User adoption of mandatory enterprise technology

Purpose – Drawing on extant technology acceptance literature, the purpose of this paper is to critically examine the impact of mandatory enterprise technology adoption in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach – Data were gathered from a survey of stockbrokers operating on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange on two occasions over a four year period. Expert forecasting ( TSModel ) algorithms were employed to assess attitudinal changes of users on mandatory system adoption. Findings – The results suggest that over time, users (stockbrokers) developed an increasingly negative perception of the technology, thus emphasising the need for managers to focus on subjective imperatives that might impact the adoption of mandated technology. Practical implications – Africa remains neglected in relation to information systems/information technology (IS/IT) research. This has driven the authors’ interest in seeking to understand how contextual peculiarities specific to Africa could play a significant role in an understanding of well‐established IS/IT models. Originality/value – To facilitate deeper explorations of the antecedents of user adoption of mandatory enterprise technology, the authors choose to lay the theoretical foundations of this study in social theories (specifically, voluntariness and subjective norm).