The Role of Fear of Missing Out and Experience in SME’s Intentions to Adopt New Technologies

Abstract

Corporate decision makers form their intention to adopt a new technology for their venture based on their perception of the technology’s usefulness and ease of use. However, the formation of the intention to implement a new technology might be influenced by the fear of missing out (FOMO). FOMO can make decision makers fear to lose their relatedness with fellow managers because they fail to adopt a popular new manufacturing technology. Due to this fear, their decision to adopt a new manufacturing technology might not only be based on rational considerations. We draw on and extend the technology acceptance model to explain the potential bias caused by FOMO, and express the expectation that this bias is contingent on the level of decision makers’ prior experience with the new technology in other contexts. Moderated ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions on 514 observations collected from a representative sample of decision makers of Austrian small and medium-sized enterprises show that FOMO is positively related to the intention to adopt a new technology. Moreover, we find that the positive relationship between FOMO and the intention to adopt a new technology is mitigated by the prior experience the decision maker has with that new technology. We contribute as follows. First, we highlight the relevance of the FOMO bias in technology acceptance, adding to the growing research stream on the role of emotions in adopting novel technologies. Second, we show how experience can provide an effective counterweight to the FOMO bias for many decision makers. Third, we extend the scope of technology acceptance models by illustrating their applicability to novel manufacturing technologies.