Predicting the Initial Adoption of Upgrading of Electronic Communication Systems

This study examines the factors that make a firm more or less likely to adopt or upgrade an electronics communication program. Both the factors and their relative importance are hypothesized to differ, depending on whether initial adoption or upgrading is the predicted behavior. Such information is important to marketers, because it can be used to more effectively target and provide value to the electronic communications market. A survey of firms’ intentions to adopt customer relationship management software is used to test the hypotheses. The theoretical bases of the study are the Gatignon and Robertson (1989) model of diffusion and the behavioral delineation of continuous and discontinuous innovations (Rogers, 1983).