi-level socio-technical framework to IoT in South
Korea, this study seeks an ecological understanding of how IoT will evolve and stabilize in a smart
environment.
Findings –The study shows the values influencing potential users’ adoption of IoT by integrating
cognitive motivations and user values as primary determining factors. Along with user modeling, the
findings reveal the challenges of designing, deploying and sustaining the diverse components of IoT,
and provides a snapshot of Korea’s current approach to meeting these challenges.
Originality/value –The study’s findings offer a contextualized socio-technical analysis of IoT,
providing insight into its challenges and opportunities. This insight helps to conceptualize how IoT can
be designed and situated within human-centered contexts.
Keywords Internet of Things, South Korea, Contextualized socio-technical framework, IoT ecosystem
Paper type Conceptual paper
1. Introduction
The Internet of Things (IoT) is currently emerging as the next megatrend in technology, with
repercussions across the spectrum of society and business. Though its definition is broad
and changing, IoT refers generally to a global infrastructure for the information society,
enabling advanced services by interconnecting (physical and virtual) things based on
existing and evolving interoperable information and communication technologies (ITU
Recommendation, 2014). IoT stands to dramatically change people’s lives, workplace
productivity and consumption. A string of new businesses will emerge as a result, seeking
to expand the internet pipes, analyze reams of data and create new things as yet
unimagined.
Now that IoT is earning headlines and growing as a buzzword, it is time for a reality check
(Shin, 2014). Although IoT is expected to have a massive impact on individuals and the
wider cultural milieu, it is still in its early days, and many challenges lie ahead (Gubbi et al.,
2013;Weber, 2010). Questions arise concerning what the IoT landscape will look like and
what its impact will be. Additionally, with the rapid development of IoT, some serious
problems are revealed. For example, IoT is expanding the number of connected devices
integrated into our everyday lives, presenting the opportunity for cyber attackers to gain
access to our physical world through security holes in these new systems. Against this
background, Shin (2014) and Zhao et al. (2013) argue that IoT has thus far focused
Received 24 July 2016
Revised 24 July 2016
Accepted 9 October 2016
DOI 10.1108/DPRG-07-2016-0035 VOL. 19 NO. 1 2017, pp. 77-100, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2398-5038 DIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE PAGE 77
predominantly on the technical aspects of design, such as network development and
sensor deployment. Most IoT efforts have been directed toward development and
integration of IoT technologies and resources. Current research similarly reflects this focus
on IoT design, architecture and implementation from a technical standpoint (Gubbi et al.,
2013). The majority of existing studies on IoT have investigated application of the IoT
business model from firm and government perspectives (Peoples et al., 2013;Weber, 2010;
Zhao et al., 2013). Little research has investigated IoT’s impact on social dynamics or
organizational, political and cultural dimensions. In particular, research into acceptance of
IoT from a user perspective is still in its infancy (Kim and Shin, 2015); user acceptance of
a technology is the major determinant of actual usage behavior (Gao and Bai, 2014).
Considering the complexity and heterogeneity of IoT, it is necessary to examine the matter
from an ecological point of view that encompasses national, social, political and
user-related factors. Social, industrial and behavioral inquiries can improve the current
socio-technical system framework, which, although normative and insightful, has been
criticized for its lack of concrete application. In other words, the question of how exactly to
apply the conceptual framework to actual design, development or evaluation remains
unclear. Concrete analytical tools stratified at different levels not only complement the
weaknesses of the current socio-technical framework but also provide the industry and
government with realistic strategies.
The socio-technical ensemble perspective (Bijker, 1995) demands that design and
development of IoT should be based fundamentally on human needs, and that the system
should ultimately be a human-centered one (Bostrom and Heinen, 1977;Lyytinen and
Newman, 2008). This argument is consistent with the normalization perspective that design
and analysis of technologies should be based on contextual understanding – that is, a
context-based evaluation determines the fitness of a technology within a specific context
(May and Finch, 2009;Shin, 2014). May and Finch (2009, p. 540) argue that normalization
is “the work that actors do as they engage with some ensemble of activities and by which
means it becomes routinely embedded in the matrices of already existing, socially
patterned, knowledge and practices” (p. 540). The specific concept comes into play when
societies are confronted with change and must find ways of accommodating it. Sometimes,
change can be perceived as disruptive and have a negative impact on the goals and
operations of a business. When applied to the IoT field, the idea of the socio-technical
ensemble can explain the process by which IoT is accepted, used and integrated within a
human context. To articulate the usefulness of the socio-technical ensemble in IoT, social
construction of technology (SCOT) is conducted to examine the social processes affecting
the acceptance of new ways of working in the Korean context. Using the SCOT concept,
the present study seeks to address the concerns both of general users, whose goals are
individually oriented, and of strategic stakeholders, who focus on realization of higher-level
objectives. Because SCOT also has some drawbacks, the qualitative analysis of IoT is
supplemented with a quantitative examination that models how users accept IoT – namely,
an IoT acceptance model from the user perspective. The combination of user interaction
with a socio-technical perspective has been introduced recently (Maguire, 2015); this focus
on IoT users complements the macro nature of the ecological framework. By combining
macro and micro perspectives, this study seeks an optimal solution for IoT that considers
appropriate user acceptance, social norms, regulations, industry dynamics and market
receptiveness. The relationship between IoT and the surrounding discourse provides
insight into the design, framing and development of the IoT. The Korean context in
particular offers normative examples of the dynamic interplay of IoT, given that the Korean
Government has proactively fostered relevant technological initiatives and provided key
lessons concerning regulatory regimes, infrastructure development, demand promotion
and institutional configurations conducive to policy execution. The following questions
guide the study:
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