A configurational view on technology acceptance: the example of highly integrated collaboration platforms

Abstract

Highly integrated software environments for various routine and non-routine tasks promise productivity gains for organizations. To fulfill this promise, users need to be willing to employ the new technology. A combined perspective of sufficient and necessary conditions in the form of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and, necessary condition analysis (NCA) is used to examine the technology acceptance of workstream collaboration tools, advancing examinations from a multivariate perspective to a more holistic view. One hundred thirty participants were trained in the software application Slack for three months. Following the training period, configurational analysis using fsQCA and NCA based on a unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) framework was conducted based on 116 qualified questionnaires. Necessity assessment shows that all influence factors exhibit necessity properties, with facilitating conditions and effort expectancy most substantially constraining an individual’s intention to use. Sufficiency evaluation confirms UTAUT’s variable choice and identifies social influence as a key condition that enables intention to use. Segmentation according to gender further reveals that effort expectancy and facilitating conditions are necessary conditions for female users but not for males.

Keywords

• workstream collaboration
• technology acceptance
• collaboration software
• fsQCA
• NCA