Adoption and diffusion of collaborative technology in interorganizational networks

The results from two longitudinal case studies on the implementation of collaborative technology in interorganizational networks of small and medium sized enterprises are presented. Several issues influencing the adoption and diffusion processes in these cases are identified and discussed. These issues are related to the strategic importance of the collaborative arrangement as perceived by the member organizations, the characteristics of the technology and the adopting environment, and the organization of the implementation activities. The interorganizational adoption context is found to imply additional complexity compared to previous studies of intraorganizational implementation, due to a larger degree of autonomy among the actors and heterogeneity in technological platforms. The results emphasize a need for further research on the influence of the local context of each member organization in the network on the implementation process