Research Directions on the Adoption, Usage, and Impact of the Internet of Things through the Use of Big Data Analytics

The number of devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) by the year 2020 may be as high as 75 billion. Long before that, big data analytics will be needed to make use of the data generated by the Internet of Things. While the technical issues needed to create the Internet of Things are substantial, little attention has been given to the behavioral, organizational and business issues that are necessary for a better understanding of the adoption, usage and impact of the IoT. We propose a framework based on the idea that this technology will evolve from monitored "Things", to "Networks of Things", and ultimately to an "Internet of Things". Each of these instantiations of the technology raises adoption, usage and impact issues that can be scrutinized at four levels of analysis: individual, organization, industry, and society. We apply the framework to propose research questions that need to be addressed by researchers.