Explaining Sophistication in Collaborative Technology Use: A Context-Technology Fit Perspective

Abstract

Organizations are increasingly attempting to leverage their IT infrastructures and gain better benefits from them. Collaborative technology is one such IT-based infrastructural application which enables organizations to increase operational efficiencies and effectiveness of organizational decision making. It is important to identify potential challenges and barriers to collaborative technology adoption and use and therefore create means and mechanisms for anticipating challenges, facing them and removing barriers. Motivated by differences in extent of use of collaborative technology by groups in organizations, this paper uses exploratory cases to analyse IT-supported collaborative decision task situations to understand the factors influencing sophistication of use of collaborative technology. Preliminary qualitative analysis suggests that level of sophistication is fit between three constructs including users' drive to use technology, the need for technology support and the group's cultural orientation towards collaboration. Potential group contexts are discussed using the cases as samples. Further development of an integrative framework to understand use of collaborative technology is essential for suggesting more precise and fundamental prescriptive mechanisms. � 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.