The missing link: a test of Klein and Sorra's proposed relationship between implementation climate, innovation-values fit and implementation effectiveness

Background Klein and Sorra’s theory of innovation implementation suggests that the effectiveness of implementing an innovation results from both a climate that supports, rewards, and expects implementation as well as from the fit between the innovation and the intended users’ values. Although the authors propose that innovationvalues fit moderates the effect of implementation climate on implementation effectiveness, this relationship has never been tested. In addition, most of the evidence supporting the use of Klein and Sorra’s theory in health services research is from qualitative studies, while most of the quantitative use of the theory occurs in information systems implementation research. Therefore, the goal of this study is to quantitatively test in a health services context the proposed relationship in which innovation-values fit moderates the effect of implementation climate on implementation.