IT vendors’ promises are likely to meet sound skepticism from prospective clients. If a particular technology is in vogue and seen as a “hype,” clients are under pressure to buy the technology while, at the same time, skepticism about its claimed benefits might be reinforced. Finding a balance between optimism and skepticism is essential. In this qualitative case study, we examine how an oil and gas supplier company in Norway deals with different pressures when adopting and subsequently implementing digital twin (DT) technologies. DTs offer the promise of creating a digital representation of the physical assets that can keep production facilities operating efficiently and optimally and, as such, have been heralded as enabling the next frontier of productivity improvements. Our results reveal a set of different pressures promoting the decision to adopt the hyped technology. Yet, when descended to the local context, the hype status of DTs evokes multilevel perception segmentation that hype interpreters maneuver by building trust. Based on this analysis, we propose a framework of trust-building mechanisms that contribute to a more nuanced understanding of adoption of hyped technologies and enable practitioners to deal with hype-induced perception obstacles.

IT 供应商的承诺可能会遭到潜在客户的质疑。如果某项技术很流行并被视为“炒作”，客户就会面临购买该技术的压力，与此同时，对其声称的好处的怀疑可能会得到加强。在乐观和怀疑之间找到平衡至关重要。在这个定性案例研究中，我们研究了挪威的一家石油和天然气供应商公司在采用和随后实施数字孪生 (DT) 技术时如何应对不同的压力。DT 有望创建实物资产的数字表示，使生产设施保持高效和最佳运行，因此被誉为提高生产力的下一个前沿领域。我们的结果揭示了一系列不同的压力促使人们决定采用被炒作的技术。然而，当下降到本地上下文时，DT 的炒作状态会唤起多层次的感知分割，炒作解释者通过建立信任来操纵。基于这一分析，我们提出了一个信任建立机制框架，有助于更细致地理解炒作技术的采用，并使从业者能够应对炒作引起的感知障碍。