Perceived critical mass effect on groupware acceptance

Groupware technologies have become an important part of the business computing infrastructure in many organizations, but many groupware applications, especially those requiring significant collaboration and cooperation among users, are still not adequately used. While the successful implementation of groupware depends on many different factors, achieving a ‘critical mass’ of users has been recognised as the key for groupware acceptance. By extending the technology acceptance model (TAM), this paper advances a groupware acceptance model that incorporates perceived critical mass as an independent variable for predicting groupware acceptance. The model is empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 385 students responding about their perception of Lotus Domino Discussion Databases. The results reveal that perceived critical mass had the largest total effect (direct and indirect) on intention to use groupware. Other relationships postulated in the model were also found to be significant. These findings corroborate the belief that it is essential to create a critical mass of users in the early stages of groupware implementation. A discussion of the implications of these findings for managers and researchers is also presented.