Professors Michelle Shumate and Noshir Contractor along with Sophia Fu received a Top 4 Paper Award in the Organizational Communication Division at the 67th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA).

The paper was titled, “Collective Innovation Adoption across Interorganizational Systems: Organizational Boundary, Social Networks, and Decision-Making Status.”

“Most research on innovation adoption focuses on the attitudes and behaviors of members of a single organization. However, little research has examined innovation adoption across an interorganizational system where the results have public consequences. Using the Theory of Reasoned Action and Social Information Processing Theory, this study examines three factors that influence intentions to adopt six health innovations across the system of 1,849 state health departments in Bihar, India. The collective attitudes of advice network members and organizational co-members influence government healthcare workers’ (N = 6,776) attitudes and perceptions of social norms toward each innovation. Perceptions of social norms and attitudes influence the intentions to adopt each innovation, a reliable precursor to innovation adoption behaviors. However, individuals’ decision making status moderates these relationships, such that the collective attitudes of advice network members have a greater influence on decision makers (n = 953) and the collective attitudes of organizational co-members and perceived social norms have a greater influence on non-decision makers (n = 5,823). Implications for the study of innovation adoption within and across organizations are drawn from the results.”

Source: SONIC