Unveiling the drivers of remote employees’ intentions to use home as a service consumption hub: a configurational approach

The rise of remote work following post-pandemic changes and the digitalization of work has dramatically altered the global labor market. In all, 32.6 million Americans worked from home in 2025, accounting for approximately 22% of the workforce, according to Backlinko (2025). Companies and employees have numerous benefits of offering remote work. According to Everhour (2025), organizations can save an average of $44bn per year on part-time workers with flexibility on location, while up to $11,000 per employee is being saved, and according to U.S. Career Institute (2024), employees working remotely could save up to $12,000 per year by eliminating commuting costs, costs of professional dressing and costs of food consumption and, therefore, make remote work a mutually beneficial practice. Consequently, the increased popularity of remote work turned the private spaces into places of both work and consumption. The shift to work from home (WFH) further highlights the related unobserved consequences, that is, a change in in-home consumption and a rise in the demand for in-home services. Given that consumer consumption behavior is shifting toward home-based online delivery and digital service use (Pillai et al., 2022; Tsiotsou and Boukis, 2022), we know very little about home as a “combined space of work and consumption” and its implications on in-home service consumption during WFH.

The human resources and organizational behavior (HR/OB) literature on remote work has demonstrated that it influences not only productivity and employee retention but also the separation between work and private life by altering routines and time allocation. Recent literature indicates some of the impact of remote work on non-work aspects of employee behaviors such as work-life balance and well-being (Lukoschek and Stock-Homburg, 2021; Magrizos et al., 2023).With remote workers often facing blurred boundaries, longer workdays and difficulties disconnecting, convenience, time efficiency and control are perceived as extremely valuable. Simultaneously, many remote workers have found that the home workplace contributes to a better work-life balance, particularly for people with mobility issues, caregivers or those who desire an escape from commuting stress and work pressure (Dong et al., 2025). Such shifts also lead to increased desirability for in-home services such as meal delivery, at-home exercise programs, home cleaning services, telemedicine and on-demand home repair services. The literature of HR and remote work (Becker et al., 2022; Dong et al., 2025; Ng et al., 2022) has detailed the psychological consequences (e.g. technostress, loneliness and boundary management) for job performance and the well-being of WFH. However, they did not investigate the spillover effects to the non-work sphere – especially whether these psychological consequences of WFH cause consumers to switch from commercial providers to in-home services. There is limited information available on whether the psychological consequences of WFH make consumers more susceptible to switching from physical commercial spaces to in-home services (Lukoschek and Stock-Homburg, 2021).

Remote work has become an important topic for contemporary service research because it impacts customer relationships, choice of channel and consumer time and money allocation across different services (Tsiotsou and Boukis, 2022). There is no cohesive stream of services marketing literature about remote work, per se, but several interconnected streams collectively investigate the impact of remote work on service convenience, choice of channel, home-centered consumption and digital involvement. A core concept in services marketing is service convenience, that is, the degree to which a service facilitates its consumers and saves time, energy and effort (Berry et al., 2002). Service studies have found evidence that higher convenience significantly influences satisfaction and engagement (Berry et al., 2002; Benoit et al., 2017) and predicts the switching of communication channels to home-based services (online, app-based, etc.) (van Birgelen et al., 2012).

Another stream of research has examined how remote work shifts spending from third-place and location-bound services (e.g. cafés, gyms and salons) toward home-based and in-home services. A 2025 lifestyle study of remote workers shows that flexible schedules, reliance on technology and living at home all make people more likely to buy services that are convenient, rich in experiences and good for their health. These services are often delivered digitally or to the home (Fernando, 2025). Thus, consumers prioritize functional and economic advantages (such as speed, affordability and ease of coordination) when their engagement in the service process is substantial (for instance, home repairs and cleaning). Because of this, they are more inclined to use time-saving, convenient channels including home delivery platforms and telemedicine, as well as home-based do-it-yourself services (Al Maalouf et al., 2025).

Despite growing evidence that remote work reshapes consumer, time, space and routines, services marketing has not systematically integrated work-from-home status into core models of service consumption. Mostly studies are viewing work arrangement as noise instead of a structural moderator of the perception of convenience, choice of channels and adoption of in-home services. Furthermore, place-based consumption frameworks in services, including the “home as a consumption hub” notion (Tsiotsou and Boukis, 2022) and servicescape research (Rosenbaum and Massiah, 2011), articulate what is consumed and where. However, they do not thoroughly establish the drivers of post-switching from one type of consumption context to another (commercial/third-place toward residential/in-home), therefore leaving the literature on services fragmented while seldom considering how remote work boosts the need for in-home services.

With these gaps in mind, this study aims to provide a thorough understanding of the factors influencing remote workers’ intentions to use in-home services by integrating the Push–Pull–Mooring (PPM) framework with configurational and complexity theory. PPM classifies factors driving behavioral switching into push effects (negative factors compelling individuals away from a current context), pull effects (positive factors attracting them toward a new one) and mooring effects (facilitating or inhibiting conditions) (Bansal, 2005). Configurational and complexity theory supports that outcomes arise from combinations of interdependent conditions rather than single dominant causes (Fiss, 2011; Pappas and Woodside, 2021). Thus, we identify and examine how established WFH psychological consequences (techno invasion and loneliness), individual motivations (functional, hedonic and convenience) and conditional factors (home quality and boundary control) combine in multiple alternative sufficient configurations to jointly shape attitudes and intentions toward in-home services (see  Appendix A for definitions of all constructs). As such, this study bridges the home service consumption and remote working literature by uncovering multiple equifinal configurations that drive consumer attitudes and intentions toward in-home service consumption (Lukoschek and Stock-Homburg, 2021).

Thus, this study contributes to the literature in several ways. First, it responds to the call by Tsiotsou and Boukis (2022) to investigate the home as an emerging servicescape and consumption hub. By integrating spatial (home quality), psychological (techno-invasion, loneliness), motivational (hedonic, functional and convenience) and boundary management (boundary control) conditions into a unified configurational model; this study offers a comprehensive theoretical framework of in-home service consumption, enriching the emerging “home as servicescape” literature (Rosenbaum and Massiah, 2011; Suess et al., 2020; Cruz-Cárdenas et al., 2021). Furthermore, this study advances services marketing by anchoring the PPM framework in core service constructs – service convenience, channel choice and in-home services – revealing how remote work fundamentally reshapes consumers’ convenience perceptions and drives a shift from traditional, location-bound services to in-home alternatives.

Second, this study extends the PPM framework by introducing it within the “home as a commercial hub” and by redefining push, pull and mooring conditions to reflect the lived realities of remote employees. This contribution is significant because it requires rethinking push, pull and mooring conditions in the context of a space that simultaneously serves as a workplace, a servicescape and a private domain – a conceptual complexity that, to our knowledge, no prior PPM application has addressed. Moreover, the PPM framework has been predominantly applied to explain intentions to switch service providers, platforms or channels, with relatively limited attention to the post-switching behavioral stage. That is, what happens after consumers have migrated from commercial or third-place settings to in-home service consumption contexts and how they sustain or deepen their engagement with residential service alternatives (Bansal, 2005; Hsieh et al., 2025; Nugroho and Wang, 2023). To this end, our study makes a distinctive contribution.

Third, while HR/OB research has indeed explored remote work in depth, it has largely treated service consumption as a peripheral or downstream consequence rather than as a core object of study (Becker et al., 2022; Dong et al., 2025; Ng et al., 2022). Our paper moves beyond this by positioning remote employees’ actual use of in-home service consumption as a central phenomenon of interest and theorizing the specific psychological, motivational and conditional drivers that prompt their switching from commercial to residential consumption contexts. Fourth, drawing on the PPM framework, this study bridges the home service consumption and remote working streams by uncovering configurations of factors driving consumer intentions to in-home service consumption. Thus, we integrate remote work not as background context but as a structural moderator of service-channel choice, which has not been systematically examined in either services marketing or HR/OB literature. Fifth, the majority of previous research on remote working has been predominantly conducted during the COVID pandemic (Abelsen et al., 2023; Ng et al., 2022), potentially preventing accurate reflection of the phenomenon and its implications in the post-pandemic era (Magrizos et al., 2023). Thus, our study contributes to our understanding of remote work and its implications for home service consumption in the post-pandemic period.

This paper is organized as follows. First, we review related literature and present the PPM framework. Next, we introduce the proposed conceptual model with the factors driving consumers’ attitudes and intentions to in-home services. Then, we describe the study method and data analysis. Finally, we discuss the findings, the theoretical and practical implications and conclude with this study’s limitations and future research recommendations.

The in-home consumption literature views home as a consumption hub and investigates home characteristics and their role in digital and physical consumption at home (van Birgelen et al., 2012), the adoption of new technologies and app-based services, as well as how consumers interact with services and techno-actors in their own residences (Cruz-Cárdenas et al., 2021). For instance, studies explore consumer motivations for using smart devices and services in the home environment and identify the different types of value (e.g. hedonic and functional) for consumers when using technology-based services at home (Cruz-Cárdenas et al., 2021). This stream also uncovers various technology-related (e.g. complexity, surveillance and innovativeness), psychological (e.g. skepticism and perceived risk) and lifestyle/social factors (e.g. self-congruence) that drive the use of smart devices and services at home (Cruz-Cárdenas et al., 2021). In light of new technologies and app-based consumption, pertinent research explores consumers’ experience with online delivery services. For instance, scholars examine the influence of perceived benefits and risks on purchase intention for online food delivery services (Pillai et al., 2022) and how different types of customer value drive purchases from food delivery apps (Mohanty et al., 2024). Recent work in the area reconciles the various literature streams of in-home consumption by highlighting three areas for future research (i.e. elderly, home atmospherics and home health care services) and by proposing the term “in-home service consumption” to capture the “physical service offerings and experiences that are consumed synchronously or asynchronously in customers’ private physical space” (Tsiotsou and Boukis, 2022, p. 49).

In parallel, the growing remote working stream has uncovered various performance-related and psychological consequences for WFH employees. For instance, employees tend to experience greater autonomy, higher job satisfaction, commitment and engagement, while reporting lower turnover intentions and less stress when working remotely (Tarafdar et al., 2015). Furthermore, studies have examined the impact of remote work on employees’ well-being and especially on their work-life boundaries, relationship with work technology (i.e. technostress factors), psychological state (e.g. life satisfaction and emotional exhaustion) and privacy invasion (Ng et al., 2022; Pirkkalainen et al., 2019) with conflicting findings. While this stream has produced extensive empirical evidence on how remote working conditions can affect individual job performance, organizational effectiveness and employees’ well-being (Becker et al., 2022; Ng et al., 2022), it has yet to investigate the dual function of home as a working space and consumption hub that could shape individuals’ consumption patterns when working from home (Tsiotsou and Boukis, 2022).

At the same time, the remote work literature and in-home service consumption research remain isolated, with few studies examining the consumption implications of WFH (Lukoschek and Stock-Homburg, 2021). This lack of evidence is important for several reasons. First, as remote work reduces commuting and frees up time (Caulfield and Charly, 2022), it shifts the production boundary toward the home, increasing demand for home-based services. The more time consumers spend at home, the more likely the home environment is to trigger purchasing and consuming services within the homescape. Moreover, positive job-related resources (knowledge, energy and inspiration) spill over into home life, increasing innovativeness and willingness to invest in-home improvements (Lukoschek and Stock-Homburg, 2021). Working from home also results in becoming a multifunctional environment where consumers seek for upgrades to support the different identities enacted in it. Finally, WFH may intensify in-home service consumption as individuals seek to offset reduced workplace contact and buy services to compensate for psychological deficits (e.g. loneliness and stress). As remote work is prevalent for employees in certain industries (Statista, 2023), more research attention is needed to the broader social and psychological consequences of WFH for home consumption (Lukoschek and Stock-Homburg, 2021). To understand these consequences, we use the PPM framework as the theoretical underpinning behind consumers’ post-switching attitudes and intentions (Bansal, 2005).

The PPM framework is used to understand switching behavior across contexts, such as offline services (Bansal, 2005), mobile shopping and augmented reality settings (Nugroho and Wang, 2023). It classifies factors that determine individual switching behavior into: push effects (i.e. negative factors compelling individuals away from switching); pull effects (i.e. positive factors drawing individuals to in-home services); and mooring effects (i.e. supplementary factors facilitating or hampering switching intentions) (Bansal, 2005). Prior studies provide valuable insights into the factors that determine switching behavior at the brand level, including dissatisfaction with the current service provider, the appeal of alternative options and the costs associated with switching (Bansal, 2005). However, insufficient attention is given to investigating consumers’ desire to switch to emerging commercial settings, such as one’s residential area (Tsiotsou and Boukis, 2022). In a home consumption context, we argue that push effects are negative factors that prevent consumers from using in-home services, whereas pull effects are factors that attract consumers to in-home services (Chuah et al., 2021).

Drawing on the PPM framework, the services marketing literature and the HR/OB literature, we derived three categories of causal condition influencing the use of in-home services. Each condition was selected because it represented theoretically grounded role in the PPM framework (push, pull or mooring), showed consistent empirical support in the context of home-based service consumption and/or remote work and reflected a different aspect of the WFM experience that is not captured by the other conditions.

First, we theorize three individual motivations – hedonic, convenience and functional – as pull factors. The three motivations were selected because they span the main dimensions of value – hedonic, convenience and functional motivation – which have consistently been linked to in-home and technology-based service consumption (Cruz-Cárdenas et al., 2021; Childers et al., 2001) and, taken together, represent the pulling forces that attract consumers to in-home services (Bansal, 2005), as required of pull factors. Second, we propose techno-invasion and work-induced loneliness as push factors. We selected techno-invasion and work-induced loneliness because these two constructs are among the most frequently evidenced negative psychological outcomes associated with working remotely (Becker et al., 2022; Ng et al., 2022) and both create dissatisfaction with the current state of consumption, the essence of push effects (Bansal, 2005). More importantly, they represent two different psychological mechanisms – a technological boundary transgression and a social deficit, respectively – so that we capture different aspects of the push force. Third, we theorize perceived home quality and boundary control as mooring factors. We selected the conditions of home quality and boundary control because, as mooring factors, they influence whether push and pull factors lead to changes in attitudes and behaviors, without necessarily pulling consumers toward or away from in-home services (Bansal, 2005). Home quality relates to the home’s suitability for consumption while boundary control represents individual control over the separation between work and life, both of which are structurally impacted by remote work and affect in-home services use (see  Appendix A for the definitions of all constructs).

Based on the above, we develop a conceptual model that explains how the identified factors shape attitude and intention to use of in-home services (Figure 1). Drawing on configuration theory (Fiss, 2011), we argue that each one of these causal conditions can produce different outcome combinations, while the configurations leading to one outcome may differ from those leading to its absence. Each one of these causal factors and their outcomes is discussed next.

Work in consumer psychology identifies various motivations (e.g. functional, social, convenience and hedonic) that drive consumer attitudes and desires, energizing and driving their purchase behavior across contexts (Chou et al., 2016; Cruz-Cárdenas et al., 2021). Our work focuses on three motivations relevant to in-home services: functional, hedonic and convenience. Functional motivation refers to the drive to achieve specific, practical and goal-oriented outcomes. This motivation is grounded in efficiency, performance and the successful completion of tasks (Cruz-Cárdenas et al., 2021). An example is using a digital workout program to meet fitness targets or improve physical performance. Hedonic motivation involves the pursuit of pleasure, enjoyment and emotionally gratifying experiences (Chou et al., 2016). Consumers driven by hedonic motives could engage with in-home services because they find them fun, entertaining or stimulating (e.g. participating in playful well-being sessions). Convenience motivation reflects consumers’ desire to minimize the time, physical effort and mental load associated with the consumption process (Forsythe et al., 2006). This includes choosing in-home options that simplify daily routines, such as selecting online courses to avoid commuting.

Previous research indicates that the effect of different motivations on consumer responses varies depending on the context. For example, functional and convenience motivations are more prominent in workplace technology integration, whereas hedonic ones are more prominent in-home technology adoption (Childers et al., 2001). Recent work suggests different motivations for home consumption (e.g. information and entertainment) compared to out-of-home purchases (e.g. control, mobility, affirmation of self-identity and social motives), confirming the need to further investigate how different types of motivation drive consumer intentions to use in-home services (Chan-Olmsted and Wang, 2022).

In a home context, functional and convenience motivations are more relevant for utilitarian decisions (e.g. grocery shopping), whereas hedonic motivations are more likely to drive pleasure and enjoyment-seeking experiences (e.g. fun in interactive well-being sessions) (Childers et al., 2001). Convenience and hedonic motivations can enhance consumers’ attitudes toward using online food delivery services; when consumers perceive that they can save time and effort while also enjoying fun and pleasure at home, they are more likely to adopt a positive attitude toward these services and use them (Yeo et al., 2017). Based on this evidence, we propose that functional, hedonic and convenience motivations could affect one’s attitudes and intentions toward in-home services.

The remote working stream identifies various performance-related and psychological/well-being consequences for WFH employees (Ng et al., 2022; Tarafdar et al., 2015). While remote work offers several benefits to employees (e.g. flexibility, better work-life balance – Saura et al., 2022), it can also generate adverse psychological consequences, including loneliness, social isolation, alienation and stress (Ng et al., 2022). We propose techno-invasion and loneliness as two psychological consequences of WFH that can function as negative pressures toward in-home services as viable alternatives. Thus, the proposed push factors may constitute meaningful sources of remote workers’ dissatisfaction with existing consumption arrangements.

Techno-invasion refers to the extent to which an employee feels that non-work time is invaded by work demands (Singh et al., 2022). It remains one of the most dominant stressors in the digitalized workplace, linked to counterproductive outcomes such as increased fatigue, stress (Tarafdar et al., 2015), decreased well-being perceptions (e.g. exhaustion and burnout) as well as invasion of privacy and increased work-life conflicts (Becker et al., 2022; Pirkkalainen et al., 2019). We view techno-invasion as a push factor, as it reflects employees’ inability to cope with role demands and enhance the blurred boundaries between work and personal life (Chen et al., 2022). Increased perceptions of techno-invasion are likely to result in reduced in-home service use, as individuals will be more prone to spend time outside their residential space.

Work-induced loneliness is a psychological state in which individuals feel socially disconnected, isolated or emotionally distant as a direct result of their work conditions and/or work-related demands (McCarthy et al., 2026). It arises when an employee perceives a discrepancy between their desired and actual social connections at work (Becker et al., 2022; Cacioppo and Hawkley, 2009). Increased feelings of work-related loneliness trigger anxiety and negative affect (Cacioppo and Hawkley, 2009) and reducing one’s commitment and performance (Ozcelik and Barsade, 2018). In a WFH context, individuals might experience increased loneliness because of fewer physical interactions and diminished social connections with co-workers (Ozcelik et al., 2020).

Two conditional factors are proposed: perceived home quality and boundary control. Perceived home quality and boundary control are suggested as mooring factors, because they serve as stable contextual “anchors” that influence whether push and pull forces affect attitudes and intentions, rather than merely pushing consumers away from or pulling them toward home services. Thus, an important aspect of home consumption reflects the qualities and benefits individuals associate with their home environment (So et al., 2018). Perceived home quality captures the functional attributes, such as “household amenities,” “homely feel” and “large space,” as well as the atmosphere of one’s home environment (Guttentag et al., 2018). Studies on peer-to-peer accommodation increasingly recognize the importance of visitors’ home perceptions and conceptualize them along various dimensions (i.e. physical and spatial, social, affective and hospitality; Bal and Izak, 2021). Visitor home perceptions are also viewed as a value co-creation resource for peer-to-peer accommodation platforms, as they affect visitors’ experience with the platform (Johnson and Neuhofer, 2017). Recent work also explores home perceptions in relation to consumers’ experience with smart devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) (Smith, 2020). In our context, we propose that perceived home quality will be a mooring factor. As one’s favorable spatial perceptions enhance their satisfaction with home atmospherics (e.g. decoration and personalization) and their level of enjoyment (Suess et al., 2020), a better home quality is likely to indirectly enhance one’s intentions of use in-home services (Suess et al., 2020).

Boundary control reflects employees’ ability to manage work–life boundaries and their perceived control over these boundaries (Kossek et al., 2012). Boundary theory explores how individuals create and maintain boundaries between work and their personal lives and how they organize the world around them (Dumas and Sanchez-Burks, 2015). It describes how employees erect “mental fences” around work and family to construct boundaries between these roles and the consequences of these “mental fences” for their personal life (Bal and Izak, 2021). Higher boundary control is linked to lower turnover intentions, work–family conflict and depression (Kossek et al., 2012), whereas low levels of boundary control are associated with higher levels of psychological distress and worse work-life balance (Kossek et al., 2012). Therefore, boundary control is viewed as a mooring condition whose presence or absence may shape attitudes and intentions to use in-home services in combination with other push and pull factors.

Attitudes toward in-home services represents an individual’s overall evaluative disposition – including beliefs, feelings and general favorability or unfavorability – toward using services that are delivered and consumed within their home environment (Hsu et al., 2010). In a home context, prior work has highlighted the role of affective and entertainment-related motivations in consumers’ engagement with podcasting at home (Chan-Olmsted and Wang, 2022).

Intentions to use in-home services refer to the extent to which consumers are willing to engage with services delivered and consumed within the home environment and indirectly shape their tendency to switch from public to in-home consumption of services (Gremler et al., 2020). As the PPM framework has long been used to understand consumer switching from one context to another and WFH (Hsieh et al., 2025), we propose that distinct configurations of WFH consequences, individual motivations, conditional factors and consumers’ attitudes toward in-home consumption will lead to different intentions to use at-home services.

Consistent with configurational and complexity theory (Fiss, 2011), we claim that neither any individual pull, push or mooring condition is enough in itself to create positive attitudes or intentions toward in-home service consumption, rather a specific combination of such conditions working together simultaneously is required to generate the outcome (conjunctural causation). And as multiple combinations of push, pull and mooring factors may individually yield the same outcome (equifinality), there exists no overall “master recipe of causation”. Building on these insights, we draw the following propositions:

A pilot study was first conducted to identify the most widely used in-home services. A convenience sample of UK-based consumers was used, and data were collected from 122 participants from Prolific in May 2022. This period followed the UK Government’s full lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in February 2022, meaning that participants had regained access to commercial and third-place services. For eligibility, two criteria were set: participants needed to have worked fully remotely for the past six months as full-time employees and to have done so from their personal space/home (digital nomads were excluded). Participants were then asked about their consumption habits at home and the extent to which they consume/use services and experiences (i.e. digital courses, live workouts session, virtual games and online event attendance) and physical ones (i.e. in-home socializing events, personal workout, well-being sessions and counselling sessions) at their home (1 = Not at all to 5 = Always). Results highlighted relatively low to moderate usage rates among participants for most of these services [M(SD)dig_course = 2.54(1.44); M(SD)dig_workout = 2.97(1.44); M(SD)virt_games = 1.64(1.08); M(SD)home_socials = 2.55(1.131); M(SD)dig-events = 2.07(1.05); M(SD)person_workout = 1.64(1.08); M(SD)home_well-being = 1.36(0.83); and M(SD)home_counselling = 1.25(0.59)]. Interestingly, participants also reported higher usage intentions for all these services (except virtual games) than in their pre-pandemic lives at home [M(SD) usage_intentions = 4.03(1.92)].

Based on the pretest results, we focused on four in-home services, which were reported as the most frequently used among participants (i.e. digital workouts, online courses/classes, digital social events and online well-being sessions). For the main study, data were collected from a final usable sample of 245 UK-based Prolific consumers who used the above four services, using the same eligibility criteria as in the pretest. Data were collected on June 2022. Regarding their background, 50.6% were males; 31% of them belong to the 25–35 age group (28.2% to 36–45 group); 44.9% have a bachelor’s degree (35.5% have a high school diploma); and 61.2% of them work remotely for more than two years (22.9% work remotely between 1 and 2 years).

The measures of this study constructs are based on a variety of established scales from the literature. For each construct, we selected scales that have strong psychometric support in prior work, have been validated in conceptually similar contexts (e.g. technology-based services, remote work and home/hospitality settings) and capture the facets of the construct that are theoretically central to our configurational model. We used the hedonic motivation scale from So et al. (2018) and the functional motivation from Cruz-Cárdenas et al. (2021). Convenience motivation was adapted from Forsythe et al. (2006). Work-induced loneliness relies on three items from Becker et al.’s (2022) scale and techno-invasion was based on three items from Singh et al. (2022). Boundary control was measured with three items based on Kossek et al.’s (2012) work. Home quality was assessed with four items from So et al. (2018). Attitude toward in-home services was adapted based on Singh et al.’s (2022) measure. Intentions to use in-home services items were adapted from Antón et al. (2007) to fit the context. Table S1 (S stands for Supplementary material) presents the descriptive statistics of the constructs, while Table S2 (Supplementary material) provides the evaluation results of the constructs.

Consistent with complexity and configuration theories, this study adopts fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) as the primary analytical approach (Fiss, 2011; Pappas and Woodside, 2021). FsQCA is a set-theoretic, case-based method specifically designed to model causal complexity and to identify how combinations of interdependent conditions jointly produce an outcome. In contrast to traditional quantitative methods (e.g. regression analysis, structural equation modeling (SEM)) that focus on estimating average net effects, fsQCA is “based on the premise that causal relations are frequently better understood in terms of set memberships and configurational patterns rather than correlations” (Fiss, 2011, p. 395).

A central assumption of complexity and configuration theories is that outcomes typically arise through multiple conjunctural causations, such that no single antecedent is usually sufficient on its own. Instead, different combinations of conditions may independently lead to the same outcome (i.e. equifinality), and the configurations leading to the presence of an outcome may differ from those leading to its absence (i.e. causal asymmetry) (Fiss, 2011; Pappas and Woodside, 2021). These assumptions are particularly relevant in services and consumer behavior contexts, where heterogeneous combinations of psychological states, motivations and conditional factors may jointly shape consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions (Pappas and Woodside, 2021).

Accordingly, the objective is not to test a single dominant causal structure or to estimate symmetric net effects of individual predictors but to identify multiple alternative sufficient configurations of push, pull and mooring factors that can independently produce high attitudes and intentions toward in-home services. Importantly, these sufficient configurations should not be interpreted as implying that any single condition is universally necessary for the outcomes. Figure 1 is, therefore, presented as a PPM-based configurational framework that organizes theoretically grounded conditions, rather than as a traditional structural equation conceptual model with pre-specified directional paths.

While SEM is well suited for testing linear and symmetric relationships, such approaches impose assumptions of unifinality and symmetry that are inconsistent with configurational and complexity-theoretic perspectives. In contexts characterized by heterogeneity and conjunctural causation, SEM may obscure meaningful alternative causal pathways, substitution effects and contrarian cases, even when interaction terms are included. FsQCA, by contrast, is explicitly designed to uncover nonlinear, asymmetric and combinatorial causal structures and to identify how different constellations of conditions can be sufficient for producing the same outcome (Fiss, 2011; Pappas and Woodside, 2021).

With respect to sample size, fsQCA is applicable to small, medium and large samples and does not rely on large-sample asymptotic assumptions in the same way as SEM. Instead, fsQCA focuses on set membership and case-level sufficiency and necessity relationships, enabling the identification of meaningful configurational patterns across subsets of cases (Pappas and Woodside, 2021). Given our sample of 245 remote workers and our configurational research objective, fsQCA is, therefore, both methodologically appropriate and theoretically aligned with the aims of this study.

Overall, by using fsQCA, this study moves beyond identifying symmetric, average relationships and instead adopts a holistic, configuration-centered approach that is consistent with contemporary neo-configurational research in marketing and management. Finally, the recurrence of certain conditions across multiple sufficient configurations reflects central but non-sufficient elements whose causal roles vary across alternative causal recipes involving different combinations and presence/absence patterns (Fiss, 2011).

Before using fsQCA, we first assessed the reliability and validity of the constructs. All standardized factor loadings exceeded the 0.40 cut-off, except for two items, WIL3 and CO1, which were therefore dropped. As shown in Table S2 (Supplementary material), Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability are above the cut-off threshold of 0.70, the AVE values are above the minimum value of 0.5 and the square root of AVE exceeds the intercorrelations among the latent variables, which constitute evidence of internal consistency, convergent and discriminant validity (Fornell and Larcker, 1981; Hair et al., 2019). Moreover, the discriminant validity of the constructs was double-checked using the heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlation, which outperforms the traditional discriminant validity testing in marketing (Henseler et al., 2015). As shown in Table S2 (Supplementary material), the heterotrait-monotrait values for each pair of constructs are below the 0.85 cut-off, validating their distinctiveness (Henseler et al., 2015).

We next performed contrarian case analyses to identify asymmetric relationships between the outcome variables, attitudes (ATT) and intentions to use in-home services (INT) and the seven predictor variables, using quintiles (i.e. dividing the respondent cases into five equal groups; Childers et al., 2001). As shown in Tables S3 and S4 (Supplementary material), cross-tabulation analyses, along with Cramér’s V test, revealed the presence of contrarian cases (i.e. cases not explained by the main effects) and documented heterogeneity in predicting ATT and INT. Because of space limitations, further analysis and examples are provided in Supplementary material.

Calibration is a vital step in fsQCA, as it converts Likert-scale values into fuzzy sets ranging from 0 to 1 (Ragin and Davey, 2023). A membership score of 0 denotes full non-member of the set, while scores of 0.5 and 1 signify intermediate and full-set membership, respectively (Ragin and Davey, 2023). Following the calibration approach, we directly calibrate the data by setting three thresholds: one for full-set membership (six), one for full-set nonmembership (two) and one for intermediate-set membership (four). Finally, the calibration process was completed using the three breakpoints above as inputs to the calibrate function in the fsQCA software (Ragin and Davey, 2023).

Along with fsQCA conventions, “high attitude” is specified as a fuzzy-set outcome condition reflecting degree of membership in the set of respondents with high attitudes, rather than a simple positive–negative distinction. Accordingly, calibration yields graded membership scores for both the set (high attitude) and its negation (not-high attitude), enabling analysis of the presence and absence of the outcome condition in line with set-theoretic logic and causal asymmetry principles (Pappas and Woodside, 2021).

To identify all possible sufficient configurations, we constructed truth tables for each outcome. Given our sample size of 245, the minimum acceptable frequency threshold is set at 2, and the minimum acceptable consistency is 0.80, which exceeds the minimum threshold of 0.75, as recommended in the literature (Pappas and Woodside, 2021; Ragin and Davey, 2023). The truth tables for the outcome variables ATT and INT are presented in Tables S5 and S6 (Supplementary material), respectively. Finally, we examine the robustness of the fsQCA results for both models by increasing the consistency threshold from 0.80 to 0.85. The interpretation of the results for the three solutions (i.e. complex, parsimonious and intermediate) remains substantively unchanged, confirming the robustness of the fsQCA results.

Tables 1 and 2 present the multiple sufficient configurations with consistencies over 0.80 for Attitudes (ATT) and Intentions (INT) to use in-home services, respectively. Analytically, the sufficiency analyses revealed eight sufficient combinations that explain each one of the outcome variables. The overall solution consistency can be considered analogous to the R-square value reported in regression analyses (Pappas and Woodside, 2021). Both the overall solution consistency and the overall solution coverage are well above the threshold values of 0.80 and 0.10 (Ragin and Davey, 2023), evidencing that a substantial proportion of cases exhibiting the outcomes are covered by the identified sufficient configurations. Clearly, the results verify the existence of core and peripheral conditions, as well as neutral permutations of configurations. More specifically, the eight solutions produced for each of the two outcome variables manifest the existence of first-order equifinality of solutions, while the permutations (i.e. within Solutions 2a, 2b, 2c and 3a, 3b, 3c in Tables 1 and 2) confirm the second-order equifinality 1.

Table 1 presents the sufficient configurations associated with high attitudes toward in-home services. Overall, the results reveal multiple equifinal pathways, underscoring that no single condition is sufficient on its own. Instead, different combinations of motivational, contextual and work-related conditions jointly form sufficient causal recipes.

At the individual level, Solution 1a indicates that hedonic motivation, functional motivation and home quality operate as core conditions for high attitudes toward in-home services. These core conditions are complemented by convenience motivation and boundary control as peripheral conditions. Related to Solution 1a but with different peripheral causes, Solution 1b indicates that in-home service consumption may be motivated with the same core conditions but surrounded by the peripheral elements of techno-invasion and work-induced loneliness, regardless of convenience motivation and with the absence of boundary control. The two configurational groupings show clear trade-offs. Specifically, boundary control, techno-invasion, work-induced loneliness and convenience motivation substitute for one another as peripheral conditions, enabling neutral permutations around the same core elements (i.e. HQ, HM and FM). In contrast, Solutions 2a, 2b and 2c tell a different story (Table 1).

Specifically, Solutions 2a and 2b highlight the saliency of home quality and functional motivation as frequently occurring core conditions for in-home services consumption, while Solution 2c enriches this pattern by including hedonic motivation as an additional core condition. In this configuration, these core elements are frequently accompanied by the absence of techno-invasion and work-induced loneliness, with boundary control operating as a peripheral condition that reinforces the core causal structure.

In the same vein, but with different typological configurations, Solutions 3a and 3b indicate that hedonic motivation operates as a core condition. These configurations further combine convenience motivation and techno-invasion, along with the absence of boundary control and work-induced loneliness as peripheral conditions, to form sufficient pathways for high attitudes toward in-home services. Interestingly, Solutions 3a and 3b show that there are trade-offs between home quality and functional motivation (Supplementary material), confirming the substitution and complementarity effects between individual motivations and home perception. This is also confirmed by Solution 3c, which corroborates home quality as a core causal condition for motivating in-home services, with the absence of individual motivations and the presence of peripheral causes such as techno-invasion.

Moving to intentions to use in-home services, Table 2 presents the sufficient configurations associated with high switching intentions toward in-home service consumption. Similar to the attitude results, the findings reveal multiple equifinal pathways, indicating that switching intentions are generated through different combinations of motivational, contextual and work-related conditions.

Analytically, with the absence of techno-invasion and feelings of loneliness at work and with boundary control as a peripheral condition, high intentions to use in-home services may be achieved through multiple alternative pathways. In Solution 2a, high convenience motivation operates as a core condition, combined with home quality and the absence of hedonic and functional motivations. In Solution 2b, convenience motivation and functional motivation act as core conditions, accompanied by the absence of hedonic motivation and home quality. In Solution 2c, hedonic motivation, functional motivation and home quality form the core conditions, regardless of convenience motivation, as indicated by its “don’t care” status. Looking more deeply into Solutions 2a and 2b, the functional motivation and home quality conditions can be treated as substitutes, leading to an equifinal configuration that prompts consumers to consume in-home services.

Finally, Solutions 3a, 3b and 3c are almost identical to the solutions of the previous fuzzy set analysis (Table 1 – Solutions 3a, 3b and 3c), with the slight difference being the absence of peripheral conditions. Specifically, Solutions 3a and 3b suggest that the core conditions of hedonic motivation, convenience motivation and techno-invasion with the absence of boundary control and work-induced loneliness can lead high intentions to use in-home services, while there is an interesting trade-off between home quality and functional motivation, leading to alternative equifinal configurations. The latter is also supported by Solution 3c, which demonstrates the importance of home quality as a major causal condition for increasing the intention to consume in-home services.

All in all, the intentions results demonstrate that high switching intentions most often emerge from configurations in which strong pull factors (e.g. hedonic, convenience and functional motivations) and/or favorable home quality combine with selected WFH factors. The absence of work-induced loneliness appears as a complementary condition in some configurations, although alternative sufficient pathways indicate that social experiences do not exert a uniform effect on intentions. Drawing on these insights, the configurations for switching intentions further illustrate conjunctural causation, causal asymmetry and equifinality.

The last configuration 3d complements Solutions 3a, 3b and 3c by raising the role of work-induced loneliness as a peripheral condition in remote employees’ intentions toward in-home service consumption, while completing the picture of first- and second-order equifinality of solutions or, in other words, the equifinality across the different solutions and the equifinality of permutations within solutions. In terms of coverage, the results for both fuzzy set analyses – attitudes and intentions toward in-home service consumption – account for 63.2% and 59.2%, respectively, indicating a substantial proportion of the outcomes can be explained by our configurations. Drawing on these insights, the 16 configurations across the two outcomes compose constellations of core and peripheral causes that form alternative sufficient causal recipes associated with in-home services consumption. These results capture conjunctural causation among interrelated conditions, highlight asymmetric relationships and enable a more holistic interpretation of in-home service consumption.

As homes are becoming service consumption hubs (Tsiotsou and Boukis, 2022), this work provides a deeper understanding of in-home service consumption. So far, only a limited number of studies have explicitly sought to bridge the consequences of remote work and consumption patterns. Using the PPM lens and a configurational analysis, this study shows that multiple equifinal combinations of push, pull and mooring conditions can yield high attitudes and intentions to in-home service consumption, underscoring that no single factor is universally necessary. The findings pave the way for further research into smart home services and highlight the value of configurational approaches for understanding the interplay between work-related experiences and in-home service consumption.

Specifically, the results show that high attitudes toward in-home services emerge from several distinct configurations that combine hedonic, functional and convenience motivations with home quality and selected WFH psychological states. In several configurations, hedonic and functional motivations, together with high perceived home quality, operate as core conditions, with convenience motivation and boundary control acting as peripheral yet reinforcing elements. This finding aligns with in-home consumption research that documents the importance of hedonic and functional value in technology-based in-home services, such as smart devices, app-based services and online delivery (Cruz-Cárdenas et al., 2021; Pillai et al., 2022). Moreover, it resonates with services marketing research that positions service convenience and perceived ease as central drivers of favorable evaluations and engagement, especially in time-sensitive and high-effort contexts (van Birgelen et al., 2012; Berry et al., 2002; Benoit et al., 2017). Our configurational evidence complements previous findings (Childers et al., 2001; Yeo et al., 2017) by showing that hedonic, functional and convenience motives do not act in isolation but substitute for and complement each other across multiple sufficient pathways. Depending on the configuration, high attitudes can result from strong hedonic value even when convenience is less pronounced or from strong convenience and functional value even when hedonic appeal is weaker, reinforcing the idea of motivational trade-offs in service evaluations.

Psychological WFH “push” factors such as techno-invasion and work-induced loneliness also appear in several configurations, but their role is asymmetric and context-dependent. In some solutions, the absence of techno-invasion and loneliness complements motivational and home-quality factors, supporting high attitudes; in others, attitudes remain high even in the presence of elevated techno-invasion and loneliness when strong hedonic or functional motivations and high home quality are present. Our study extends previous HR/OB insights (Tarafdar et al., 2015; Becker et al., 2022; Pirkkalainen et al., 2019; Singh et al., 2022) into services marketing by demonstrating that WFH push states do not have simple, linear effects on in-home service attitudes; rather, their influence is contingent on how they combine with consumption motives and home perceptions. In this sense, psychological “push” factors are critical but non-universal causal elements of in-home service consumption. Furthermore, psychological push factors play a dual role: they can drive consumers away from certain service contexts (e.g. crowded physical locations) while simultaneously pushing them toward in-home service solutions that promise relief.

The role of perceived home quality as a core condition across several solutions underscores the importance of the home environment as a servicescape for in-home service consumption. Our findings extend previous literature (So et al., 2018; Guttentag et al., 2018; Suess et al., 2020) by showing that, in remote work contexts, favorable home perceptions can either amplify or partially substitute for intrinsic motivations when fostering high attitudes toward in-home services. For instance, some configurations indicate that high home quality, even with relatively lower individual motivations, suffices to produce high attitudes, highlighting the anchoring role of the home servicescape in shaping remote workers’ intentions to consume in-home services.

In relation to intentions to use in-home services, the results again reveal multiple equifinal configurations where strong pull factors (hedonic, convenience and functional motivations) and/or favorable home quality combine with selected WFH conditions to drive remote workers’ intentions to in-home services. In some configurations, convenience motivation emerges as a core driver, consistent with prior evidence that convenience strongly predicts channel switching to online and app-based services (van Birgelen et al., 2012; Pillai et al., 2022). In other configurations, hedonic and functional motivations, together with home quality, form the core conditions, indicating that remote employees may be willing to continue to use in-home services when the latter promise both efficiency and enjoyable experiences in a comfortable home environment.

Our results also have implications for resource substitution in service consumption, given we discover there to be some trade-offs between functional motivation and home quality in certain models. Specifically, there are situations in which either strong task-oriented value OR a strong home servicescape alone is enough to predict in-home service usage. This aligns with the larger service literature concerning value co-creation, whereby consumers can rely on the service’s design or their resources (skills, time and space) to co-create a desired result (Johnson and Neuhofer, 2017; Cruz-Cárdenas et al., 2021). As such, for consumers working remotely, their homes serve as a resource with which to co-create, along with their psychological state and motivations, while making service-switching choices.

The asymmetric presence of work-induced loneliness over the configurations shows how psychological push states have subtle and complex impacts on service consumption. For some solutions, the absence of loneliness emerges as a complementary condition, suggesting that when remote workers have social relationships and are psychologically balanced, they may be more willing to adopt more services in their homes. This evidence conforms to the view that loneliness undermines well-being and performance and can reduce engagement in work and consumption activities (Ozcelik and Barsade, 2018; Abelsen et al., 2023). However, the fact that other configurations yield high intentions of using in-home services despite elevated loneliness – when strong motivations and home quality are present – illustrates the principle of causal asymmetry (Fiss, 2011). From a services marketing perspective, this implies that remote workers can still be attractive segments for in-home services even when experiencing psychological strain, provided that offerings deliver compelling motivational value and are embedded in supportive home contexts.

Overall, the preceding configurational solutions illustrate that high-intention outcomes do occur, particularly when strong pull and beneficial mooring components are operative despite negative affect in some areas, revealing the substitute and complementary roles of different PPM components.

This study advances services marketing theory and research in several ways. First, it investigates home as an emerging servicescape and consumption hub (Rosenbaum and Massiah, 2011; Tsiotsou and Boukis, 2022) and introduces work arrangement – specifically, full remote work – as a structural driver, providing a comprehensive theoretical framework of in-home service consumption. This study repositions WFH status from a background demographic variable to a theoretically meaningful moderator of service channel choice, convenience perceptions and homescape engagement (Chou et al., 2016). While prior work has acknowledged that WFH affects time and convenience perceptions, services marketing scholars have rarely treated WFH as a central moderator of service convenience and in-home service consumption (Tsiotsou and Boukis, 2022; van Birgelen et al., 2012). Thus, this study advances services marketing by showing that WFH-related psychological states, together with home quality and consumer motivations, form distinct pathways to high attitudes and intentions toward in-home services.

Second, this study contributes to in-home services literature (Tsiotsou and Boukis, 2022) and servicescape research (Rosenbaum and Massiah, 2011) by positioning the home as a dynamic servicescape shaped by remote work. Prior studies conceptualized in-home service consumption and identify home attributes as antecedents of value and satisfaction (So et al., 2018; Suess et al., 2020). Our findings extend this work by demonstrating that home quality is not merely a background condition (Rosenbaum, 2006) but also a core mooring factor that interacts with psychological push and motivational pull factors to lead to consumption of in-home services. In particular, high home quality can amplify the impact of hedonic and functional motivations or partly compensate for adverse WFH states, suggesting that the home can function as a resource (Rosenbaum et al., 2020), enabling consumers to co-create value from in-home services even when under psychological strain.

Third, this study extends PPM applications beyond traditional provider or channel switching to a structural context switch (from public/commercial venues to home) and post-switching behavior and demonstrates that push, pull and mooring forces operate simultaneously at psychological (techno-invasion and loneliness), motivational and spatial (home quality) levels (Bansal, 2005; Chuah et al., 2021). Thus, the “alternative channel” in our model is not a competing service provider but the consumer’s own home, which introduces unique theoretical complexity: the home is simultaneously a private domain, a workplace and an emerging servicescape whose quality and atmosphere are co-managed by the consumer. By examining the configurational interplay of the PPM elements, this study advances PPM from a commercial (brand/service provider/channel-switching) model of migration (Bansal, 2005) to a broader lens (home as a service setting and at the post-migration stage) for understanding how individuals reallocate their service consumption between public and domestic spaces. Moreover, our two-stage PPM model – where push/pull/mooring configurations first shape consumers’ attitudes and then intentions – enriches the framework’s account of the cognitive-affective pathway through which consumers develop and sustain commitment to in-home service consumption, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of post-switching channel behavior in services marketing (Bansal, 2005; Chuah et al., 2021).

Fourth, from an HR/OB perspective, our study demonstrates that psychological consequences of remote work (i.e. techno-invasion, loneliness and boundary control) have spillover effects beyond job performance and well-being, shaping individuals’ service consumption patterns. Existing research links techno-invasion and loneliness to emotional exhaustion, work–life conflict and counterproductive behaviors (Tarafdar et al., 2015; Becker et al., 2022; Pirkkalainen et al., 2019). We extend this work by showing that these psychological states also condition whether employees respond to remote work by increasing or decreasing in-home service use. For instance, techno-invasion may push some individuals to seek out-of-home experiences, yet in configurations with strong convenience or functional motives, consumers may instead intensify reliance on in-home services to manage time and energy. This cross-domain insight highlights that remote work policies may indirectly shape consumer markets for in-home services. More broadly, this study bridges HR and services marketing by framing WFH psychological states as push factors within a service consumption framework. This cross-disciplinary bridge also advances services marketing theory by introducing a new class of antecedents to in-home service adoption and positions remote work as a structural moderator of service consumption behavior – a theoretical move with significant implications for service convenience research (Berry et al., 2002; Benoit et al., 2017), channel choice models (van Birgelen et al., 2012) and consumer well-being scholarship in services (Rosenbaum, 2006; Rosenbaum et al., 2020).

Fifth, our study contributes to service convenience theory (Berry et al., 2002; Benoit et al., 2017) by showing that convenience motivation does not operate as a universal, standalone driver of in-home service adoption. Instead, its role is configurational: it acts as a core condition in some configurations but as a peripheral or substitutable condition in others. This finding enriches convenience theory by demonstrating that the salience of convenience as a service adoption driver is contingent on the broader configuration of motivational and contextual conditions a consumer inhabits – a more nuanced and realistic account than the linear, average-effect models that dominate the convenience literature (Berry et al., 2002; Forsythe et al., 2006; Mai and Olsen, 2016).

Sixth, this study is one of the first in services marketing to apply a fully configurational PPM model using fsQCA to explain in-home service adoption. By doing so, we make three specific contributions to configurational theorizing in the discipline. First, we demonstrate equifinality in service channel post-switching behavior – multiple distinct combinations of push, pull and mooring conditions can independently produce high attitudes and intentions, challenging the dominant assumption in services research that there is a single, dominant causal pathway to service channel adoption (Pappas and Woodside, 2021; Fiss, 2011). Second, we reveal causal asymmetry – the configurations leading to high consumer intentions differ from those leading to their absence, and the absence of work-induced loneliness frequently appears as a sufficient condition for positive attitudes, a finding that would be invisible to symmetric regression or SEM approaches (Fiss, 2011; Pappas and Woodside, 2021; Ragin and Davey, 2023). Third, we uncover configurational trade-offs and substitution effects – for instance, home quality and functional motivation can substitute for each other across sufficient configurations – enriching service segmentation perspectives with a profile-based, complexity-theoretic account of consumer heterogeneity (Fiss, 2011).

Finally, at a broader societal level, our findings suggest that the expansion of remote work may reinforce the centrality of home as a site of both production and consumption (Chandler and Chen, 2015), with implications for inequality and well-being. Consumers with high-quality homes may find it easier to adopt and benefit from in-home services, whereas those in constrained or low-quality home environments may face structural barriers to realizing the same benefits, even when they share similar motivations and WFH experiences. This echoes arguments in transformative service research and homescape studies that home-related resources and atmospherics can shape well-being outcomes and access to service value (Suess et al., 2020). Integrating psychological push factors, this study highlights that remote work’s mental health consequences – such as loneliness and techno-invasion – may have spillover effects on consumers’ service choices and on patterns of in-home versus out-of-home consumption, underscoring the need for service designs that support psychological well-being and equitable access to home-based offerings.

This study offers several important practical implications for service firms. The value of the findings, because of their configurational nature, is particularly important for service managers because it goes beyond simple main effects and highlights precisely which combinations of conditions characterize specific consumer groups. Rather than generalizing and stating that all remote workers want in-home services, service managers can consider the configurations found in the study as template(s) for segmentation.

To illustrate, a configuration anchored by high convenience motivation and high home quality but without high hedonic motivation represents a functionally motivated group: remote workers who care about work efficiency and already have set up a good home working place. Services targeting this group must focus on saving time, digital convenience and appointment simplicity, rather than on entertainment value or experiencing appeal. The configuration that includes both hedonic motivation and loneliness as drivers of in-home services consumption reveals a group motivated by social and experiential factors: remote workers who use in-home services partly to cope with their lack of social interaction. Service design should focus on interactive, social and community-related components for this segment: live group fitness, real-time online courses or social wellness experiences that mirror the social element of out-of-home consumption. Moreover, high techno-invasion combined with high convenience motivation implies a segment driven by stress: employees with an encroaching boundary between their work life and leisure life will naturally gravitate toward these work-life-free in-home services. Service managers targeting this segment should aim to minimize cognitive load at every customer journey touchpoint: simple booking and scheduling and an accessible user interface instead of flashy design or social options will do the job more effectively.

At the segment level, the various configurations are easy to implement with fairly simple consumer profiling tools. A brief questionnaire to measure the seven conditions described in this model, distributed through onboarding surveys, app-based check-ins or CRM systems, would allow providers to slot consumers into the relevant configurations and develop context-specific communications, suggestions or bundle offerings. This method is more granular than demographic segmentation and theoretically more sound than pure behavioral cluster approaches.

This study has several limitations. First, we studied four in-home services (digital workouts, online courses, digital events and well-being sessions), limiting the generalizability of our findings to other in-home services. Future studies could examine specific service categories and types of homescapes more closely, exploring whether similar or different configurations emerge for take-away services, subscription services or social entertainment services. Previous studies suggested that motivations and risk–benefit trade-offs vary across service types (Pillai et al., 2022; Mohanty et al., 2024; Tsiotsou and Boukis, 2022), so a categorization of services may allow for finer-grained pathways and recipes among segments (Table 3). Second, this study is limited to the specific PPM factors examined and may have overlooked other exogenous drivers of intentions to use in-home services (e.g. proneness to smart technology, privacy, digital literacy, social presence, service co-production, individual life stage and adoption levels of IoT – Table 3).

Third, possible limitations exist because of the online sample and data collection from one cultural context (the UK). Although there is valuable information from using an online sample, the results cannot be completely generalizable to other populations in different socio-economic states or other contexts. Because cultural norms might moderate remote workers’ attitudes toward techno-invasion, quality of home life and desirability of in-home services, future research could replicate and extend this work in other countries and cultural contexts, compare different types of in-home services (e.g. health care, education, entertainment and domestic help) and examine whether the identified configurations hold across occupations or industries with different remote work intensities.

Fourth, we cannot determine whether working at home, hybrid or in the office affects employees’ perceptions toward in-home services. Future studies should compare the different employment arrangement and their influence on in-home service consumption. Moreover, they could embed in-home service consumption within broader models of employee well-being, resource recovery and sustainable remote work arrangements. Building on research on work–life boundaries, technostress and loneliness (Kossek et al., 2012; Tarafdar et al., 2015; McCarthy et al., 2026), scholars might explore when in-home services serve as viable coping resources and when they reinforce techno-overload or isolation, thereby informing both HR and service design interventions.

Fifth, the data collection took place in May and June 2022, shortly after the lifting of COVID restrictions, which may have skewed the results because of lingering pandemic-influenced behaviors. High consumption of in-home services may reflect a temporary trend rather than a return to normal. Specifically, services like online fitness and social events, boosted during the pandemic, could distort findings. A longer interval between data collection and COVID-19 is recommended for more accurate insights.

Sixth, additional push and pull factors could be examined in future studies, such as the attractiveness of alternative options, social identity motives, household composition, household affluence levels, need for uniqueness/personalization, novelty-seeking, need for conspicuous consumption and saving motivation to enrich the PPM-based configurational model. Future studies could also examine the interplay between different identities (e.g. work vs consumer identity) in a home context to understand how the enactment of different mindsets affects one another within the same spatial context. Moreover, integrating self-congruence, perceived risk or surveillance concerns from smart-home and IoT research could clarify how different value and risk dimensions jointly affect home-based service adoption (Cruz-Cárdenas et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2021).

Seventh, the current study uses a unidirectional model whereby the effects of WFH influence in-home service consumption. While it is theoretically grounded in the PPM model, there is a possibility of the reverse effect, which is that regular in-home service consumption affects psychological well-being in remote work. This bidirectional relationship is beyond the scope of the present study and indicates the necessity for future research, possibly involving time series and experience sampling methodology to test whether in-home service consumption is actually an avoidance mechanism.

Although fsQCA is well-suited for identifying complex causal configurations, the findings may have limited generalizability beyond the sample of 245 UK-based remote workers. The fsQCA identifies associations and configurational patterns rather than establishing direct causality. Because of its exploratory nature, the method restricts definitive causal inference, necessitating complementary longitudinal or experimental studies to confirm causality. The calibration process in fsQCA, which converts continuous measures into fuzzy sets, is sensitive to threshold selection and relies on researcher judgment, potentially impacting the stability of results. Additionally, fsQCA does not inherently capture temporal or processual dynamics of switching behavior, such as the evolution of consumer attitudes or responses to changing work conditions, thereby limiting insights into dynamic processes. Furthermore, fsQCA assumes case independence and lacks integrated mechanisms for data error estimation, which may lead to over- or underestimation of the significance of certain configurations. Future research could combine fsQCA with other methods – such as SEM and multilevel modeling – to deepen understanding of mechanisms and boundary conditions.

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee, as well as the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its subsequent amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent was obtained from all participants whom the authors reached out for data collection.

The supplementary material for this article can be found online.