Who Influences Whom? Analyzing Workplace Referents’ Social Influence on it Adoption and Non-Adoption

Authors

Andreas Eckhardt, Centre of Human Resources Information Systems, University of Frankfurt a. Main, Grueneburgplatz 1, Frankfurt a. Main, Germany;Follow
Sven Laumer, Centre of Human Resources Information Systems, University of Bamberg, Feldkirchenstraße 21, Bamberg, Germany
Tim Weitzel, Centre of Human Resources Information Systems, University of Bamberg, Feldkirchenstraße 21, Bamberg, Germany

Document Type

Research Article

Abstract

Technology adoption research has long struggled to incorporate normative beliefs from sources in the social environment of adopters into adoption models. We study the role of social influence from different workplace referent groups, like superiors and colleagues from the same or the IT department, on the intention to adopt. An empirical analysis, using data from 152 firms, based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology and related approaches reveals that social influence on adoption significantly differs with regard to both source (peer groups) and sink (adopters and non-adopters) of the influence. The results imply that a single cumulative subjective norm measure might be too naive and that future research might considerably improve our understanding of IT adoption and non-adoption by revealing the differential impact of various peer groups on adoption intention, and also on its antecedents.

DOI

10.1057/jit.2008.31

Recommended Citation

Eckhardt, Andreas; Laumer, Sven; and Weitzel, Tim (2009) "Who Influences Whom? Analyzing Workplace Referents’ Social Influence on it Adoption and Non-Adoption," Journal of Information Technology: Vol. 24: Iss. 1, Article 2.
DOI: 10.1057/jit.2008.31
Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/jit/vol24/iss1/2