Why Isn't Everyone an Early Adopter?

The adoption and use of information technology (IT) innovations within an organization are critical to deriving the benefits of IT, yet many innovations are underused or never used. Theoretical perspectives that have been used to analyze individual behavior regarding IT usage include innovation diffusion theory (IDT) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB). IDT states that adoption of an innovation is influenced by attributes of the innovation. TPB posits that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control will influence an individual’s decision to adopt. While most adoption and diffusion research concentrates on why people adopt an innovation, this research will compare how innovation characteristics and TPB components are perceived by both early and late adopters. We then investigate late adopters’ perceptions at the time of the innovation introduction and the time of actual adoption to determine which, if any, innovation perceptions have changed.