臺大管理論叢 NTU Management Review VOL.30 NO.3

Effects of Users on Technology Adaptation: Multi-Case Studies from Morphogenetic Approach 102 Effects of Users on Technology Adaptation: Multi-Case Studies from Morphogenetic Approach English Summary Technology adaptation is defined as “the process of adapting and adjusting between technology and the organization after the adoption of technology” (Orlikowski, 1996; Majchrzak, Rice, Malhotra, King, and Ba, 2000; Nan, 2011). It is a complex and recursive activity involving mutual adaptation between technology and the organization. Technology adaptation is inevitable and necessary as the functions or features of new technologies are mostly discrepant with organizational needs or objectives at first. When reviewing prior studies, I find that broadly speaking, we can view the relationship between the inner structure of technology, organizations, and users from three different perspectives, namely, “technological determinism” (Barley, 1986; DeSancis and Poole, 1994), “techonology-organization interaction” (Orlikowski, 1992; Orlikowski, Yates, Okamura, and Fujimoto, 1995; Orlikowski, 2000; Boudreau and Robey, 2005; Vaast and Walsham, 2005; Nan, 2011), and “technology-user conflict” (Schultze and Boland Jr., 2000; Soh and Sia, 2004; Schultze and Orlikowski, 2004; Beaudry and Pinsonneault, 2005). However, these studies focus more on the relationship itself or on the organization and technology, and do not deliberately illustrate the actions different users take and the influence they have over the technology adaptation in their organizations. Borrowing from Archer (1979)’s morphogenetic approach (MA), the study aims to explore the role of users in technology adaptation by investigating the following two questions: (1) How users affect technology adaptation? (2) How do users change the inner structures of technology? Archer (1979) develops MA to solve a long-standing problem of the structure and agent in social studies. MA is an analytical tool that describes the process of social structuring by conceptualizing the interplay between the structure and agencies over time and space. It is also an established social theory to examine the interactions between users and technology (Volkoff, Strong, and Elmes, 2007; Mutch, 2010), and provide alternative interpretations to technology adaptation. Shin-Horng Chen , Department of Marketing and Logistics Management, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology