Understanding Technology Adoption Trade-Offs: A Conjoint Analysis Approach

Abstract

We utilize choice-based conjoint analysis (CBC), a novel methodological approach for IS decision-making research, to investigate the relative importance of the critical factors in the decision models of consumers when evaluating intention to use mobile office services. From a survey of working professionals, we extract the hierarchy of relative importance of each critical factor influencing the adoption decision. We found that moderate usefulness is the threshold that vendors should try to achieve and simple design does not differ significantly from the design with moderate complexity. The applicability of CBC analysis in IS research is established; guidelines and implications for IT designers, managers, and researchers are presented. Our findings enable practitioners to pursue practical questions such as:1) which factors are consumers most concerned with when electing to adopt MO technology for professional communications? and 2) what is the tradeoff that consumers might make for accepting and adopting MO technology?