Rural Telephone Company Adoption of Service Innovations: A Community Field Theory Approach*

Abstract

Abstract Recent telecommunications innovations have the potential to improve the economic vitality of rural communities, but many rural telephone companies have not adopted them to provide needed advanced services. To explain the differences in adoption by rural telephone companies we distinguish between service innovations, adopted primarily to improve direct services to clients, and operations innovations, adopted primarily to improve the operation of the business. Using community interaction field theory we develop and test a conceptual framework for the adoption of innovative service telecommunications technologies by Iowa rural telephone companies. As field theory predicts, involvement in local economic development activities has a strong, direct effect on innovativeness. Results suggest that the service and operations innovations distinction has theoretical utility in explaining organizational innovativeness.