Operationalizing the Technology-Organization-Environment (Toe) Framework: A Measurement Catalog of Constructs, Measures, and Research Gaps in Technology Adoption Studies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51137/wrp.ijarbm.819Keywords:
Technology-organization-environment, TOE, Technology Adoption, Methodology, Measurement Catalog, Construct Operationalization, Organizational Innovation, Survey Instrument Design.Abstract
The Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework is widely applied in organizational technology adoption research, yet its measurement practices remain fragmented. Across studies of EDI, cloud computing, blockchain, AI, and other contexts, researchers routinely rename, adapt, or recombine constructs without documenting how their operationalizations relate to prior work, producing a literature that is empirically rich but difficult to accumulate. This study addresses that problem by developing a measurement catalog of 14 reusable TOE constructs drawn from 45 empirical anchor studies. Using a targeted construct-selection approach, the study retained constructs that were peer-reviewed, tested at the firm level, statistically validated, and generalizable across technology domains. Related aliases were consolidated under canonical names through three documented rules based on shared theoretical mechanisms, item-level overlap, and functional equivalence. The catalog organizes constructs across the technological, organizational, and environmental contexts, provides core definitions with recommended measurement facets, and includes representative survey items with reported reliability coefficients. Beyond consolidation, this study identifies persistent gaps, including limited post-adoption measurement, weak readiness-capability differentiation, and underdeveloped governance constructs for emerging technologies. The catalog serves as a practical starting point for researchers designing TOE-based survey instruments and conceptual models, strengthening construct consistency while preserving the framework’s flexibility.
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