Browsing by Author "Kroll, Franziska"
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- Voice search technology : a netnographic exploration of the behaviour of Amazon Alexa users in online communitiesPublication . Kroll, Franziska; Oliveira, Pedro Luís Lopes deSince this decade, voice search technology is spreading in today’s households. Experts predict that smart speaker manufacturers will sell approximately 94 million devices in 2019 accumulating the installed base to 207.9 million by the end of the year. In 2014, Amazon introduced the first cloud-enabled wireless speaker embedded with a conversational user interface, Alexa, and is dominating the market ever since. Plenty of opportunities to exploit this hype arise for companies offering voice search devices, for third-party suppliers selling compatible technologies and for companies aiming to promote their products through these search systems. By applying the qualitative research method “netnography”, this research analysed virtual conversations in Facebook online communities with the purpose of extracting insights about consumer attitudes towards voice search, Alexa, member engagement, motivations and barriers to future adoption. Firstly, negative media coverage regarding privacy concern issues has an impact on how Alexa is perceived online and also increases the controversial discussion in the communities. Additionally, findings are aligned with previous research regarding users personifying with the device. Thus, valuable insights are generated for an effective communication strategy including a successful collaboration with third-party suppliers and integration into smart-homes. Furthermore, both barriers for adoption and reasons for frustration were identified and recommendations were extracted to enhance the spreading of voice search technologies.