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Diffusions of innovation theory (DOI) has directed considerable attention towards
understanding the diffusion of innovations [38]. Research in a vast array of academic
disciplines such as anthropology, communication, geography, sociology, marketing,
political science, public health, economics, social psychology, sociology, and political
science has applied DOI to understand the process through which new ideas and
technologies become accepted by people. Some of these studies have attempted to
examine individual usage behaviour regarding IS methodologies from a technology
adoption perspective. They view software development methodologies as technology
innovations and make use of DOI and the technology acceptance model (TAM) (e.g.,
[22,37]). Others apply sociological models such as the theory of planned behaviour
(TPB) and Triandis's theory of interpersonal behaviour to examine the development
of individuals' intention to use methodologies (e.g., [21,26]).
Both approaches come to similar conclusions, and state that methodology character-
istic
usefulness
is the single most important determinant of methodology acceptance
and use by its actual users [22,37]. Subsequent research has therefore focused on this
particular variable, but has neglected other potential crucial methodology attributes.
Critics have also suggested that TAM and TPB are too parsimonious and need to be
expanded by integrating variables specific to the innovation under investigation [49].
However, even when a handful of researchers seek to examine other methodology
attributes, attributes are found to be either not significant, or of negligible effect (e.g.,
[22,37]), partly because these studies neglect to integrate other non-technical and
non-economic variables from related theoretical perspectives [49], such as personality
attributes like needs of individuals. As Warner [53] observes, the concept of adoption
is a complex social phenomenon that involves both technical and non-technical factors,
and sociologists would undoubtedly agree with this view. Unfortunately, the various
disciplines, generally concentrating on their individual variables, have neglected to
incorporate personality attributes in understanding the methodology acceptance prob-
lem. Little is known about the interactive effects of the attributes of methodologies and
the non-technical personality characteristics, and it seems reasonable that variables
from both sets are important in explaining the problem at hand [53].
Our study seeks to identify additional methodology attributes and to examine
which of these attributes is more important for which type of person in which situa-
tions. Neglecting the impact of such complex relationships might lead to results that
are not always valid [23]. Our study is a step toward filling the gap in the methodol-
ogy development, adoption and implementation literature, which until now has not
developed a theoretically and practically complete and relevant taxonomy of potential
methodology characteristics and has also not studied the effect of personal traits such
as needs on the effectiveness of the various methodology attributes. This leads us to
fundamental questions regarding the impact of methodology attributes on an individ-
ual's usage behaviour: a) Which methodology attributes affect an individual's deci-
sion to use it? b) How do basic individual needs influence the predictive power of
these different methodology attributes?
The remainder of the paper is organised as follows: Section 2 defines the research
scope, and provides an overview of the conceptual foundations and the basic theories
that provide the framework for our conceptual model. We also discuss prior research
on the topic in order to clarify what has been done and what needs to be done.
In Section 3, we present our research model and hypotheses, pointing out validated
