A PROCESS STUDY OF NEW TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION IN SMALLER MANUFACTURING FIRMS

Based on longitudinal case studies of new technology adoption in five smaller Canadian manufacturing firms, this article develops an inductive process model that views the technology adoption process as a partially nested set of three parallel and interacting sub-processes that are different in nature: the strategic commitment process, the technology choice process and the financial justification process. These processes are themselves intertwined with other strategic decision processes in the firm, and influenced by a dynamic set of contextual elements that interact with one another over time. The study underlines the problems associated with a narrow conception of technology adoption as a 'decision' while showing how various process models from the literature are useful in understanding different parts of the overall process of adoption