Because Everybody is Different: Towards Understanding the Acceptance of Organizational IT Standards

Abstract

Owing to growing complexity and rising costs of organizational information technology, standards are essential for companies to manage and maintain control over their IT. Insights from practice indicate that the crucial aspect regarding the success of IT standards is their implementation and enforcement. Thus, we derive the following research question: Which factors influence the intention to accept and use organizational IT standards on an individual level? Embedded as a deductive study in the acceptance research stream, we also conducted a supplementary field study incorporating nine interviews to answer this question. Our main result is a conceptual model covering the most influential factors regarding the acceptance of organizational IT standards. Our work has a twofold contribution: First, we advance the research field on organizational IT standards by establishing links to the field of acceptance research and offering explanations for individual acceptance of those standards. Second, our developed model serves as a basis for managing organizational IT standardization.