A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY: THE ADOPTION OF INTERNET TECHNOLOGY IN U.S. ORGANIZATIONS

ABSTRACT: An understanding of the meaning new technologies have for society must begin with an understanding of the types of actors that employ a given technology. While the Internet has become a rapidly expand-ing area of inquiry with respect to trends among individual users, there has been little systematic empirical work on the organizational characteristics related to this form of information technology. This article examines the use of Internet-based technology b U.S. organizations. An analysis of a national sample of 712 organizations i the United States urveyed in1996 shows three significantfindings: (1)financial organizations were more likely than other types of organizations to be early users of Internet-based t chnology; (2) CEOs with backgrounds in engineering and sales were likely to guide their organizations to make use of this type of information technology; and (3) organizations with large proportions f employees with degrees of higher education were likely to make use of Internet-based information technology. Viewed together, the results suggest hat he social structure ofthe work-place and the specific markets inwhich an organization is embedded played significant roles in the spread of the Internet across U.S. organizations. THE STUDY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Recently, a number studies have addressed the relationships among information technology, organizational structure, and organizational change. Research in this area has examined issues such as organizational hierarchies and the "politics " o