From Adoption to Use: the process of appropriating a mobile phone

Abstract

Users appropriate a technology through a process of evaluation that results either in rejection or adoption, adaptation and integration of the technology into their everyday activities. Currently this process, and the influences on users' decisions within that process, is poorly understood. This paper reports a research project that examines young people's appropriation of mobile technologies. Thirty young Australians were supplied with a free WAP phone for a month and were tracked from their expectations, the initial encounter and the first month of use of a WAP phone. We found that the influences on their adoption of the phones were quite different to those on ongoing use and so the influences on adoption do not predict long-tern use. It is clear that studying adoption is only one step towards understanding technology acceptance and use and that rejection of a technology, even one that is supplied free of cost, is an ever-present option.

Evaluating information systems: an appropriation perspective

“…Furthermore, these studies built inductively on the model, rather than modifying it by drawing on organisational and evaluation literatures, as was done in the present study. Carroll (2004) The top half of the TAC describes three stages of the appropriation process: adoption, adaptation and incorporation (Carroll et al 2003a). At each of these stages there is an associated level of evaluation.…”

“…It is at this stage that the design can be thought of as being fixed. A state of appropriation is reached whereby the technology becomes just another part of users' taken-for-granted experience of workreferred to as technology in use (Carroll et al 2003a). This state is maintained as long as users' continuing evaluations of the technology continue to encourage persistent use.…”

“…The multiple methods employed at multiple data points in the research associated with the TAC's development-which included focus groups, interviews, participant observation, questionnaires and scrap books (Carroll et al 2003a;Mendoza et al 2005)-are suggestive of the sorts of methods needed to generate findings of sufficient richness and validity.…”

“…Evaluations conducted in this way can yield insights and requirements that can shape subsequent formal system designs in a way that is complementary to extant ISD approaches, as well as better support the unfolding of design through use, via modification of the use context (Fidock and Carroll 2006). Models and theories surrounding appropriation and enactment have been developed and applied to supporting the evaluation of IS (Carroll et al 2003a;Nandhakumar et al 2005), but not in a way that has informed subsequent formal designs. The technology appropriation cycle (TAC) model (Carroll 2004) represents an initial attempt to capture the process of appropriation and the implications an understanding of appropriation might have for shaping the formal design of future systems.…”

Information Systems Foundations Part Three : The Role of Design Science

“…Models and theories surrounding appropriation and enactment have been developed and applied to supporting the evaluation of IS (Carroll et al 2003a;Nandhakumar et al 2005), but not in a way that has informed subsequent formal designs. The technology appropriation cycle (TAC) model (Carroll 2004) represents an initial attempt to capture the process of appropriation and the implications an understanding of appropriation might have for shaping the formal design of future systems.…”