Factors affecting late adoption of digital innovations

Despite extensive research on diffusion and adoption of innovations, late adoption of digitized products has received little attention. This study explores the determinants of late adoption of digital innovations and selects five variables: a) attitude toward a technology, b) negative word of mouth about the technology, c) global brand image, d) consumer innovativeness, and e) lead-user profile.The results of a binary logistic regression with late adopter as the target variable show that with exception of negative word of mouth, all the variables have a negative effect on the probability of moving on the adoption scale from late to early adopter. Furthermore, increasing the positive attitude of consumers toward a technology (i.e. reducing consumers' skepticism) could be more effective to accelerate the rate of adoption than projecting the global image of the company. Understanding the determinants of late adoption will allow companies to develop technologies that diffuse faster and will help them to follow NPD, marketing, and sales strategies, which could accelerate the rate of adoption of digital innovations.