Cited by 668Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and IdentificationInnovative Human-Technology InteractionAI in Service Interactions

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Consumer and Object Experience in the Internet of Things: An Assemblage Theory Approach

Hoffman, Donna L, Novak, Thomas P·2018·Journal of Consumer Research

DOI 10.1093/jcr/ucx105

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Abstract

The consumer Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to revolutionize consumer experience. Because consumers can actively interact with smart objects, the traditional, human-centric conceptualization of consumer experience as consumers’ internal subjective responses to branded objects may not be sufficient to conceptualize consumer experience in the IoT. Smart objects possess their own unique capacities and their own kinds of experiences in interaction with the consumer and each other. A conceptual framework based on assemblage theory and object-oriented ontology details how consumer experience and object experience emerge in the IoT. This conceptualization is anchored in the context of consumer-object assemblages, and defines consumer experience by its emergent properties, capacities, and agentic and communal roles expressed in interaction. Four specific consumer experience assemblages emerge: enabling experiences, comprising agentic self-extension and communal self-expansion, and constraining experiences, comprising agentic self-restriction and communal self-reduction. A parallel conceptualization of the construct of object experience argues that it can be accessed by consumers through object-oriented anthropomorphism, a nonhuman-centric approach to evaluating the expressive roles objects play in interaction. Directions for future research are derived, and consumer researchers are invited to join a dialogue about the important themes underlying our framework.

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Authors: Hoffman, D. L., & Novak, T. P.
Affiliations: George Washington University (US)
Corresponding author: Hoffman, Donna L
Venue: Journal of Consumer Research
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published: 2017-10-06
Volume: 44
Issue: 6
Pages: 1178-1204
ISSN: 0093-5301 (ISSN-L)
1537-5277
DOI: 10.1093/jcr/ucx105
OpenAlex: W3124255990
Cited by: 668
References: 124
Citations by year: 2026: 65 · 2025: 92 · 2024: 77 · 2023: 92 · 2022: 122 · 2021: 84 · 2020: 77 · 2019: 45 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 3
FWCI: 66.82
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Licence: academic.oup.com/journals/pages/about_us/legal/notices (vor)
Locations: Journal of Consumer Research (publishedVersion)
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › AI in Service Interactions
Keywords: Internet of Things, customer experience, assemblage theory, object-oriented ontology, smart objects

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Consumer and Object Experience in the Internet of Things: An Assemblage Theory Approach

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