Adoption as sensemaking: toward an adopter-centered process model of IT adoption

Current technology adoption research focuses on relationships between attitudes, intentions, behavior, and their various antecedents, but little is known about how these relationships develop and the processes by which adoption actually takes place. Karl Weick’s model of sensemaking in organizations is presented as a basic model for understanding adoption attitudes and behavior from an adopter-centered, process-oriented perspective. This perspective provides the opportunity for a much richer understanding of how adoption occurs and how it can be influenced. Seven properties of sensemaking are discussed in terms of adoption, the sensemaking model is compared to Rogers’ innovation-decision process model, and many research questions are mentioned to guide future process-oriented adoption research.