Understanding and managing knowledge transfer for customers in IT adoption

Purpose The purpose of this study is to advance information technology (IT) adoption research and practice by investigating the process of knowledge transfer (KT) undertaken by suppliers of IT innovations. We expound the intricacies of formal and informal mechanisms of the KT initiative that aims at augmenting the absorptive capacity (ACAP) of potential IT adopters with the objective of increasing the likelihood of adoption of new IT products or services. Design/methodology/approach We draw on case studies of ten IT suppliers to build on the limited research on KT for customers in IT adoption. We focus on the for customer type of KT from the standpoint of the IT supplier firm. Findings Our results show that complexity of the IT product or service increases the reliance on formal and systematic KT initiatives. This paper also shows that there is a required minimum threshold level of initial customers’ ACAP in order for the KT initiative to be worthwhile for the supplier, especially for those offering compl...

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