Determinants of innovation adoption: a literature review and future avenues of research

Purpose of the study. To develop a systematic literature review on innovation adoption at the individual and organizational levels of analysis in order to identify adoption determinants, as well as possible gaps and areas of future research. Methodology. Systematic review of literature based on keywords, conducted on databases of articles from different disciplines. Categorization of papers and cross-validation based on the findings of previous reviews . Findings. Identification of the determinants of innovation adoption at the individual and organizational levels. Focus on opportunities for future research concerning individual adoption and use of threshold models, but also organizational adoption and integration with real option theory. Emphasis on the need for a multi-level analysis of organizational innovation adoption. Research limits. We have not come to develop detailed propositions linking the issues, which would be a logical next step. Furthermore, we cannot exclude that using databases other than the ones employed will lead to discover omitted relevant research. Practical implications. By improving understanding of the determinants of innovation adoption and how they are interrelated, new models may be of use to practitioners in gaining acceptance of innovation within an organization, and ensure it contributes to sustained competitive advantage. Originality of the study. We believe that the material presented in our paper and the issues raised will form a useful and incremental contribution to the existing knowledge on innovation adoption. We systematically profiled a larger, and more timely set of existing publications in terms of author, publication year, level of analysis, theoretical perspective employed, nature of adoption variables.