Web Appendix - Automation Assemblages in the Internet of Things: Discovering Qualitative Practices at the Boundaries of Quantitative Change

Forthcoming, Journal of Consumer Research

62 Pages Posted: 9 Jun 2022

See all articles by Thomas Novak

Thomas Novak

George Washington University School of Business

Donna L. Hoffman

George Washington University School of Business

Date Written: May 27, 2022

Abstract

This eight-part Web Appendix provides methodological details of the paper “Automation Assemblages in the Internet of Things”.

In this paper, we examine consumers’ interactions with smart objects using a novel mixed method approach, guided by assemblage theory, to discover the emergence of automation practices. We use a unique text data set from the web service IFTTT representing hundreds of thousands of applets that represent “if-then” connections between pairs of Internet services. Consumers use these applets to automate events in their daily lives. We quantitatively identify and qualitatively interpret automation assemblages that emerge bottom-up as different consumers create similar applets within unique social contexts. Our data discovery approach combines word embeddings, density-based clustering, and nonlinear dimensionality reduction with an inductive approach to thematic analysis. We uncover 127 nested automation assemblages that correspond to automation practices. Practices are interpreted in terms of four higher-order categories: social expression, social connectedness, extended mind, and relational AI. To investigate the future trajectories of automation practices, we use the concept of the possibility space, a fundamental theoretical idea from assemblage theory. Using our empirical approach, we translate this theoretical possibility space of automation assemblages into a data visualization to predict how existing practices can grow and new practices can emerge. Our new approach makes conceptual, methodological, and empirical contributions with implications for consumer research and marketing strategy.

Keywords: Assemblage Theory, Automation, Consumer Experience, HDBSCAN, Internet of Things, Natural Language Processing, Possibility Space, Practice Theory, Word2Vec, Word Embeddings, UMAP

JEL Classification: C38, C39

Suggested Citation

Novak, Thomas and Hoffman, Donna L., Web Appendix - Automation Assemblages in the Internet of Things: Discovering Qualitative Practices at the Boundaries of Quantitative Change (May 27, 2022). Forthcoming, Journal of Consumer Research, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4121715 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4121715

Thomas Novak (Contact Author)

George Washington University School of Business ( email )

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Donna L. Hoffman

George Washington University School of Business ( email )

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Washington, DC 20052
United States
9515431260 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://postsocial.gwu.edu

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