Examining Trends of Technology Diffusion Theories in Information Systems

Since the publication of Roger’s fifth edition of Diffusion of Innovations in 2003, there is a need to investigate the recent Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) for Information Systems (IS) research for the purpose of finding trends. Much research has been conducted and needs to be synthesized to map a direction for future research. The methodology used in this study is meta-analysis of recent IDT IS research (2003-2011) published in the top eight IS Journals and the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). The study’s initial meta-analysis findings suggest that more variables are tested by many studies to increase richness and attempts are made for more objective measures of the Rate of Adoption variable to improve clarity. The paper’s contribution is the direction of Effective Information Systems which can be measured by diffusion into social systems, internationally and collaboratively.