Succeeding through disruption: Exploring the factors influencing the adoption of disruptive technologies in the mobile telecommunications industry in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The research explored factors influencing the adoption of disruptive technologies in the mobile telecommunications industry in Zimbabwe. Data was gathered from the second biggest competitor in the industry with over 3 million subscribers. A survey was conducted by purposively selecting 70 respondents from a population of 3,000,000 (three million) active subscribers from the company’s database. A skip interval of 42,857 was used to randomly select the sample. Customer representatives were selected from the company’s five regional offices using a two-stage cluster sampling technique. Employee participants were purposively selected from the company’s head office. A pilot test was conducted to assess the reliability of the research instrument used. Self-administered questionnaires were used in the research. Research results were collected, recorded and analyzed. All T-tests conducted produced results with p= 0.001 (which was less than 0.05 at which the tests were conducted) indicating that internal company influences such as staff competence, availability of funding and the type of infrastructure help impede or accelerate the rate of adoption of disruptive technologies in companies. Future research should however look at organizational ambidexterity as well as exploitation and exploration paradigms in organizations in the telecommunications industry and their impact on the adoption of disruptive technologies.