presented at the 2013 Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action conference in Hartford, CT

1. Assessing ICT Adoption Decisions of
Kenyan Nonprofit Organizations
Melissa Tully, PhD
University of Iowa
2013 ARNOVA Conference
Hartford, CT
melissa-tully@uiowa.edu

2. Situating this study
• Part of larger (dissertation) project
• 11 months of fieldwork over four visits to Kenya
between December 2008 and January 2011
• RQ: what factors influence ICT adoption decisions
among small- and medium-sized civil society
organizations?

3. Research Framework
• Diffusion of innovations (DOI) theory – used
across disciplines; popular in communications
research (Rogers, 2003)
• Technology acceptance model – used in IS
research (Davis, 1989; Venkatesh & Davis, 2000)
• Design-reality gaps – concept developed and
applied to ICT for development (Heeks, 2002, 2009)
• Current research uses concepts from all three

5. Current Study
• How do the different factors affect adoption
decisions of the Ushahidi platform?
• Ushahidi platform – open-source software for data
aggregation and visualization (mapping)

6. Methods
• Data collected over time (2008–2011) using
multiple qualitative methods:
– Participant observation
– Workshops and focus groups
– Interviews
– Surveys of employees
– Document analysis

7. Nairobi, Kenya
• Organizations in this study
are based in Nairobi
• Growing tech sector
– Fiber optic cable; mobile;
government investment
• Huge NGO sector
– Hub for East Africa (Taylor, 2004)
Tech hub + NGO hub = lots of ICT for social change initiatives

8. A Few Key Findings
• Individuals with technical and sector expertise are
best suited to develop ICT projects and make
good adoption decisions
– Rejecting an innovation can be the best decision
– Ability to adapt the software to fit needs (closing the
design-reality gap)
• When the decision to adopt a new technology is
top-down, it is less likely to be accepted, often
leading to project failure (supported by DOI).

9. A Few Key Findings
• “Trialability” and “visibility” as key factors in
adoption decisions
– Previous DOI research have found these to be less
predictive
– Follow-up study will more systematically measure the
impact of these factors
• “Complexity” often miscalculated
– Potential adopters focused on technical complexity,
instead of on the complexity of implementation and
project management

10. Discussion
• Usefulness of comparative case studies and
looking at “negative” cases
• Intersection of factors (no simple predictor)
• Miscalculations about digital/social media in NP
sector
• Misalignment between expectations, goals, and
outcomes

11. Thank You!
melissa-tully@uiowa.edu