Abstract
Prior research extensively addressed the adoption of digital and of green innovations. However, these research streams developed separately from each other, ignoring the complex affordances of digital technologies: Different adopters can use same technological functionalities because of different rationales and for different purposes. Moreover, previous adoption studies have been dominated by “correlational theorizing” (Delbridge & Fiss, 2013), highlighting the isolated effects of diverse adoption antecedents. Addressing these shortcomings, we argue that adoption of digital technologies can be driven by complex configurations of three mechanisms –the economic rationale, the ecological beliefs and values, and the social pressure towards conformity. We integrate these mechanisms within a comprehensive theoretical framework and collect data from 53 “green innovators” – owners of biogas plants in the German’s energy sector that is currently in the midst of transition toward sustainability and digitization. We analyze data by the use of the fsQCA methodology. Our findings reveal four archetypes of adopters that essentially differ with regard to the configuration of adoption antecedents. Our study contributes to the literature by shedding light on new affordances of digital technologies, providing a more comprehensive understanding of technology adoption factors, and developing theoretical bridges between digital innovation research and green entrepreneurship.
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