Size, Centralization and Organizational Adoption of Innovations

Abstract

This study concerns attributes of organizations likely to facilitate or inhibit the adoption of innovations by organizations. First, it offers an interpretation of the often-found relationship between size and adoption frequency. Second, it investigates relationships between structural attributes-specialization, functional differentiation and centralization-and adoption and it develops a model which specifies interactions between these attributes and the type of innovation adopted. An interaction between size and centralization is also posited, and the model is tested using data gathered from a sample of U.S. hospitals. The findings on the whole are consistent with the hypothesis that adoption of innovations compatible with the interests or perspectives of lower-level decision-makers occurs more frequently in large, specialized, functionally-differentiated and decentralized hospitals. Centralization and the interaction between size and centralization do not appear to affect adoption of innovations which are not compatible with the interests of lower-level decision-makers. Contrary to expectations, the data indicate that functional differentiation facilitates adoption of this type of innovation. A revised model of adoption behavior is suggested, and its implications for a general theory of organizational adoption behavior are explored.