The social influence model of technology adoption

Introduction Human innovation, in combination with the internet, networking, and communications technologies have produced a new platform for social and business networking, formation of community, and communication. This emerging phenomenon is generally known as social computing. While there is no widely accepted definition of social computing, we define it as: intra-group social and business actions practiced through group consensus, group cooperation, and group authority, where such actions are made possible through the mediation of information technologies, and where group interaction causes members to conform and influences others to join the group . In this article, we examine the adoption of information technologies in the context of social computing. Most current information systems research on individual technology adoption has focused upon the adoption of technology in organizations and has utilized such technology acceptance models as the TRA and TAM. It has been suggested, however, that a new perspective on adoption may be necessary to fully capture the nature of technology acceptance in social computing situations, where the technology is embraced rather than simply accepted by the user, and where the action made possible by technology is seen as a behavior embedded in society. Few studies have investigated technology adoption targeting the individual at the level of society, community, or lifestyle experience. There is little research that approaches adoption in the context of social computing, and to our knowledge, no models have been developed to investigate this phenomenon. This study addresses this gap by developing social constructs and providing a theoretically grounded model for technology adoption in the context of social computing. We develop a cross-disciplinary model of technology adoption to address the multi-faceted context of social computing. Our model suggests that social computing action, social computing consensus, social computing cooperation, and social computing authority are antecedents to social influence, and augment usefulness and ease of use. In social influence, group membership legitimizes actions and the individual is guided by the group's rules of practice. Social influence leads to technology adoption. Technology adoption incorporates two essential elements, the embracement of the technology by individuals and its embedment in society. Each of the model's constructs will be explained in further detail. As Figure