Social Context for Mobile Computing Device Adoption and Diffusion: A Proposed Research Model and Key Research Issues

The purpose of this chapter is to explore and suggest how perceptions of the social context of an organization moderate the usage of an innovative technology. We propose a research model that is strongly grounded in theory and offer a number of associated propositions that can be used to investigate adoption and diffusion of mobile computing devices for business-to-business (B2B) interactions (including transactions and other informational exchanges). Mobile computing devices for B2B are treated as a technological innovation. An extension of existing adoption and diffusion models by considering the social contextual factors is necessary and appropriate in light of the fact that various aspects of the social context have been generally cited to be important in the introduction of new technologies. In particular, a micro-level analysis of this phenomenon for the introduction of new technologies is not common. Since the technological innovation that is considered here is very much in its nascent stages there may not as yet be a large body of users in a B2B context. Therefore, this provides a rich opportunity to conduct academic research. We expect this chapter to sow the seeds for extensive empirical research in the future.