Organizational assimilation of complex technologies: an empirical study of component-based software development

The rapid rate at which new information technologies are emerging and their increasing complexity pose significant challenges for information systems departments in understanding and assimilating them. This has lead to a need for studies focused on the barriers to the adoption and assimilation of complex technologies. This research synthesizes the economic and organizational learning perspectives of technology adoption and identifies key adoption barriers, mechanism to reduce these barriers, and proposes a research model that interrelate these factors to the assimilation of complex technologies. The research context for this paper is the assimilation of one complex technology, namely, component-based software development (CBD) by information systems (IS) departments. Data collected from IS units in the United States is used to test the model using partial least square analysis. The results provide evidence that organizations better positioned to overcome knowledge barriers because of their knowledge stocks are likely to be further along in the assimilation process than others and that knowledge sharing by technology vendors positively influences technology assimilation by reducing the learning burden of the adopters. It was also found that exposure to signals from technology vendors reduced the technology uncertainty perceived by the adopters.