references on technology uptake by users, based on perceived benefits

The question of when users will do things, and how they weigh 
cost/benefit, came up at our. I said that there was some research in early 
CSCW in calendaring, around the tradeoffs of putting in extra effort for 
someone else's benefit. The reference I was thinking of was:


Why CSCS Applications Fail: Problems in the Design and Evaluation of 
Organizational Interfaces, by Jonathan Grudin
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=62273&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=10947273&CFTOKEN=39663332

There's not really a lot of data to help us out there. People didn't use 
early online calendars because they had to type in a bunch of stuff and 
didn't really benefit (only managers or meeting heavy people did). Today, 
at least in my context, it's much easier to schedule meetings through 
online calendars (unless I've got my paper calendar and every other person 
in question all together at the same time). 

A colleague sent me this:
_______________________________________

OK - I will send you on a little tour through satisficing - research which 
looks at why people keep doing things one way when evidence or efficiency 
suggests that there might be better ways to do it.  I would start with the 
classic Newell and Simon (Newell, A. and H.A Simon, Human Problem Solving, 
Englewood Cliffs, NJ., Prentice Hall, 1972).  Lots of people have followed 
up on the notion of satisficing that they developed in looking at human 
cognition - particularly problem solving.  You might find "Ignoring 
Perfect Knowledge In-the-World for Imperfect Knowledge In-the-Head Heady 
Lessons / Gray, Wayne D. / Fu, Wai-Tat, Proceedings of ACM CHI 2001 
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2001 p.112-119" or "
Integrated Software Usage in the Professional Work Environment: Evidence 
from Questionnaires and Interviews Case Studies / Nielsen, Jakob / Mack, 
Robert L. / Bergendorff, Keith H. / Grischkowsky, Nancy L., Proceedings of 
ACM CHI'86 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 1986 p.162-167
."relevant.

Another line of research is associated with a structural equation model 
called TAM (Technology Acceptance Model).  Structural modeling looks for 
concepts (e.g., orgnaizational culture, perceived personal benefit) that 
might be correlated with other concepts (like adoption of a particular new 
technology).  A reference woulld be "A hybrid technology acceptance 
approach for exploring e-CRM adoption in organizations / Wu, I-L / Wu, K-W 
, Behaviour and Information Technology 2005 v.24 n.4 p.303-316.  TAM is 
more popular in the IS community than in the CHI community.


One more - Social, Individual & Technological Issues for Groupware 
Calendar Systems. / Palen, Leysia , Proceedings of ACM CHI 99 Conference 
on Human Factors in Computing Systems 1999 v.1 p.17-24.

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[ACTION-115 - Contribute reference on cost/benefit questions in
usability [on Mary Ellen Zurko - due 2007-02-07].]