Abstract

when adopting a new IT system, users share each other’s information on both the system and the process. Research on IT adoption knows very little about the content and the way in which users communicate with each other during those adoption processes. To address this issue, we analyzed the discourse of a group of first-year engineering lecturers while they were adopting a system of electronic quizzes. Results showed significant differences between lecturers who adopted or not the system. Adopters used sentences in the first person and their language involved personal commitment. In contrast, the non-adopter used an impersonal language and established asymmetric power relations. Moreover, although all attendees were able to foresee the difficulties in implementing the system, only adopters made efforts to propose solutions. These findings might shed light on the users’ willingness to adopt or not a new IT during the implementation stage. The present work contributes by giving an answer to prominent researchers, who claim that new methodological approaches are needed to understand better why users adopt or not a new system. We would strongly encourage researchers and practitioners to analyze what the users say during an IT adoption process.