Opening the black box of technology adoption: The motive-technology-belief framework

A qualitative empirical study explores the psychological process by which transportation consumers adopt alternatives to single occupancy vehicles. The study´s findings give rise to the Motive-Technology-Belief (MTB) framework, a theory that conceives of technology adoption in terms of three mental structures: motives are inner mental reasons; technologies are tools that pertain to motives; and beliefs are associations between motives and/or technologies. Their behavioral interactions are governed by three conscious processes: selecting is the process of choosing a tool in response to an immediate need; evaluating is the process of forming beliefs about tools; and maintaining is the process of determining the functional status of tools. They are augmented by five unconscious auxiliary processes: perceiving, focusing, framing, consolidating, and acting. The primary contribution of the paper is a framework for a causal adoption process theory that is solidly grounded in empirical observations and prior literature, and is well-suited to guide the construction of simulated consumer agents. The theory establishes a foundation for agent-based market simulation that gives new product development and service innovation managers improved ability to forecast emerging market conditions.