User appropriation of mobile technologies: Motives, conditions and design properties

The mobility of human activities entails intrinsic parameters such as the mobility of tasks and technologies, as well as changing conditions underlying mobile computing. The interactions between these parameters bear directly on the appropriation of mobile technologies deployed in these activities. In this paper, I analyze the appropriation of mobile technologies as a function of motives, conditions of use, and technology design properties. The analysis explains the flexibility of mobile computing as a direct function of the appropriation process. The paper contributes to understanding mobile technology use and improving user acceptance by extending existing conceptualizations of technology use. Technology personalization and use in non-organizational contexts are the essentials of the extension, suggesting that mobile computing is a function of use for serving both organizationally-sanctioned and personal motives. Implications for researching mobile technology use and for designing mobile technologies are drawn.