Interactions Between Traditional and Reversed IT Adoption: How Incumbent Devices Affect Cross-Situational Specialization of New Entries

Abstract

This article proposes a cross-situational specialization framework for what, at its introduction, was a newer generation personal computer (PC) device (a tablet computer). With use as the basis for continuance adoption as the theoretical lens, this article explores how the tablet coexists as a substitute- and a complement-in-use with incumbent PC(s). To test a model consisting of cross-situational use patterns, determinants, and outcomes, this article develops and analyzes the results of a survey of tablet computer use in a learning and education context. The results show a stronger coexistence between the tablet and the incumbent devices when the devices perform the same tasks in different, compared to the same, situations. Additionally, use of the PC devices as distinct units depends more on the situational sophistication of their features for use than sophistication of the devices per se. Further, user perception of the tablet's in-use impact depends on its performance in situations where the incumbent devices have limited sophistication, while user perception of the tablet as an essential device depends on its extension of the uses of the incumbent devices to different situations. This article implies that when a newer generation personal mobile device is an imperfect substitute for incumbent PC devices, individual adoption of such a mobile device may facilitate a partial reversal of information technology adoption in organizations.