The Adoption, Use and Diffusion of Tablet Devices: a Study of Small and Medium Enterprises in Hungary

This thesis addresses why tablet investments in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may result in routine, low-value use rather than employee-driven innovation. Focusing on Hungarian SMEs, it examines how individual-level factors and organisational support mechanisms shape post-adoption continuance and IT-enabled innovative behaviour with tablet devices. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed. In Phase 1 (2014–15), a cross-sectional online survey of 1,040 tablet users in 21 Hungarian SMEs tested an integrated post-adoption model combining Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) constructs (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, attitude), personal innovativeness in IT, and organisational support mechanisms (innovation support and involvement facilitation). Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling showed that the model explains substantial variance in continuance intention and IT-enabled innovative behaviour. Organisational mechanisms exerted strong total effects, while personal innovativeness operated as a “double-edged sword”, enabling experimentation where support was present but fuelling frustration where it was absent. In Phase 2 (2021), semi-structured interviews with 18 employees and managers from nine SMEs (drawn from the original sample) were analysed using the Gioia method. Four aggregate dimensions emerged, emphasising that the alignment between tasks and tablet-supported workflows, the maturation of tablet use over time, and organisational conditions and constraints together shape long-term appropriation. Integrating both strands, the thesis deepens understanding of employee-driven digital innovation in resource-constrained SMEs, advances post-adoption theory, and offers practical guidance for SME managers and policymakers seeking to close the “second-level” digital divide from access to innovative use.