The initiation and adoption of client-server technology in organizations

A large number of companies are adopting client±server systems. We investigated the relationship between several contextual factors and the initiation and adoption process of this important technology. The contextual factors included: (a) environmental, such as market position; (b) internal factors, namely organizational structure/culture, size, and migration strategy; and (c) technological, such as scope, scale, and cost of a system. An analysis of data from 350 companies revealed that a company's market position, its migration strategy, and the system's scope and scale have a signi®cant effect on the initiation and adoption process. # 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved