Dual Technology Adoption

Abstract

Technology adoption is often modeled as an individual decision, yet many technologies are adopted through interdependent relationships in which one actor can encourage or discourage another actor’s use. We study such mediated adoption and develop a Dual Adoption Model (DAM) in which a focal user’s adoption depends on both the user’s own technology perceptions and the perceptions and incentives of an intermediary. The model suggests that adoption will vary with factors that shape the intermediary’s expected benefits from promoting the technology, as well as with factors that shape the focal user’s own expected benefits.

We test the application of the DAM in a field study on the adoption of a digital platform by frontline sales professionals and their customers. The findings demonstrate that technology uptake reflects this interdependent logic, such that adoption outcomes depend jointly on both actors’ evaluations and the social context in which they are embedded. Rather than diffusing through simple imitation or unilateral choice, the adoptoin evolves through localized structures of influence in which mediation effort and perceived complementarities determine whether digital tools gain traction.

(Forthcoming at Journal of Service Research (ABS 4))