From e-learning courses to businesses: What technologies do they share?

Diffusion of Innovation (DoI) theory has been well studied when it comes to exploring how technologies are defused. However, DoI theory lacks distinction between personal and organizational uses of technologies, as well as diffusion for reasons other-than technology adoption. The past three decades have demonstrated a major increase in the dependency on information and communication technologies (ICTs). In this study, we have investigated the level of use, perceived organizational relevance, and informing associated with six business related ICTs. We fuse the DoI theory with the Informing Science theory to better understand the relationships among the three constructs investigated in the context of diffusion of ICTs from e-learning courses to businesses. Our preliminary findings indicate that when it comes to ICTs introduced, the current usage and organizational relevance of Social Networking Sites and Enterprise-Wide Systems are significantly different, whereas for other ICTs, the two constructs seem similar. Additionally, individuals appear to divide their underlying process of informing others about ICTs between personal and organizational role of the ICT. Our findings also demonstrated that by-in-large, informing about ICTs is consistent with the level of use of the ICTs studied. In this initial research, we’re reporting some preliminary findings and conclude with discussions for future research.