A Conceptualization of the Household/Technology Interaction

The traditional approach of viewing household/technology relationship is limited to the nature of adoption of technologies. We believe that in order to develop a meaningful analysis of this relationship one must go beyond mere adoption and examine the entire process consisting of not only adoption but the patterns of use as well as the impact of technology on household dynamics. In this paper, we attempt to conceptualize this issue by proposing a model of household technology structure. Embedded in this structure are the household social space. The paper examines the links between the three components as a means to understanding the household/ technology relationship. There has been an increasing interest in recent years among consumer researchers in household behavior and consumption (Etgar, 1978; Firat and Dholakia, 1982; Roberts and Wortzel, forthcoming). A particular aspect of the household consumption which is the main focus of this paper is the use of technology in the household. A major rationale for studying the household-technology relationship has been clearly stated by Nicosia (1983): "Technology is usually associated with production processes and various social science disciplines have researched the effects of technology in work activities .... The effects of technology in consumption activities have been largely ignored or taken for granted .... By focusing on the family as the institutional setting for a great deal of consumer behavior, we should gain a better understanding of the interdependencies between technology and consumers ...." A surge of interest in technology and households has been triggered by a multiplicity of factors. The entry of married women into the labor force has created the possibility that households might be acquiring a greater number of time saving devices. (Strober and Weingberg, 1977, 1980; Reilly, 1982). Some time-budget research has also been reported in Europe and in the U.S. looking at related issues (Szalai, 1972; Michelson, 1980). The emergence of modern information technology such as videotex and home computers has aroused much popular interest (Time, 1983) as well as scientific interest (Moschis et al., 1983; Venkatesh and Vitalari, 1983). This paper is based on three premises. First, in understanding the household-technology relationship, the conventional approach has been to look exclusively at the household and not the technology itself. A balanced approach would require that we not only examine the nature of the household but also the characteristics of household technologies. Second, we have pursued a line of thinking in our paper which attempts to distinguish between the three processes: adoption, use, and impact of technology in the context of a micro-social system which is called the household. While adoption is an important component of the technology/consumer interface, it provides but an incomplete picture of the totality of the interface itself, only because it is limited to the initial stages of consumer contact with the technology. It is this concern that the entire process merits examination. Third, we posit that households have internal ecologies and value systems which come into play in adopting new technologies. Although a balancing of exogenous (i.e., external to the household) and endogenous (i.e., internal) forces is not unique to the household, the particular manner in which it is accomplisehd differentiates households from other social institutions. In the next section we discuss some issues from current literature. This will be followed by a presentation of a model of the household technological structure and a development of the relevant ideas. Households and Technology: A Synthesis of Traditional Concerns In the past 50 years, households have adopted several technologies. Some obvious examples are household appliances such as washers, dryers, and refrigerators; entertainment oriented products such as television and stereo; transporation and communication devices. such as automobiles and telephones. These technologies have had a variety of impacts on the household. Some of the technologies have replaced manual labor, some of them have significantly reduced it, and a few others have, transformed totally the character of the household. In reviewing the relevant interdisciplinary literature on household technologies we find three interrelated themes: the relationship between household technology and (a) time savings, (b) women's employment, and (c) sex-linked division of labor. The first and major theme relates to the potential that some household technologies represent in saving time in the performance of housework. Morgan et al. (1966) found families with more automatic home appliances estimating more hours of housework than those with fewer appliances. Robinson et al. (1972) and Vanek (1978) also reported results partially confirming this result. Obviously there are some explanations for such counter intuitive findings. Walker (1969) has suggested that over the years the product of housework has attained a better quality (e.g., cleaner clothes, clean house, kitchen, etc.) and to a large extent this has been made possible by newer technologies. Additionally, there seems to be a trade-off of more repetitive and routine housework to a more managerial type of activity. Thus there seems to be a shift in internal allocation of the housewife's time. The other theme that runs through some of the studies has to do with the relationship between modern household equipment and women's employment. Strober and Weinberg (1980), contending that employed wives utilize different methods to reduce time pressures, tested the hypothesis that they own more durable goods than nonemployed wives. It was, however, found that the wife's employment was not significant either in the purchase decision or in the amount of expenditures on durables. The study was replicated by Nichols and Fox (1983) whose findings confirmed Strober and Weinberg's study.