Lack of Awareness of IT Adoption and Use Theories by IT/IS Project Managers: Poor Relevance, Unfocused Research or Deficient Education?

Abstract

Adoption, use, and diffusion of Information Technology (IT) applications, together with their widespread success, are among the most popular topics in Information Systems (IS) research. However, the impact of the acquired understanding of those phenomena on IS practice is not discernible. In fact, IT adoption, use, and diffusion are subjects scarcely mentioned in what concerns the practices of IT/IS professionals. This article addresses the question of IT/IS practitioners’ awareness of models and theories regarding the adoption, use, and diffusion of IT applications and their success. It describes two surveys of IT/IS project managers that look into their knowledge on a selected set of models/theories widely addressed in IS research. The results show that these project managers are not aware of IT adoption, use, and diffusion models/theories. The article ends with a discussion that attempts to find justifications for that evidence and stresses out the need for further research focused on translating the extant theoretical models into actionable knowledge.