Technology acceptance model of internet of things for water management at a local municipality

This paper identifies the factors and associated moderating factors important to municipality employees for the acceptance and use of Internet of Things (IoT) for the management of water services at a local municipality. Water services refer to the supply of water and sanitation services. Local municipalities collect, store and manage data on water services. The collected water services data might not be adequate or accurate which impact on timely and accurate decisions on management of water services. This difficulty can be mitigated through the successful adoption and use of the IoT by municipality employees. This research tested the adoption of IoT by applying the refined technology acceptance model to predict the adoption and use of information technology. The data was collected from municipality employees who responded to the structured questionnaire that was sent out through a survey. The results revealed that the factors perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, user training, facilitating conditions and user participation in the design of IoT influence employees' intention to use Internet of things. The research also revealed that demographic factors such as age, gender and experience are not moderating factors for the usefulness and the ease of use factors on intention to use factor for future adoption of Internet of things in water services context.