BOUCHARD, LYNE; PHD

                         UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES, 1992

                         BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, MANAGEMENT (0454); BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, GENERAL (0310); COMPUTER SCIENCE (0984)
 

                         The slow rate of diffusion of electronic data interchange (EDI) defies all predictions of an explosive
                         growth, even though EDI's potential and achieved benefits have been widely discussed in practitioner
                         literature and large organizations have invested in costly promotional campaigns targeted at their
                         business partners. But can the rate of EDI adoption be positively influenced through communications
                         among business partners? This research investigated this question, based on innovation diffusion and
                         critical mass theories. Innovation diffusion theorists have directed attention toward the importance of
                         using appropriate communication channels if attitudes about innovations are to be changed and for
                         innovations to diffuse; in particular, they observed that similarity among potential adopters is essential for
                         the effective communication of the information necessary to evaluate an innovation and for influence on
                         the decision process to occur. Critical mass theory points to the existence of different decision criteria
                         when innovations are collectively enjoyed, that is, when collaboration among potential adopters is
                         required if any adopter is to receive any benefit. Theorists interested in collective innovations argue that
                         because of the interdependencies of benefits and costs among adopters and non-adopters, attitudes
                         toward innovations, while important, are secondary to what the members of the group do. Three research
                         methods were used: survey, computer-assisted interviews, and case studies. The information gathered
                         through these methods concur: business partners can and do play a very important and positive role in
                         the diffusion of EDI, even though they are perceived as change agents and are considered as less similar
                         in their ability to derive benefits from EDI; organizational peers are much less influential. Concepts of
                         similarity and change agents' vested interest appear to be less relevant when the innovation to be
                         adopted requires collaboration among dissimilar adopting units. However, while business partners have a
                         significant influence at both the matching or evaluation stage and at the adoption stage, it is possible that
                         organizational peers might be an even more important source of influence at the matching stage. Overall,
                         the research not only stresses the importance of combining innovation diffusion and critical mass
                         theories if we are to adequately understand how collective innovations diffuse, but also of borrowing
                         from research on organizational strategy and distribution channels to explain organizational-level
                         adoption behavior. Specific theoretical, methodological, and practitioner implications are discussed.
 

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