QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION OF TAM
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principles of the TAM were prevalent throughout this research, where both perceived ease of use
and perceived usefulness were identified as critical success factors, reasons for employee
resistance, and potential risks. However, overall, participants reported that CRM technologies
were perceived as difficult or moderately to use in their states, and a statistical analysis showed a
slight positive correlation between the perceived ease of use and reported adoption success. On
the other hand, perceived usefulness was overwhelmingly positive, which indicates a high
perceived value of what CRM technologies can do for Extension organizations. The critical
finding here is that perceived ease of use on its own may have less impact on perceived
usefulness than anticipated but can still significantly influence adoption success.
Participants reported several items regarding the perceived implications for outreach,
engagement, and communications. In most cases, participants saw a CRM ’ s ability to enhance
strategic marketing and communications for the organization. Additionally, good contact and
data management through CRM technologies could unlock a lot of potential to better enhance
engagement with Extension audiences. One important finding was that participants shared that
centralization of data could have positive impacts on outreach, engagement, and communications
across their states, but it was also a reason for employee resistance. Lastly, participants reported
that CRM technologies could better enable data-driven decision-making for how they interact,
engage, and communicate with their audiences and also better inform their program planning and
delivery.
Discussion
Several themes emerged from this research. The use of CRM technologies across the
CES appears to be similar now as it was during Judd’s (2019) landscape assessment. However,
the uses of CRM features within the CES appear to be very limited. In most cases, participants
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