The development of an integrated paradigm and a decision support framework for IT innovation adoption

This research presents the development of an integrated Technology-Process-Culture (TPC) paradigm for managing IT innovation adoption within the Architecture /Engineering/Construction (AEC) sector. Current research theories that explain innovation adoption are tested and refined to develop a new paradigm. The TPC paradigm answers the research questions: What drives an organisation to adopt an IT innovation at the initiation phase? From what perspectives should organisations evaluate the IT innovation they intend to adopt? What criteria should organisations use to select the IT innovation? It indicates that adoption and implementation of IT innovation are determined by the explanatory variables from the Technology, Process, and Culture perspectives. A questionnaire survey is used to test the hypotheses of the TPC paradigm and to develop the Pool of Explanatory Variables. Central to the IT innovation adoption is the decision-making. Current decision methods are fragmented, and limited in their perspective and their ability to consider the interdependencies between criteria. The Analytic Network Process (ANP) technique is applied under the TPC paradigm to establish a holistic decision support framework. The TPC paradigm structures the IT adoption decision-making problem and provides the criteria and their measures. The decision theory ANP is employed in the TPC paradigm to analyse the dependence between selection criteria and to synthesise the results. By employing the framework, the value of adopting an IT innovation can be quantified from a holistic perspective with an integrated analysis of its benefits, costs, and risks. Two major empirical case studies demonstrate the validity and applicability of the proposed paradigm and framework. The research breaks new ground in the study of IT innovation adoption. The new paradigm and the decision support framework are original approaches that can help AEC firms to set up a consistent evaluation process and method for managing IT innovation adoption.