Collaboration Technology Adoption: Is It Me or Them?

Abstract

This article investigates technology readiness and social influence in the context of collaboration technology acceptance. The authors also explore these factors in terms of their impact on technology appropriation and repurposing to go beyond classical adoption research focused on initial acceptance of technology. The authors find that social influence is a dominant factor in the context of individuals' acceptance of collaboration technologies, outperforming technology readiness and classical adoption measures. Based on an exploratory PLS study conducted among student users of a collaboration technology, this study is among the first to explore and conceptualize the role of social influence and technology readiness in technology acceptance. This is a particularly valuable advance for studying collaboration technologies because individuals' use of these technologies is shaped in social interaction and through personal psychological dispositions. This helps managers to successfully introduce collaboration technologies, a key tool for enabling workplace and customer engagement innovation.