eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

Internet-connected infotainment systems (referred to as connected car in-vehicle infotainment) that provide personalized and on demand content through cloud computing promise new services for consumers. They also promise new sources for revenues and new ways for customer relationship management for their providers. However, the realization of such benefits requires consumers' acceptance of these systems. Within this thesis a nomological network to predict consumer acceptance of connected car in-vehicle infotainment (CC IVI) systems is developed and tested. Several antecedents of behavioral intention to use CC IVI systems are derived from the existing technology acceptance literature. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are discovered to impact such intention, mediated through someone's attitude towards CC IVI. Perceived enjoyment is added to reflect the partly hedonic nature of CC IVI systems. Furthermore trust is discovered as factor driving user acceptance of CC IVI. This thesis applies a multi-foci trust approach, differentiating between trust in the infotainment system itself and the provider of the system. The integration of perceived information privacy risk into the nomological network reflects the potential effect of fear to disclose personal information in the online environment of CC IVI. Two CC IVI systems that recently entered the market and are anticipated to reach high demand figures are Apple's CarPlay and Google's Android Auto. These systems are based on the iOS and Android operating systems and therefore either one should appear very familiar to many smartphone users. It is hypothesized that experience with the operating system from smartphone usage has a moderating effect on the suggested acceptance antecedents. The suggested model is empirically tested using partial least square structural equation modeling with data collected for Apple's CarPlay and Google's Android Auto as example case systems of CC IVI. Subsequently, a multi-group analysis is performed to test the moderating effect of operating system experience. The results provide insights into consumers' motivation to adopt connected car in-vehicle infotainment. Furthermore, the results can support car manufacturers to make informed decisions on their infotainment strategy and give implications to system designers.