To Adopt or Not to Adopt - That is the Question

The area of adoption and diffusion has had a strong pro-innovation bias (Brancheau and Wetherbe 1990; Parthasarathy and Bhattacherjee 1998; Ram 1987; Venkatesh and Brown 2001). This bias has resulted in somewhat of a neglect of the area of non-adoption. Existing theories including TAM (Davis 1989) and the innovation diffusion theory (Rogers 1983) provide critical insights into technology usage. However, the factors that facilitate technology adoption are not necessarily the same as those affecting non-adoption. This paper examines the non-adoption phenomenon and presents the case that the category of non-adopts refers to a complex subset of individuals. Characterizing resistance as either active or passive provides a framework for further analysis into the non-adoption phenomenon. Ultimately, the issue of non-adoption is just as critical as that of adoption.