The role of innovation type and country context in diffusion of innovative technologies in organisations – a meta-analytic review

ABSTRACT

As innovative information technologies (IT) become increasingly available, there is a need to understand how these technologies diffuse in organisations. Several studies on IT innovation have investigated the relationship of key innovation attributes, namely relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability with either ‘intention to use’ or ‘adoption’ in the organisations. However, those studies have observed contradictory results regarding these relationships. Additionally, there is a lack of investigation on how contingencies of innovation type (IT service vs IT product) and country context (developing vs developed) influence these relationships. Considering these gaps, the present research undertakes a meta-analysis of 86 studies published during 2001–2020 to examine how organisational ‘intention to use’ and ‘adoption’ of IT innovations are influenced by key innovation attributes. We also examine how contingencies of innovation type and country context influence these relationships. Results contribute to the diffusion of innovations as well as information systems literature.

KEYWORDS:

• IT innovation
• country context
• intention to use
• IT adoption
• innovation type
• meta-analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).