The domestication of online technologies by smaller businesses and the ‘busy day’

Despite the institutional push for all businesses to embrace new forms of Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) and ‘get online’, it is evident that take-up amongst businesses has been highly uneven, with some cautious in their adoption and others not adopting, with the possibilities offered not being exploited. To understand this, a multi-method approach has been used to provide different lenses through which to observe the online practices of a specific group of practitioners. Analysis was performed using a modified version of Silverstone's (1992) domestication framework. It is proposed that users embed (internalise) online technologies within their ‘busy day’ — which often requires much effort and involves configuration and learning (learning by trying). It is concluded that the apparently deterministic institutional view of the benefit of online technologies and the imperative that they are fully exploited to give competitive advantage, can be at odds with the locally contingent and diverse nature of online practices.

Research highlights
► An empirical grounded study of the uptake of online technologies.
► Conceptually analysed using the framework of domestication.
► Uptake of online technologies is locally contingent and diverse.
► Uptake involves configuration, learning and embedding within the ‘busy day’.
► Questions the deterministic institutional view of the imperative need for uptake.