An Empirical Study of the Korean Telecommunication Market and IoT Smart Home: Effects of Bundling Strategy on Consumers’ Responses

Purpose: This research focused on the fact that the Internet platform is integral to IoT products such as Smart home and studied consumer buying decisions when products are sold bundled with internet service. Contrary to the sales strategies of telecommunication companies, some companies sell IoT products alone, for example Google, Kakao, and Naver. In this market situation, the sales strategies of Korean telecommunication companies were analyzed with bundling theory and technology acceptance model, then it was conducted to figure out which sales and distribution strategies could affect consumers‟ purchase behavior. Research design, data, methodology: Data was collected by149 questionnaires from groups who are familiar with IoT smart home systems, then exploratory factor analysis and regression were used to analyze the research model. Results: The results revealed that the perceived ease of use and the perceived usefulness affect the purchase intention of IoT-based products; however, this effect was not found in the case of bundled products. In other words, it is found that selling and distributing Internet services and IoT products together does not affect consumers‟ purchases. Conclusion: It is suggested that Korean telecommunications companies‟ existing sales and distribution strategies for IoT products need to be changed according to its characteristics. KCI Citation Count: 2