nnovation are found in the seminal work of Tornatzky and Klein (1982), who reviewed
75 innovation studies and identified the ten most frequently used factors in literature.
Subsequently, Tornatzky and Fleischer (1990) conceptualised that the context of
technology adoption consists of three aspects: technological, organisational, and
environmental. Their study is known as the technology-organisation-environment
framework. This framework has been reported to have a consistent relationship with
adoption behaviour (Carayannis and Turner, 2006; Jeon et al., 2006; Kuan and Chau,
2001; Venkatesh et al., 2003). Nevertheless, the three-context framework may have
some limitations, since the characteristics of a manager or policy maker are not
included in the framework. An individual’s personal characteristics might affect
his/her adoption decision as well.
Considering this limitation, Thong (1999) expands Tornatzky and Fleischer’s (1990)
framework by adding individual characteristics and advises four characteristics that
could influence technology adoption decision. The four characteristics are: