Individual Characteristics and Technology Adoption in Asset Management

The railway sector in South Africa has a history of slow technology adoption, which has resulted in a lack of support from technology developers and obsolescence. As a strategy to stay current with technological trends in asset management, South Africa's railway company implemented a web-based asset management system in 2013 and a major upgrade in 2016. Despite the benefits associated with the organization's web-based asset management, the innovation has not received the expected usage and adoption. The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of individual characteristics on the use of web-based asset management technology in the South African railway sector. The study targeted a population of 105 engineering practitioners in the South African railway sector who were using the web-based asset management system. Men were found to be the most frequent users of web-based asset management technology. Overall, the findings show that this technology is not widely used in the South African railway sector. Future research should attempt to investigate the underlying factors affecting the adoption of web-based asset management technology.