Special Issue on “Theoretical and Methodological Advances
for Research on the Adoption and Diffusion of
New ITs and Technological Innovations”

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Guest Editors

Ajit Kambil, Deloitte Research; akambil@mac.com
Robert J. Kauffman, Arizona State University; rkauffman@asu.edu
Angsana A. Techatassanasoontorn, Pennsylvania State University; angsanat@ist.psu.edu

Motivation

There is a growing recognition that adoption and extensive diffusion of new ITs and technological innovations are critical for individuals to have meaningful engagements in an information society. Similarly important are new IT and technology innovations that help organizations to survive and thrive in the highly competitive environment of the global economy.  Another frontier for impact is at the country level for sustainable social and economic development.  Some examples include the emergence of new technologies, such as mobile and Internet-based telephony, open software systems, infrastructure and application support for digital social networks, digital entertainment services on the Internet, and more intelligent hardware-based data storage systems. Their incorporation into innovative products and services has had dramatic benefits at all these levels.

The adoption and diffusion of new technologies and innovations research literature is voluminous and has identified a number of factors associated with adoption and diffusion across multiple levels. For instance, the technology acceptance model offers a parsimonious theory to explain individual acceptance of a new innovation.  Similarly, cumulative research at the organizational and interorganizational levels has been able to explain innovation-related needs and abilities that are associated with different adoption behaviors. However, as a number of leading senior scholars and industry observers have expressed, there still are many opportunities for theory development in the adoption and diffusion of new innovations area.  For example, Lucas et al. (2007) stated that much research up to the present has emphasized individual adoption and acceptance of innovations. They called for a broader umbrella of research that offers rich theorizing for innovations with technology by accounting for the relevant technological, institutional, and historical contexts. Fichman (2004) called for research to move beyond the dominant paradigm of establishing the relationships between the independent variables of innovator profiles, and the dependent variables of innovation quantity. Some of the most promising opportunities for theory development involve such topics as contagion effects, management fashion, innovation mindfulness, technology ecosystems and innovation life cycles, innovation configurations, technology destinies, the evolution of standards organizations, and quality-led innovation.

Moreover, there are many new methods that can address research questions and offer new approaches for theory development. For example, survival analysis from public health and spatial econometrics from geographical information systems offer new ways to support the development of next-stage theoretical perspectives on the adoption and diffusion process for different technological innovations.  The same can be said for data mining and other advanced statistical methods that blend techniques from computer science to emphasize the recognition of patterns and regime shifts and changes.   

A final aspect of the motivation for this special issue is to engage industry researchers, thought leaders, and practice innovators, who have special organizational, business, government and other context reasons for developing new approaches to understanding how technologies and innovations diffuse.  Some recent examples of specific interest include the diffusion of social networking technologies, outsourcing and new approaches to IT services, and mobile and nomadic computing.   

Our objective of this special issue is to publish managerially interesting, rigorous, forward-looking, and innovative research that advances theoretical and methodological knowledge regarding the adoption and diffusion of new technologies and innovations.  Some prospective topics may include but are not limited to the following:

Important Dates

Paper submission deadline:         January 15, 2010
First review by:                         April 15, 2010
First revision by:                        July 15, 2010
Additional reviews/revisions:      July 15, 2010 to December 1, 2010
Notification of acceptance:         As early as possible, but not later than January 31, 2011

Paper Format

Each manuscript page should have a 1-inch margin on the top, bottom, right and left. Font sizes must be set to 12 and font type must be double-spaced Times New Roman.  The first page should contain the title, abstract, and keywords. This first page should not be numbered. The abstract should be less than 200 words. List 2 to 6 keywords representing your research below the abstract. Each subsequent page should be numbered starting with 2. Maximum numbered page length is 32 pages, including figures, tables, and references. For reference styles, see the following link posted on Information Technology and Management journal website: www.springeronline.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,11855,4-170-70-35612778-0,00.html.

Online Submission and Review Process

All manuscripts must be submitted online at the journal’s website at www.editorialmanager.com/item/. The website provides instructions on how to register and submit a manuscript. All papers will be peer- reviewed by experts in the research area.  The guest editors make final decisions on acceptance.

References

1.       R. G. Fichman. Going beyond the dominant paradigm for information technology innovation research: emerging concepts and methods, Journal of the Association for Information Systems 5(8) (2004) 314-355.

2.       H. C. Lucas, Jr., E. B. Swanson, and R. W. Zmud.  Implementation, innovation, and related themes over the years in information systems research, Journal of the Association for Information Systems 8(4) (2007) 206-210.