Organizational Factors Affecting the Adoption of a Technological Innovation: A Study of the Hospital Information System (HIS)

Abstract

Hospital Information System (HIS) plays a dominant role in improving health processes and in the provision of patient care services. This study seeks potential organizational factors influencing adoption of HIS in Malaysian public hospitals. This study integrates the Technology Organization Environment (TOE) framework and Absorptive Capacity Theory (ACT) in proposing a new theoretical framework for HIS adoption in Malaysia. Specifically, we examined the organizational dimension in the proposed framework and investigated moderating role of hospital size in the adoption of HIS. This research applied a quantitative approach and conducted a nationwide survey involving 137 public hospitals, with different hospital size. A survey method using a web-based questionnaire was conducted to examine the effects of the identified factors on HIS adoption. The logistic regression method is then deployed for testing the research hypotheses. Regarding the hospital size as the only moderator of this study, we found that effects of the significant factors on HIS adoption are the same in different hospital sizes. This analytical study approaches to the TOE framework and extends it by taking into account the absorptive capacity of hospital as the important component of the internal organization. Therefore, the study and its findings are to provide more insight into the process of successful adoption of HIS for public hospitals of Malaysia.