The Impact of Technological Embeddedness on Household Computer Adoption

Technology adoption has been traditionally examined at workplaces, and relatively few studies have been conducted to investigate how technologies are adopted in households. This paper develops the concept of technological embeddedness by extending the social embeddeddness framework of economic actions. It further proposes a new research model for household computer adoption in which technological embeddedness is the key determinant. Moreover, the impact of technological embeddedness is positively moderated by household income and education, and it is particularly stronger on first-time adoption than on repeat purchases. The proposed model is validated using the dataset from the U.S. 1989–2003 Computer and Internet Supplement to the Current Population Surveys (CPS), and the results strongly support the proposed research model. Important policy and managerial implications are also discussed.