Prior conceptions of integration and coordination as modulators of an innovation's adoption: the case of a pilot project targeting the implementation of a services' integration device in France

PURPOSE: Recent work on diffusion of innovation insists on the importance of the processual dimensions of an innovation's adoption. CONTEXT: In the course of a pilot-project aiming to implement three service integration networks for people losing their autonomy, we performed an analysis of the prior conceptions the various actors held of two founding principals: integration and coordination. This research aims to identify the prior conceptions held by the actors and to elucidate the adjustments they do to sustain the adoption of the innovation. DATA SOURCES: We conducted 32 interviews with the various key actors pertaining, as well to the strategic, tactical and operational levels of the three different sites. CASE DESCRIPTION: A content analysis of the conflicts of conception and adjustments elaborated by the adoptants during the course of the interviews was conducted. CONCLUSION: We notice differences in regards to the operational conceptions of the actors about the founding principles of the innovation. The capacity of working out compromises between these different conceptions is considered as predictive of the adoption of the innovation. DISCUSSION: The adjustments they have elaborated favour a progressive adoption of the innovation and found the next step of the process of diffusion of innovation, which is local appropriation.