Discontinuance of Innovations: Social Network Characteristics, Product Attributes, and Adopter Traits Related to Post -Adoption Behavior

This dissertation investigated three factors related to discontinuance of innovations: egocentric social network characteristics, innovation attributes, and adopter demographics/use patterns. Discontinuance, the post-adoption rejection of an innovation, is among the least frequently investigated aspects of diffusion of innovations theory (Parthasarathy & Bhattacherjee, 1998; Rogers, 1995). The analysis identified three categories of post-adoption behavior: continued adoption, retraction discontinuance (the combination of disenchantment and replacement discontinuance), and a new theoretic construct, completion discontinuance, a phenomenon that occurs when adopters terminate their use of an innovation after its purpose has been fulfilled. Data were collected via postal mail survey from 299 users of an innovative educational technology product designed for home school families. Using multinomial logistic regression, 13 hypotheses were tested. Among an array of 24 variables, six predictors of post-adoption behavior were statistically significant: behavior of alters in the social network, attitudes of alters in the social network, relative advantage, observability, number of elementary age children, and tenure with the innovation.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Speech Communication

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Kielmeyer, Gregory Mark

Contributors dc:contributor

• Contractor, Noshir S.

• Sociology, Theory and Methods

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3111557

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/87514