Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on consumers’ preparedness to a specific smart technology, by investigating the specific characteristics of technology readiness, consumer engagement, and perceived risk and trust. It investigates consumers’ interaction specifically advanced artificial intelligence systems as digital assistants and similar, by identifying consumers’ expectations from the new interaction. The book then focuses on fast fashion retail settings, in order to understand in which services and technologies for the physical store retailer should invest. It also evaluates the drivers of consumers’ resistance to smart services, by focusing on a privacy perspective. The book explores smart consumers who voluntarily engage in value creation activities. It then examines beacon technology to understand the benefits for in-store location-based marketing in general, and smart retailing in particular.