Extending the Diffusion of Innovation Theory to Predict Smartphone Adoption Behaviour Among Higher Education Institutions’ Lecturers in Nigeria

Abstract

With the rise in the number of ICT-enabled devices in Nigeria and considering the relevance and importance of these devices in effective teaching, it becomes legitimate and inevitable to understand the key predictors of smartphone adoption among lecturers in the higher education institutions (HEIs). While extant literatures are gorged with such investigations, the majority of Sub-Saharan African contexts are grossly under-researched. Using this as a point of departure, this paper seeks to answer these questions: what are the predictors of smartphone adoption among the university lecturers? And how do these identified predictors influence smartphone adoption among university lecturers? Since smartphone is a new technological device and its adoption as a teaching-enabled device is different from its traditional adoption for communication, the main objective of this paper is to empirically investigate the predictors of smartphone adoption among Nigerian university lecturers. The study was based on the lecturers of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria. Data were collected using questionnaire based on multistage sampling technique of 284 respondents. Factor analysis and multiple regressions were used for data reduction and hypotheses testing respectively. Analyses of data reveal that personal experience, relative advantage, job relevance, triability, complexity and price were the predicators of smartphone adoption. The findings have serious implications for smartphone retail management among others.

Keywords: Adoption Behaviour, Complexity, Higher Education Institutions, Job Relevance, Nigeria, Personal Experience, Price, Relative Advantage, Smartphone, Triability.

DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-5-02

Publication date: February 29^th 2020