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CBIM 2011
Edited by Assistant Prof. Thomas Brashear-Alejandro, Dr Sergio Biggemann [University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA and University of Otago, School of Business, Dunedin, New Zealand]
Introduction
It has also been shown that the adoption of continuously developing new technologies and innovations is a critical determinant of organizational competitiveness and survival ([38] Stoneman and Kwon, 1996). Given the key position of technological innovation and its effective adoption in business, one would expect it to have become a solid and well-established field of research. On the contrary, however, current knowledge concerning how organizations adopt innovations is considerably less extensive than the sum of its parts.
Part of the reason for the disharmony and fuzziness related to the research on innovation adoption and diffusion is the variety of directions and disciplines involved (for a review see, e.g. [34] Rogers, 2003). Innovation adoption and diffusion theory was brought into the marketing discipline in the 1960 s and embodied in the classical study of [31] Robertson (1967). Currently innovation adoption and diffusion are reflected in the doctrine of marketing, and on the empirical level they are constantly present in the praxis of consumer and business-to-business marketing.
Given the incoherence that burdens the field of innovation adoption and diffusion, the approach needs to be defined and delineated in terms of the areas of application. The aim in this paper is to review the approach and connect it with the main related theoretical fields within business-to-business marketing.
First we define the adoption and diffusion approach, and then examine its linkages to the related approaches identified in the field of business-to-business marketing. The outcome is an integrative conceptual framework for use in further studies. We give our conclusions and discuss the implications for theory and practice in the final sections of the paper.
Innovation adoption and diffusion
Innovation adoption and diffusion approach represents an attempt to articulate a process-oriented theory that operates on the micro and macro levels and integrates the two. The adoption process could be defined as a decision-making process that ends up in the taking into use of the innovation with the intention of using it now and in the future ([49] Woodside and Biemans, 2005). Diffusion has been defined, for example, as a "process by which something...