This paper investigates the above questions in the context of some Australian organizations. Basic premise of the study is the extensive literature on the adoption and diffusion of generic technologies and a high level model of innovation diffusion (presented in Section 2). The primary objectives of this paper are two-fold:
(i) to identify various factors and variables of KMS diffusion, and
(ii) to explore and develop a model of KMS diffusion based on the high level model of innovation diffusion.
We use qualitative field study as the research method and use structured interview techniques to collect relevant data. In the next several sections we first present relevant background literature on KMS and the adoption/diffusion process. The research method is presented next which describes the process of data collection via interview and data analysis via a combination of inductive and deductive approaches of content analysis ([8]). Results of the study are then presented in detail, in the form of factors and variables of KMS diffusion, and a comprehensive adoption/diffusion model of KMS as obtained from the field study. Finally, conclusions and future directions are presented.
0950-7051/$ - see front matter q 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.knosys.2004.11.001
Knowledge-Based Systems 18 (2005) 107–115
www.elsevier.com/locate/knosys
* Corresponding author. Tel.: C61 7 5506 9320; fax: C61 7 5506 9301.
E-mail addresses: quaddus@gsb.curtin.edu.au (M. Quaddus), jxu@
scu.edu.au (J. Xu).