Determinants of the adoption of technological innovations in organizations

Abstract

The effects of the determinants of innovation have been criticized as being inconsistent across studies, confounding the predictive powers of the determinants. This study, to explain the inconsistency from a conceptual viewpoint, posits that the attitude of decision makers has a mediating and moderating role in the intention to adopt technological innovations. This study focuses on the empirical tests conducted on online retailing. Data collected from 109 different organizations indicates that, through the attitude, the perceived relative advantage and compatibility of adopting an innovation have indirect effects on the intention to adopt the innovation. Moreover, the results indicate that the attitude moderates the relationship between firm size and the intention to adopt the innovation. In particular, no relationship between firm size and adoption intention is found for firms where the attitude of the decision makers is less positive; but a relationship exists for the firms where the attitude of the decision makers is more positive.