Diffusion of Innovations and the Theory of Planned Behavior in Information Systems Research: A Metaanalysis

Diffusion of Innovations and the Theory of Planned Behavior provide the foundation on which a preponderance of information systems (IS) theory and research is built. IS scholars often assume that the basic factors proffered by these theories are significant determinants of innovation adoption. However, there has yet to be a meta-analytic examination of research in the IS field to validate this assumption. Herein, we use Tornatzky and Klein’s seminal 1982 meta-analysis of innovation characteristics as the starting point for our meta-analytic examination of Diffusion of Innovations and Theory of Planned Behavior models in IS research. In order to focus our investigation on a common criterion variable, adoption propensity, we use antecedents from both models to develop a model of innovation adoption-behavior (IAB). After describing the relationships encompassed by the IAB model, we step through a bare-bones meta-analysis. Considering the data reported in fifty-eight empirical articles, we calculate the estimated true correlations with the criterion variable to be .53 for attitude toward behavior, .33 for subjective norm, .41 for perceived behavioral control, .42 for relative advantage, .43 for compatibility, -.28 for complexity, .32 for trialability, and .38 for observability. With the exception of complexity, all correlations generalize across studies.