Participation and satisfaction as drivers for Human action: M-internet and community life

Any technology adoption is shaped by a myriad of factors that sometimes conflict in their goals and outcomes. So is the case with mobile internet (m-internet) adoption. This paper discusses the role participation and satisfaction play in the m-internet adoption process. Within a theoretical framework that articulates Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and the uses and gratification theory (U&G) and other theoretical models of adoption and acceptance of innovations, this paper explores the connection between participation in online communities, which implies both social interaction and content production, and the satisfaction of users’ needs. Several technology adoption models identify participation and satisfaction as key drivers for adoption, but few discuss how different players in the process depict these variables and these differences might sometimes result in rejection. Our research presents results for the use of m-internet in a southern European country – Portugal – and identifies participation and satisfaction as variables that are predictors of adoption and help in explaining varied use patterns between m-internet and fixed internet and changes in the adoption process.