Sociodemographic impact on smart cities IoT adoption in China
Abstract
Digital disruption is one of the most important social megatrends that deeply impact recent and future economic activities. IoT has contributed to the development of Chinese smart cities in recent years. Building on the authors' prior study (Boustani, Xu, & Xu, 2022), which established the mediating role of blockchain adoption between IoT and continuous usage intention, this study investigates how sociodemographic variables moderate these relationships. The authors use Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Partial Least Squares Multi-Group Analysis (PLS-MGA) with the SmartPLS software, analyzing a dataset comprising over a thousand samples in China. The authors' findings demonstrate that age positively moderates the blockchain adoption-continuous usage intention relationship, IoT knowledge positively moderates the citizen empowerment-IoT relationship, while frequency of IoT use negatively moderates the social influence-IoT relationship. These results extend UTAUT theory by revealing boundary conditions of technology adoption in smart cities.
Identifier Metadata
| Identifier | 110.0268/INT.2026.00242 |
| Canonical | mdoi:110.0268/INT.2026.00242 |
| Resolver URL | https://mdoi.org/110.0268/INT.2026.00242 |
| Resource URL | Open resource |
| Document URL | Open document |
| Content Type | Article |
| Authors | Nada Mallah Boustani, Qing Xu, Yan Xu |
| Year | 2025 |
| Depositor | International Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies and Innovative Researchs Organisation |
| Prefix | 110.0268 |
| Registered | June 22, 2026 |
| Updated | June 22, 2026 |
| Status | Active |
| Visibility | Public |
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