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A Grounded Agent Model Of The Consumer Technology Adoption Process, Brent Alan Zenobia

Dissertations and Theses

Adoption is one of the most important concepts in the diffusion of innovations (DOI) literature, yet certain aspects of it are poorly understood. In particular, causal adoption process theory (CAPT) has been stagnant for decades and seldom subjected to critical scrutiny. In consequence, DOI research is unstable – different studies identify different factors as important.

This dissertation introduces grounded agent modeling, a hybrid methodology drawing on existing software engineering and social science techniques to construct a step-by-step explanation of how consumers make technology adoption decisions. Inductive case studies, grounded theory, and sequence analysis are used to investigate transportation mode adoption …