Examining the effects of social influence in pre-adoption phase and initial post-adoption phase in the healthcare context

Despite the widespread adoption of healthcare information technology (HIT) in hospitals, fostering physicians’ acceptance of this system is a challenging task. This study focuses on and compares two critical phases for user acceptance of HIT, namely, pre-adoption phase and initial post-adoption phase. Based on the psychological attachment theory, we propose that social influence factors exert differentiated effects on physician acceptance of HIT in these two phases. Survey results show that reward, sanction, and informational influence affect physicians’ HIT acceptance in the pre-adoption phase, whereas reward and image are significantly associated with HIT acceptance in the initial post-adoption phase.