ABSTRACT

This study investigates external factors influencing IT manager support for deploying mobile services innovations in hospitals. It develops and tests a research model representing the relevant elements of the Technology-Organization-Environment (T-O-E) framework in different innovation diffusion stages. Uniquely, this model hypothesizes how domain-relevant vendor interactions would relate to IT managers’ support. Empirical data from a representative national survey of 808 hospital IT managers in China test the model in conjunction with independent data. The results largely support the positive relationship between vendor experience and IT managers’ support across diffusion stages. They also show that support changes in relation to care services versus administrative services over stages as IT managers cope with emergent risk and pressures to innovate. Theoretically, the work provides a new approach for examining external factors of T-O-E communications and linking structures during innovation projects.