Critical Success Factors for Emerging Technology Adoption, Strategic Flexibility, and Competitiveness: An Evidence-Based Total Interpretive Structural Modeling Approach (TISM-E)

In the dynamic business environment, firms can adopt emerging technologies to remain relevant and effectively meet changing customer demands. The adoption of these technologies, however, is a complex process that requires strategic flexibility if businesses are to be able to adapt to the changing technology landscape and remain competitive. This study aims to identify critical success factors (CSFs) of emerging technology adoption and strategic flexibility and develop a hierarchical model using evidence data from Twitter (now known as X). A total of 1,76,248 tweets were collected, yielding a sample set of 102,100 unique tweets following the removal of duplicates. This study uses evidence-based total interpretative structural modeling (TISM-E) to develop a hierarchical interrelationship between the CSFs of emerging technology adoption, strategic flexibility, and firm competitiveness. Additionally, this study utilizes UTAUT to explore emerging technology adoption behaviors and understand a firm’s perspective on technology acceptance. The resulting six-level hierarchical model can be used in strategic decision-making to achieve firm competitiveness. The findings of this study are important for practitioners and academicians seeking to understand the critical factors that drive technology adoption, strategic flexibility, and firm competitiveness in the changing business landscape. This study helps practitioners understand the relevance of identified CSFs and their interrelationships using a TISM-E approach and evidence data.