The role of expectations in user acceptance of upcoming technologies in emerging technological fields

Abstract

Implementation processes of upcoming technologies in emerging technological fields have proven to be challenging, specifically in technology intensive industries. An important aspect of these implementation processes is user acceptance. Well established models that predict and explain user acceptance are the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the theory of trying (TT). These models, however, lack evidence for the implementation processes of upcoming technologies in emerging technological fields. The first ambition of this research was therefore to test these models in this empirical setting, specifically their concepts of user beliefs. Through a multiple case study of 11 upcoming tissue engineering technologies in the Netherlands this research was able to determine that user beliefs as proposed by TAM, perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use, and TT, internal and external factors to process impediments, are antecedents to technology usage. To influence implementation processes, however, we need to know on what these user beliefs are based. For established technologies beliefs are traditionally found to be determined by external factors such as objective design characteristics, training, and documentation. However, these external factors are not as readily available when implementing upcoming technologies. It is theorized that expectations can substitute for these information sources through their dictating role in technology development as proposed by the sociology of expectations literature. The second ambition was therefore to explore the role of expectations in the formation of these beliefs. In the same multiple case study, it was determined that important external factors to the formation of users’ beliefs are the application of the technology, its efficacy, the development timeline, and design characteristics. Subsequently, expectations were established to affect the information about efficacy and development timelines of technologies, caused by the actuality of technology developers needing to inflate their reports for the purpose of sustaining their research. As belief formation is contingent on these external factors, expectations were demonstrated to have a possible role in the formation of these beliefs and therefore ultimately in user acceptance. The results of this research imply that implementers of upcoming technologies in emerging technological fields have another tool in the form of previously developed interventions based on applications of TAM and TT on implementation processes of established technologies. Additionally, it is implied that these implementers should recognize that individual users have their own expectations about the particular implemented technology, and that they should use this knowledge in fostering interventions. Indications for future research directions are also provided.