Psychological factors influencing technology adoption: A case study from the oil and gas industry

Highlights

• Three case studies conducted within the offshore oil and gas indicated that psychological factors influence technology uptake.

• Following 22 interviews, observations, and document analysis, thematic analysis was conducted on these data.

• Six overarching psychological categories were identified from the case studies with 15 factors, supporting the framework.

• The case study analysis indicated key facilitators and barriers which can be used to support technology adoption in O&G.

• These findings may be relevant to other sectors experiencing resistance to innovation (e.g., for digitalisation).

Abstract

People have the power to make an innovation a success or a failure. Corporate decision makers act as both facilitators and barriers to the introduction of technologies into their organisations. Psychological factors clearly have an impact on their decisions and acceptance behaviours, but these have not been fully explored. Consequently, an understanding of these factors is essential for organisations who wish to accelerate technology adoption as well as for innovators who face numerous barriers when introducing their new products to the industrial market.

The upstream oil and gas (O&G) industry has been characterised as reluctant to adopt new technology. The analysis of three technology introduction case studies in the UK offshore O&G sector (including interviews with 22 personnel involved in developing and commercially buying new technology) confirmed the influence of 15 psychological factors on organisational technology adoption decision making. These have been organized into a framework (P-TAF) consisting of six categories of psychological constructs, namely: personality, attitudes, motivation, social, cognitive, and organisational factors. With further development, this preliminary framework can be used to develop interventions that support the successful technology uptake in O&G and in other sectors experiencing resistance to the introduction of new technology.