Under-Subjective Knowledge, Compatibility, and the Impact on Adoption and Implementation of Technology

The purpose of the current study is to explore the impact of compatibility on the relationship between undersubjective knowledge, a concept we develop here in the context of technology adopt and implementation research, and technology adoption and implementation. To do so, we develop two versions of mobile systems for a controlled experiment: 1) high compatible system and 2) low compatible system. The experiments are designed to test two hypotheses. Based on our hypotheses, we predict that compatibility may trigger a transformation from undersubjective knowledge to a condition of objective knowledge (and possibly, and less ideally, to a condition of oversubjective knowledge). Thus, the current study predicts that compatibility raise self-esteem or confidence and mitigates the negative effect of under-subjective knowledge on intention to adopt technology.