Exploring Importance of Environmental Factors for Adoption of Knowledge Management Systems in Saudi Arabian Public Sector Organisations

This research aimed to examine importance and influence of environmental factors mainly from institutional theory perspective on adoption of KMS in the context of Saudi Arabian public sector. Data collected from a survey of 352 employees from various public sector organisations, was utilised to perform a number of analyses which led to illustrate that the coercive pressure not just directly affects behavioural intention but also exert indirect effect on it via mimetic pressure construct. Coercive pressure along with normative pressure and external IS support determines the strength of mimetic pressure. Findings also indicate that mimetic pressure along with coercive pressure significantly influences behavioural intention to adopt KMS in Saudi Arabian public sector organisations. The paper also outlines contribution, limitations and future research directions emerging from this research.

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