Factors in the Global Assimilation of Collaborative Information Technologies: An Exploratory Investigation in Five Regions

  • Authors:

  • Deepinder Bajwa;L. Lewis;Graham Pervan;Vincent Lai;BjøRn Munkvold;Gerhard Schwabe

  • Affiliations:

  • Decision Sciences Department, College of Business and Economics at Western Washington University;Decision Sciences Department, College of Business and Economics at Western Washington University;Curtin Business School, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia;MIS, Chinese University of Hong Kong;Information Systems, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway;Faculty of Economics, Business Administration, and IT, University of Zurich, Switzerland

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Management Information Systems
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

The diffusion of innovation theory is deployed to investigate the global assimilation of collaborative information technologies (CITs). Based on the concepts of IT acquisition and utilization, an assimilation framework is presented to highlight four states (limited, focused, lagging, and pervasive) that capture the assimilation of conferencing and groupware CITs. Data collected from 538 organizations in the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Norway, and Switzerland are aggregated and analyzed to explore assimilation patterns and the influence of decision-making pattern, functional integration, promotion of collaboration, organization size, and IT function size on the assimilation of CITs. Although most of these factors influence assimilation of CITs from nonadoption to a state of limited assimilation, and from limited assimilation to a state of pervasive assimilation, they may not be critical when assimilation of CITs deviates from the expected path. The implications of our findings are discussed for practice and research on assimilation of CITs.