The Well of the Past: How Experience with Problems While Using Prior Technologies Affects the Adoption of New Technologies

Abstract

This dissertation questions how organizations’ experience with problems while using prior technologies affects the adoption of new technologies. It develops and tests a model of technology adoption that takes into account three factors – characteristics of organizations, technologies, and the environment. Drawing on organizational learning theory, this dissertation makes four general predictions. First, focal organizations’ direct experience with problems while using prior technologies increases the likelihood of adopting new technologies. Second, focal organizations’ indirect experience with problems through their production network partners increases their likelihood of adopting new technologies and strengthens the relationship between direct experience and technology adoption. Third, the relationship between learning from direct and indirect experiences and technology adoption is stronger for a new technology developed inside the industry than for that developed outside the industry. Lastly, organizations’ social relationships with production network partners, which are influenced by both types of learning, affect the likelihood of adopting new technologies. I test these predictions in the context of the music recording industry, using a longitudinal dataset of records released in the U.S. music recording industry between 1962 and 2005. Five on-line metadata servers provide detailed information on records, record labels, artists, and other participants in record production. I discuss the implications of my findings for organizational learning theory, social network perspective, and the literature on technological change.