Understanding the Internet of Things: A Conceptualisation of Business-to-Thing (B2T) Interactions

Abstract

The Internet of Things is widely regarded as one of the most disruptive technologies as it integrates Internet-enabled physical objects into the networked society and makes these objects increasingly autonomous partners in digitised value chains. After transforming internal processes and enhancing efficiency, the Internet of Things yields the potential to transform traditional business-to-customer interactions in a way previously not thought of. Remote patient monitoring, predictive maintenance, and automatic car repair are only some innovative examples. This paper contributes to the conceptualisation of the emerging business relationships based on such empowered smart things by proposing a series of core and advanced business-to-thing (B2T) interaction patterns. The core patterns named C2T-Only, B2T-Only, Customer-Centred, Business-Centred, Thing-Centred, and All-In B2T classify alternative interactions between businesses, customers, and smart things, using the connected car as an ongoing case and Uber as an example to demonstrate how patters can be composed. The proposed patterns demonstrate the affordances of integrating smart things into the networked society and sensitise for the emergence of B2T interactions.