Investigating the determinants of organizational intention to use push to talk over cellular technology and related innovations

Push to Talk over Cellular (PoC) is a technology that offers mobile instant voice communication to organizations and its users. Despite recent PoC technology innovations and standardization, the adoption and use of PoC technology by organizations remains low. Furthermore, the adoption of PoC has been largely ignored in academic studies. In order to understand the low organizational adoption rates of PoC technology, this study investigated PoC determinants and empirically assessed their influence on organizational user adoption intention. This study utilized three commonly used technology adoption theories: Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Diffusion of Innovations (DOI), and Technology Organization and Environmental framework (TOE). An online survey administered to the transport industry decision makers resulted in 164 responses, of which135 were usable. Multiple and linear regression was used to test the study models. The regression results indicated that the transport industry organization decision makers have a positive intention to adopt PoC. The following determinants were statistically significant: Experience, Top Management Support, Cost, Perceived Barriers, External Pressure, and Coercive Influence. These determinants contribute uniquely and are relevant in explaining organizational PoC adoption. Perceived Usefulness, Relative Advantage and Compatibility indicated a partially significant influence. On the other hand, Perceived Ease of Use, Complexity, Organizational Readiness, Size, and Competitive Pressure did not contribute significantly to organizational intention to adopt PoC. These findings provide insights into the determinants that could explain the low rates of PoC adoption within organizations. These results also lend empirical support to the use of a context based theoretical framework and contributes to the body of knowledge by shedding light into determinants that encourage or hinder the use and acceptance of PoC technology within the transportation industry organizations. The findings had implications for practice that suggested that a higher level of perceived barriers had a negative impact on the adoption of PoC whereas organizational and environmental determinants were favored by decision makers within the transportation industry. The conclusions of this study affirm the use of a unified theoretical framework and underscore the importance of understanding technology context determinants in organizational adoption of instant mobile voice communication technologies.