Organizational adoption of open systems: a 'technology-push, need-pull' perspective

The growing popularity of open systems in organizational computing has made it important to understand the key determinants of open-systems adoption. Existing innovation diffusion theories, however, have been criticized for t heir inability to provide an adequate explanation for diffusion of complex organizational technology. This study used the 'technology-push' (TP) and ' need-pull' (NP) concepts, borrowed from the engineering/R&D management lite rature to examine the key factors in the adoption decision. Based on this t heory, a research model was developed and tested by collecting data from se nior IT executives in 89 organizations. The results generally offered suppo rt for the model and for the usefulness of applying the TP-NP theory to exp lain the adoption decision. Organization size had the largest impact on the decision. Migration costs was the next greatest influence. We also found t hat the organization would be less likely to adopt the new technology, unle ss the existing systems appeared to be unsatisfactory. (C) 2000 Elsevier Sc ience B.V. All rights reserved.