Banita Lal

Contemporary trends and issues in IT adoption and diffusion research

The high level of investigative activity to date into information systems and information technology acceptance and diffusion has witnessed the use of a wide range of exploratory techniques, examining many different systems and technologies in countless different contexts and geographical locations. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive and systematic review of the literature pertaining to such adoption and diffusion issues in order to observe trends, ascertain the current ‘state of play’, and to highlight promising lines of inquiry including those lacking investigative activity or simply being in need of renewed interest. Previous research activity was analysed along a number dimensions including units of analysis, research paradigms, methodologies, and methods, theories and theoretical constructs, and technologies/contexts examined. Information on these and other variables was extracted during an examination of 345 papers on innovation adoption, acceptance and diffusion appearing in 19 peer-reviewed journals between 1985 and 2007. Findings suggest that the positivist paradigm, empirical and quantitative research, the survey method and Technology Acceptance Model theory (and its associated constructs) were predominantly used in the body of work examined, revealing clear opportunities for researchers to make original contributions by making greater use of the theoretical and methodological variety available to them, and consequently reducing the risk of research in the area moving toward overall homogeneity.

Socio‐economic determinants of broadband adoption

Purpose – As innovative forms of information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as broadband internet are being adopted, the equitable distribution of ICTs has become an issue of concern. These apprehensions are being attributed to social exclusion that could arise due to the limited internet use among citizens with lower incomes or educational levels. This research aims to examine the impact of socio‐economic determinants, such as age, gender, education, income and occupation, on the adoption of broadband.Design/methodology/approach – A survey research approach was employed to achieve the overall aim of this research. The empirical data of the socio‐economic variables was collected employing a postal survey in the UK.Findings – The findings of this research suggest that in terms of broadband adoption, except for gender, all the other socio‐economic variables, including age, education, occupation and income, significantly helped to explain differences between the adopters and non‐adopters of broad...

An empirical validation of a unified model of electronic government adoption (UMEGA)

In electronic government (hereafter e-government), a large variety of technology adoption models are employed, which make researchers and policymakers puzzled about which one to use. In this research, nine well-known theoretical models of information technology adoption are evaluated and 29 different constructs are identified. A unified model of e-government adoption (UMEGA) is developed and validated using data gathered from 377 respondents from seven selected cities in India. The results indicate that the proposed unified model outperforms all other theoretical models, explaining the highest variance on behavioral intention, acceptable levels of fit indices, and significant relationships for each of the seven hypotheses. The UMEGA is a parsimonious model based on the e-government-specific context, whereas the constructs from the original technology adoption models were found to be inappropriate for the e-government context. By using the UMEGA, relevant e-government constructs were included. For further research, we recommend the development of e-government-specific scales.

Managing consumer adoption of broadband: examining drivers and barriers

– The commonly used internet service providers (ISP) business models based on price comparison may prove to be a successful strategy for organisations in the short‐term. However, it may be argued that a sustainable business model for the long‐term requires a detailed understanding of the various factors that may help ISPs in attracting future customers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the drivers and barriers of consumer adoption of broadband in the UK., – A survey research approach was utilised to examine the effect of a number of constructs from attitudinal (utilitarian outcomes and hedonic outcomes), normative (social influence), control (self‐efficacy and facilitating conditions resources) and demographic (age) categories on the behaviour of consumers when adopting broadband in the UK., – Results indicate that all the constructs, apart from hedonic outcomes, significantly influenced the adoption behaviour of consumers., – This study provides a snapshot of the adoption behaviour of broadband within UK households. The findings may therefore change as technology becomes established and consumers become more experienced in its use. By undertaking a longitudinal study, the elimination of any variables could achieve anomalies in the obtained results. In addition to a discussion of the findings, the paper outlines the contributions and limitations of the study and provides suggestions for future research activity., – The research presented in this paper is a part of doctoral research which forms one of the initial efforts towards understanding the adoption behaviour of broadband within UK households.

The Diffusion of Research on the Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology

The considerable level of investigation into information systems and technology acceptance and diffusion to date has witnessed the use of an extensive range of exploratory techniques examining numerous diverse systems and technologies in a myriad of different contexts. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive and systematic review of the literature relating to such adoption and diffusion issues in order to establish the current “state of play” in the domain along a number of dimensions including unit of analysis, research paradigm employed, technology examined, and theoretical models and constructs. Our findings suggest that the positivist paradigm, empirical and quantitative research, the survey method, and TAM theory were used predominantly when investigating the topics of adoption and diffusion of technology. Although the adoption of broad range of technologies has been examined, our results indicate that a number of technologies have so far received relatively little investigative attention.

IS/IT Project Failures: A Review of the Extant Literature for Deriving a Taxonomy of Failure Factors

The majority of the existing literature is based upon the assumption that, by paying attention to success factors, failure will be avoided. In the case of challenged projects, where failure factors are overcome the projects go on to be delivered successfully. Hence, it is worthwhile to explore the key factors that determine failure, since this information may be useful in averting future project failures. This research aims to collate and classify existing research in order to: (1) understand the common failure factors; and (2) categorise identified factors pertaining to country, project stage and failure categories. In so doing, this research work goes beyond the identification of traditional factors since it further classifies them according to project stages, failure types and geographical regions. This research contributes to knowledge by identifying and synthesising existing understanding of the failure of IS/IT projects.

Examining the influence of service quality and secondary influence on the behavioural intention to change internet service provider

Although the broadband market has considerably matured, follow-up research on the continued adoption of broadband is yet to be conducted. The aim of this research was therefore to investigate empirically the influence of service quality and secondary influence on consumers’ behavioural intention to change from their existing internet service provider (ISP) to an alternative service provider. The investigation focuses upon broadband household consumers within the UK. The study was conducted using a postal survey; a self-administered questionnaire was sent to 1600 households and a total of 358 completed replies were obtained. The results suggest that both service quality and secondary influence were significantly correlated to consumers’ behavioural intentions to change ISP. The implications of these findings are presented, followed by a discussion of the limitations of this research and future research directions.

Broadband adoption in Pakistan

The aim of this study is to provide a context for understanding the factors affecting the adoption of broadband internet in a developing country context, in this instance, Pakistan. In order to achieve the stated aim, this study identified and examined various attitudinal, normative and control factors to provide insights into broadband adoption. The data on these variables was collected using a survey approach. A self-administered questionnaire was sent between October and December 2006 to 275 consumers, with a total of 237 responses obtained from the respondents. The findings of this paper suggest that primary influence, facilitating conditions resources, cost and perceived ease of use are significant factors for explaining behavioural intentions to adopt broadband in Pakistan. The paper also outlines the theoretical contributions, implications for practice and limitations of this research.

RFID integrated systems in libraries: extending TAM model for empirically examining the use

Purpose – The available literature suggest that the research on radio frequency identification (RFID)-related issues is largely concentrated on technical, organizational and implementation aspects, and comparatively lesser attention has been invested in understanding the use aspect of such library management systems. The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding into the factors that influence the use of RFID systems in the library context by empirically testing the relevant constructs from the extended technology acceptance model (TAM). Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire-based survey approach was employed for collecting the relevant data from 197 respondents. The respondents were the active users of a RFID-based library system. Findings – Findings from this study suggested that perceived usefulness and system quality positively influence the user attitude, and user attitude and system quality significantly influence the use of the RFID services. The paper concludes with outlining the s...

Homeworkers' usage of mobile phones; social isolation in the home-workplace,

Purpose – When working remotely, homeworkers are provided with various technologies which may help them to avoid experiencing feelings of social isolation from colleagues. These include the mobile phone, which provides homeworkers with the means of engaging in interaction with colleagues irrespective of time and location. This paper aims to investigate how the mobile phone is used by homeworkers for social interaction purposes.Design/methodology/approach – Data are collected from 25 respondents working in a telecommunications organisation using in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews.Findings – Upon analysis, it emerges that a significant number of respondents use their mobile phone for retaining social interaction with colleagues outside of their designated work time and space. It also emerges that certain organisational factors help to explain why interaction is maintained in this way.Practical implications – Implications for organisations employing homeworking are also presented, together with how the lim...