A Longitudinal Study of Herd Behavior in the Adoption and Continued Use of Technology

Study Area Definition of Herd Behavior or Similar Concepts Major Findings Abrahamson 1991 The diffusion of innovations across organizations Organizations imitate others when adopting innovations. Organizations may imitate each other when adopting innovations as fads or fashions. As a result, technologically inefficient innovations may diffuse among organizations and technologically efficient ones may be rejected. Abrahamson and Rosenkopf 1993 The diffusion of innovations across organizations Conceptualized as a bandwagon effect and defined as “diffusion processes whereby organizations adopt an innovation, not because of their individual assessments of the innovation’s efficiency or returns, but because of a bandwagon pressure caused by the sheer number of organizations that have already adopted this innovation” (p. 488). Bandwagon pressure, prompting other organizations to adopt this innovation. People join a bandwagon to avoid appearing different from the many other adopters.