1. 1
Sabine Berghaus
Institute of Information Management
University of St.Gallen
Adoption of Mobile Business
Solutions and its Impact on
Organizational Stakeholders

2. 2
Motivation and Research Question1

3. 3
Introducing new technology
- Companies introduce new
technology «top-down» (e.g.
Gallivan 2001).
- Main question for organizations is
how to facilitate adoption
Theories on individual adoption
behavior are well explored, e.g.
TAM (Davis, 1989), Theory of
Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991),
UTAUT (Venkatesh et al., 2003)

4. 4
Consumerization
- Consumer market is moving
much faster than the
enterprise market.
- Employees bring their
gadgets and software to the
workplace (Harris et al.,
2012).
How can companies
incorporate new practices?

5. 5
Research Questions
1. What are the main drivers of mobile business
solution adoption in a corporate environment?
2. What implications do these drivers have for
different organizational stakeholders?

6. 6
Method2

7. 7
Grounded Theory Approach
Description Goal
Focus
Group
• 11 managers from various
industries
• World Café discussion
• Ideate, Evaluate, Prioritize
results
Research
organizational
challenges
Expert
Interviews
• 7 managers from various
industries
• Semi-structured
• Coding of transcripts
• Inductive analysis
Research adoption
drivers and
inhibitors in
organizational
context
Result of analysis: 81 codes that were merged into 7 clusters

8. 8
Findings3

9. 9
Mobile User Experience
«This was released to 3,500 people
without training. We offered training,
but nobody needed it»
(Head of Mobile CM, Insurance Company)
Image Copyright Samsung Electronics Switzerland, http://www.samsung.com/ch/news/picturelibrary.html

10. 10
Mobile User Experience
Adoption Drivers
• Easy to use interface design
• Touch interaction paradigm
• Global and standardized
interaction patterns
Impact on Organizational
Stakeholders
Users facilitating
Operating
departments
-
-
Corporate IT

11. 11
Social Influence
«I noticed when I show
the app to somebody,
people think it’s awesome
and they will tell someone
else. This works better
than the usual means of
communication.»
(Lead Mobile Services, Logistics
and Transportation Company)
Image Copyright Samsung Electronics Switzerland, http://www.samsung.com/ch/news/picturelibrary.html

12. 12
Social Influence
Adoption Drivers
• Access to opinions and
experiences of others
• Enhancing image
(especially in client
interactions)
Impact on Organizational
Stakeholders
Users
Operating
departments
-
facilitating
Corporate IT
facilitating

13. 13
Time To Market
«These are very moderate
investments, apps for less than
CHF 200.000, implemented in less
than 6 months […] this also
convinces the management.»
(Head of Mobile CM, Insurance Company)
Image Copyright Samsung Electronics Switzerland, http://www.samsung.com/ch/news/picturelibrary.html

14. 14
Time To Market
Adoption Drivers
• First mover advantage in
a competitve organization
• Fast implementation
• (Comparably) cheap
investment
• External vendors
• Readily available services
(cloud services)
Impact on Organizational
Stakeholders
Users
Operating
departments
Corporate IT
facilitating
creates
challenge
-

15. 15
Security
«People get pretty angry when IT says – you can use your own
device, but we will restrict functionality, put a virus scanner on it
and you need an 8-digit PIN […] This is a real problem when
you just want to write an SMS on your own device and have to
type in an 8-digit PIN.»
(Head of Enterprise Mobility, IT Consultancy)
Image Copyright Samsung Electronics Switzerland, http://www.samsung.com/ch/news/picturelibrary.html

16. 16
Security
Adoption Drivers
• Non-negotiable criteria
• Protection of internal
data
Impact on Organizational
Stakeholders
Users
Operating
departments
Corporate IT
facilitating
requires
decision
creates
challenge

17. 17
Workplace Flexibility
«This is an expression of
individuality, people like to
express themselves at work,
they like to be comfortable
[…] modern and mobile. It’s
almost a status symbol.»
(Head of Enterprise Mobility, IT
Consultancy)
Image Copyright Samsung Electronics Switzerland, http://www.samsung.com/ch/news/picturelibrary.html

18. 18
Workplace Flexibility
Adoption Drivers
• Expression of a modern
and individualist lifestyle.
• Use own devices /
software
• Work from anywhere
Impact on Organizational
Stakeholders
Users
Operating
departments
Corporate IT
facilitating
-
creates
challenge

19. 19
Information Availability
«For a trip which takes up
to two weeks, you have an
iPad which weighs 400gm. In
the past, our colleagues
reported that they travelled
with 13kg of paper»
(Head of Mobile CM, Insurance
Company)
«There are lots of documents they have to carry
around, they have to be updated. This gets checked by
the authorities and now we put this on an iPad.»
(Lead Mobile Services, Logistics and Transportation Company)
Image Copyright Samsung Electronics Switzerland, http://www.samsung.com/ch/news/picturelibrary.html

20. 20
Information Availability
Adoption Drivers
• Easy access to all critical
information in one place
• Synchronization
• Offline availability
Impact on Organizational
Stakeholders
Users
Operating
departments
Corporate IT
facilitating
requires
decision
creates
challenge

21. 21
Process Mobilization
«One client wanted a
mobile solution for his
sales staff, but when they
got back to the office with
their mobile devices, they
had to continue in the
paper process»
(Head of Mobile Unit, IT
Consultancy)
Image Copyright Samsung Electronics Switzerland, http://www.samsung.com/ch/news/picturelibrary.html

22. 22
Process Mobilization
Adoption Drivers
• Mobile availability of
entire workflows
• Enabling new workflows
when using features of
mobile devices (camera,
GPS, …)
• Integrate into existing
workflows, without
redundancies
Impact on Organizational
Stakeholders
Users
Operating
departments
Corporate IT
facilitating
requires
decision
creates
challenge

23. 23
Conceptual framework

24. 24
«Big Picture»4

25. 26
Further Research
ORGANIZATION
TRANSFORMATION
PROCESS
ENTERPRISE
MOBILITY
• What other stakeholders are affected?
• What transformation processes is enterprise mobility
causing in organizations?
• What processes should be mobilized? What measurable
effect did that have in today’s corporations?

26. 27
Feedback /
Questions?Sabine Berghaus
sabine.berghaus@unisg.ch
@stadtnomadin
about.me/sabineberghaus
Thank you!