What makes an object smart? Conceptualization, development, and validation of a scale to measure the Smartness of a Thing (SoT)

Although there is a growing interest in understanding smart objects, there is no consensus on the conceptualization of smart objects/things in the extant literature. In this paper, we focus on the smart objects/things that make up the larger system known as the Internet of Things (IoT) and measure the smartness of an object from the consumer perspective. We propose the Smartness of a Thing (SoT) as a multidimensional construct consisting of ten dimensions. Across a series of studies, we confirm the validity and reliability of our proposed SoT scale. Multiple validity tests suggest that our SoT scale can be applied to a wide range of research settings and contexts. For managerial application, we suggest a way of creating an index of a SoT score for a specific object. We also provide theoretical and managerial implications of this research.