Willingness to Use Strategic IT Innovations at the Individual Level: An Empirical Study Synthesizing DOI and TAM Theories

INTRODUCTION The literature strongly indicates that information technologies are crucial to corporate strategy and firm performance. But there remains a lack of study regarding how to determine problems with IT implementations early on, and the successful implementation of solutions to those problems. Without such knowledge, the complete benefits of information technologies to firm strategy and performance cannot be reaped. Discovering what determines successful attitudes toward usage of such technologies at the individual level is critical to firm performance. There already exists an abundance of literature regarding information technology and various aspects of organizational performance (Akkermans, & van Helden, 2002; Chan, Huff, Barclay, & Copel, 1997; & Hitt, Wu, & Zhou, 2002). What is lacking is an analysis of how IT innovations are most productively adopted at the individual level, and how recognition of the critical success factors to usage of these technologies affects attitudes toward using them. In a global and increasingly fast-paced business environment, Willingness to Use IT innovations and the speed with which they are adopted can significantly affect competitive advantage. The work of Rogers (2003) and Davis, Bagnozzi, & Warshaw (1989), and all subsequent research employing their models, leaves a critical gap in the existing knowledge of this important subject. That gap is precisely what I address in this research, namely identifying and empirically examining pre-adoptive behaviors toward technology adoption and usage. Corporate strategists need a better understanding of predictors of system usage and success before acquisition, adoption and implementation rather than ex post. RESEARCH QUESTIONS The overall purpose of this research is testing some key hypotheses from DOI and TAM regarding an individual's Willingness to Use new computer technology. I used the scenario-based research methodology to add to the body of knowledge on the positive or negative impacts of Relative Advantage, Complexity, and Trialabilty on an individual's Willingness to Use a new IT innovation. The new model has Relative Advantage, Complexity, and Trialability as independent variables to predict Willingness to Use. Specifically, I seek answers to the following research questions: 1. How do the Relative Advantage, Complexity, and Trialability of a new technology affect individual Willingness to Use? 2. What combination of Relative Advantage, Complexity, and Trialability creates the greatest individual Willingness to Use new technologies? 3. What informative and useful interactions exist between these variables? LITERATURE REVIEW According to Hamel (1996), and Kim and Mauborgne (1997), the life of any business is finite. For companies to survive, the drive for efficiency must be combined with effectiveness through excellence in entrepreneurship. Through the process of innovation, new enterprises must emerge before old ones decay. As Ray Stata, chairman of Analog Devices Inc. (ADI), observes, "Everything has a life, and you always have to be looking beyond that life. The primary job of the CEO is to sense and respond . with the benefit of inputs from the organization . and to be an encouraging sponsor for those who see the future" (Govindarajan and Trimble 2004, p. 68.) Since the early 1980s, considerable research attention has focused on the strategic role of information technologies and their potential for creating competitive advantage (Benjamin et al., 1984; Cash and Konsynski, 1985; Ives and Learmonth, 1984; McFarlan, 1984; Parsons, 1983; Porter and Millar, 1985). This work suggests that IT can be used to create competitive advantage through efficiency improvements, differentiation, and channel domination (Sethi and King, 1994). Therefore, the importance of this study is to focus on the individual level within the firm to determine critical factors for success, long before systems are purchased and adoption is attempted. …