Understanding the Characteristics of Early and Late Adopters of Technology

Abstract

Every year, thousands of new technological ideas are conceived. An ability to innovate these ideas continues to be critical in surviving the current business world. This study identifies and empirically assesses the characteristics of technological innovativeness. A research model based on the existing literature on consumer innovativeness is thus presented. The model is tested via a survey instrument from a population of earlier adopters of mobile money services in Ghana and analyzed using ANOVA and independent sample t-test techniques in SPSS. The results showed that early adopters of technology are younger, novelty seekers, and more likely to have good employment and opinion leadership than late adopters. The study contributes to diffusion literature by providing further empirical evidence on the distinctive characteristics of early and late adopters of technology and posits that contrary to past research, independent judgment making of an individual does not affect innovativeness.