The IFIP WG 8.6 on diffusion, transfer, and implementation of information technology has held its first Working Conference on the theme of Adoption and Diffusion of IT at Leangkollen, Oslo in October 1995 . In the working group the term information technology is used in its broadest sense spanning from traditional information systems, over modern communication technology to best practice routines in system development and software engineering. Information technology is playing an increasingly

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... portant role in many organisations, sectors and countries. The adoption and diffusion process takes place between one country and another, between research and development organisations, between commercial organisations and the open marked in general, as well as between different departments in one and the same organisation. However, there are still many problems in the practical adoption of the technology, and not often are the results expected by the use of IT achieved. This may be, among other reasons, due to inappropriate attention to the adoption process and associated change processes in communities aiming at the utilization of the technology. This volume contains twelve contributions which reflect different aspects of diffusion and adoption of information technology. As such, they give an initial overview over the diversity of work done in a subject area which implicitly has been a part of IT research for 20 years, but which only recently has gained attention as a field of interest on its own. When reviewing the contributions one major distinction immediately arises. Most of the work considers adoption and diffusion within or into organisations, either companies or public organisations and only few papers take another viewpoint, namely that of looking at adoption and diffusion either in sectors or between nations. In total we have identified five lines of work. The first aims at identifying or specifying overall frameworks and models for the whole diffusion and adoption process. The second group deals with adoption and diffusion within organisations in a rather normative way. Although having sound theoretical and analytical basis, the main message is normative; recommendations are given to planners, change agents, managers etc. on how to make diffusion and adoption happen in an organisation. Representatives of the third direction are not focusing on the whole process, but on certain selected adoption and diffusion issues. They take a mainly theoretical and analytical K. Kautz et al. (eds.), Diffusion and Adoption of Information Technology