基于技术接受模型的企业管理创新过程机制研究

A research on the process mechanism of enterprise management innovation based on the technology acceptance model (TAM)

基于社会心理学的理性行为理论,借鉴两栖模型,构建一个整合模型,分析技术接受模型的两个维度——感知有用性和感知易用性——对中小企业管理创新的影响。以珠三角地区的449家制造型中小企业为调查对象,运用层次回归分析方法进行实证检验,结果表明:管理创新对成长绩效具有显著正向影响;感知易用性不仅对管理创新有正向直接影响,还正向调节管理创新与成长绩效的关系;感知有用性对管理创新与成长绩效间关系的调节效应不显著,但对管理创新具有显著正向影响。

In the 1970 s and 1980 s,Japanese enterprises developed rapidly through management innovation practices,such as total quality management,lean production,six sigma management and other practices,which promoted Japan to become an industrial power in the word.This experience showed that compared with technological innovation,management innovation can also promote enterprises to build sustainable competitive advantages.In order to promote enterprise management innovation,many researches have discussed the condition of management innovation and its influence on enterprise growth.However,most of the existing literature considers management innovation as a whole concept,and the process mechanism of how management innovation is adopted and successfully implemented in the organization has rarely been explored,which makes the successful practice of management innovation coated with a layer of mystery.It is of great theoretical value and practical significance to deeply explore the process mechanism of the adoption and implementation of management innovation.The objects of management innovation are more abstract and difficult to grasp,such as ideas,means,methods,processes and systems,which have distinct personality characteristics of the innovation subject.Thus,this study suggests that individual cognition is an important factor affecting the process of management innovation.Technology acceptance model(TAM)is widely used to characterize the individual’s inner cognitive concept to the target technology.It includes two dimensions of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use.The basic view of TAM is:usefulness and ease of perception will significantly affect the use tendency of the individual to the target technology,and then affect individual’s use behavior.Following this theoretical logic,management innovation,as a'generalized technology'from the perspective of social technology,employees’perception of the usefulness and ease of use to the innovation schemes may also significantly affect the adoption and implementation effect of management innovation.Based on the discussion above,this paper focuses on the following three questions based on the TAM:(1)in the process of management innovation adoption,do the two dimensions of TAM have the same impact on management innovation?(2)in the process of management innovation implementation,in what ways do the two dimensions of the TAM exert their influence?(3)in the processes of the adoption and implementation of management innovation,whether there are differences in the mechanism of the influence of the two dimensions of the TAM.This paper conceptualizes an integrated model that combines the roles of employees’rational behavior and ambidextrous model of innovation.Based on the above analytical framework,we investigated the impact of employees’perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on the different stages of SMEs’management innovation.Using a sample of 449 small and medium sized manufacturing enterprises in Pearl River Delta,this study empirically tested the management innovation process mechanism of SMEs based on the TAM,and drew the following three conclusions and answered the three questions raised above.Firstly,in the process of management innovation adoption,the two dimensions of TAM played a consistent role,both of which were positive influences.It indicated that the improvement of managers’perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of management innovation schemes would significantly improve the possibility of the adoption of management innovation.Secondly,in the process of management innovation implementation,management innovation could significantly promote the growth performance of SMEs.Thirdly,in the process of management innovation implementation,the two dimensions of TAM did not play the same role in the influencing process.Specifically,the moderating effect of perceived usefulness of management innovation on the relationship between management innovation and growth performance was not significant,while perceived ease of use moderated the relationship between management innovation and growth performance positively.These results are inconsistent with the conclusion that'perceived usefulness played a more important role in technology adoption than perceived ease of use'found by many current studies.The possible reason for this phenomenon is that individuals’acceptance behavior of a specific technology is closely related to their personal interests,so the perceived usefulness is the main factor to consider whether they accept it or not.But the usefulness of management innovation,which is more embodied in the organizational level,has many personalized characteristics.Management innovation’s implementing process may need to reschedule the task and role of organization members,work schedules,interdependence model,communication network,power relations,status and distribution adjustment of professional knowledge.Therefore,even though management innovation is beneficial from the organizational level,if managers think that this adjustment is too complex,difficult to use,may change their already habit way of doing things,even bring more rules or institutional constraints,they may also not be actively involved in the implementation of management innovation,and ultimately affect the enterprise benefiting from management innovation.Just asReger et al.(1994)asserted:'changes that are good for the organization are often resisted by loyal members who sincerely hope the organization to be better.'Therefore,perceived ease of use played a more significant role than perceived usefulness in the implementation of management innovation.Compared with the existing research,the main contributions of this study were as follows:firstly,through empirical test,the mechanism of individual cognition in the process of management innovation adoption and implementation has been clarified;Secondly,it extended the applicable research scope of the TAM,which was mainly used in the research on the acceptance process of various information technologies.The research of this paper showed that the core views of the TAM were also valid in the context of management innovation research field.Thirdly,we expanded the influence mechanism of TAM.The existing research on TAM mainly discussed its direct effect.In this study,we not only discussed its direct effect in the process of innovation adoption,but also discussed its moderating effect in the process of innovation implementation,which enriched the modeling construct idea of follow-up to carry out the related empirical studies.Finally,we propose the management suggestions of this study for managers to help enterprises achieve the goal of'seeking benefits from management'.