Strategies for Increasing the Conceptual Yield of New Technologies Research

Abstract

Mobile is the new technology of the day. But we need to keep in mind that it is the latest new technology. In other words, there have been new technologies in the past and there will be more in the future. Mobile is certainly worthy of scholarly attention. However, the exercise will be more productive if we expand the frame within which we situate mobile.One of the disappointments of past new technology research has been that it has very often stayed at the descriptive level. The tendency seems to be getting amplified with each new technology because of the increasing opportunities to capture data. Consequently, researchers often let data gathering and analysis techniques drive their research rather than a substantive theoretical question. The research thus produced has an unfortunate market research feel to it, especially the numerous studies on the demographic and psychographic profiles of mobile users. What then is the hallmark of scholarship? The answer has to be theory development.Unfortunately, even studies that are situated within a theoretical framework often do not advance theory. For instance, with the arrival of each new technology, one can be assured of inevitable papers on its diffusion. They will be meticulous in form with an extensive literature review, a theoretical vocabulary, and a sophisticated methodology. Their main claim to fame will be that they were among the first to study the diffusion of a particular new technology. Furthermore, they will even get published in established journals for the very same reason. But it will be a pleasant surprise if they advance diffusion theory (Sawhney & Sandvig, 2006). 1 Do we need diffusion studies for every new technology? There should be a theoretical rationale for each new diffusion study. Otherwise, we are simply running Harmeet Sawhney (PhD, University of Texas-Austin) is a professor of telecommunications at

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