An Introduction to Innovation Adoption Theories for the Design of a Product Family Information Management Infrastructure

As new computer technologies emerge for the design and development of product platforms, applied theories of innovation diffusion and technology acceptance will become increasingly important for securing user cooperation with an information management system for product families. Incorporation of human factors therein will shorten the time required to reach return on investment and increase the depth and breath of information. The history of innovation adoption theories are explored and extended to include commercially available enterprise management software and the proposed product family infrastructure. Six practices, which can be included in the infrastructure in its experimental stages, are described for improving user likelihood of adoption. le p p b c p e m c e th re p si