Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2004

Abstract

Researchers who study IT innovations aim to understand the relationship between two different loci of adoption1 – individual adoption and organizational adoption. A first step is diagnosis of the current state of empirical research on IT innovation adoption. We analyzed 486 relationships between independent variables (IVs) and dependent variables (DVs) found in 89 empirical studies of which 45 studied individual adoption and 44 studied organizational adoption. We categorized 135 IVs into 4 classes (organizational variables such as top management support, individual variables such as age, innovation variables such as relative advantage, and environment variables such as external pressure). We classified 25 DVs into 8 classes (perceived systems use, intention to use, adoption, diffusion, rate of adoption, outcomes, actual system use, and time of adoption). We analyzed the 486 relationships between the 4 classes of independent variables and the 8 classes of dependent variables across all 89 studies and also by locus of adoption (individual or organizational). Two classes of independent variables (organizational and innovation characteristics) are systematically used – and more importantly – found to be significant, whether researchers are studying individual or organizational adoption. This suggests that there is indeed a relationship between individual adoption and organizational adoption. We have many other interesting findings (gaps in research, most studied IVs and DVs, most frequently/least frequently found to be significant IVs, etc.), but consider this a work in progress. We anticipate that DIGIT members will use our findings to integrate individual and organizational adoption theories.

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