Enhancing TAM 3 for DRS technologies and related stakeholder management practices : a case study of international cricket

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has become one of the most widely used information systems frameworks relating to new technology acceptance. TAM 3 has recently come under increased criticism, however, for its over-emphasis on the individual user and its lack of explicit concern of multiple stakeholder management practices necessary for the acceptance of complex technologies in professional contexts. The multiple stakeholder management issues have manifest most notably with the introduction of Decision Review System (DRS) technologies in the professional sports context. DRS include technologies are both retrospective in nature (i.e., they capture objective information that may not have been observable or processed by the referee/umpire accurately) as well as predictive (i.e., they are tasked with inferring new information from an incomplete data set – e.g., predicting the path of an object in motion). DRS technologies also deviate from those that had been used in professional sports since the mid-1980s, in that they are not designed to provide support for the referee/umpire to make their decision, but rather to empower players to challenge the referee/umpire's decision if they perceive that an error had been made. The introduction of these technological (and process) changes have been met with significant levels of stakeholder dissatisfaction and stakeholder rejection (in the form of outright boycotts). Given the criticisms of TAM 3, and the intersecting stakeholder management issues inherent to the implementation of DRS technologies in international sporting competitions, the research question addressed in this thesis is: To what extent does TAM 3 need to be modified to account for DRS technologies and related stakeholder management practices? In order to address this research question, the research was designed as a two-stage process; firstly, a detailed history of the ICC's implementation of DRS technologies was constructed from secondary data. Secondly, critical incidents from the historical account of the ICC's implementation of DRS technologies were used to form the base interview questions asked of 32 professional stakeholders in Stage Two.
This study posits that four elements of multiple stakeholder engagement (i.e., stakeholder 'identification', 'analysis', 'prioritisation' and 'feedback') along with three elements of multiple stakeholder education (i.e., 'specialised education', 'general education', and 'transparency') enabled the ICC to overcome DRS technology acceptance issues experienced by its multiple salient stakeholder groups. In terms of multiple stakeholder engagement practices, this thesis found support for a direct relationship with TAM 3's 'Job Relevance', 'Result Demonstrability' and' Experience' variables. In terms of multiple stakeholder education, this thesis found support for a direct relationship with TAM 3's 'Perception of External Control' variable, and an indirect relationship (via the concept of 'transparency') with TAM 3's 'Result Demonstrability' variable. Based on analysis of the case data, a modified TAM 3 that is inclusive of the stakeholder management practices related to DRS technology acceptance is presented, as well as a range of future research opportunities in this regard. The findings of this thesis provide the basis for three key areas of future research. Firstly, the modified TAM 3 for DRS technologies and related stakeholder management practices presented in this thesis would be well-served by further validation and/or modification by empirical studies in an array of other professional sports settings and organisational contexts. Secondly, there is also the opportunity to explore the modified TAM 3 for DRS technologies and related stakeholder management practices across various technologies. Lastly, the research work of this study will benefit significantly through examination based on mixed research methods to explore the statistical significance and strength of relationships between elements of the modified TAM 3 for DRS technologies and related stakeholder management practices.