Understanding the role of technological factors and external pressures in smart classroom adoption Hassan M. Selim Department of Data Analytics in The Digital Era, College of Business and Economics, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates Riyad Eid UAEU, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, and Gomaa Agag Department of Marketing, Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Business School, Nottingham, UK and University of Sadat City, Sadat City, Egypt Abstract Purpose – The adoption of smart classroom is increasing in higher education around the world. Yet, factors affecting smart classroom adoption have not been sufficiently explored. Based on the innovation diffusion theory and external pressures, the present study developed a model to investigate the main drivers of smart classroom adoption. Design/methodology/approach – SEM-AMOS was used to analyse the data collected from a sample of 1,208 educators. Findings – The findings revealed that innovation diffusion theory and external pressures provide an appropriate model for understanding smart classroom adoption. Practical implications – The findings offer important implications for higher education institutions, IT managers, and are likely to stimulate further research in the area of smart classrooms. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that used innovation diffusion theory external pressures to understanding smart classroom adoption. Keywords Smart classroom, Innovation diffusion theory, External pressures, UAE Paper type Research paper Introduction Over the past few years, higher education institutions applied various innovations to include better use of technology, to reduce costs, facilitate the search for education solutions, and to assist decision making. One of these innovations is smart classroom that has been deliberated to integrate technology with the purpose of providing topmost education services for the students (Aguilar et al., 2018; Bdiwi et al., 2019). Researchers have paid more attention to the smart classroom as one of these learning innovative methods (e.g. Aguilar et al., 2016; MacLeod et al., 2018; Kolb, 2019). Smart classroom is a physical classroom that incorporates advanced technology in education in order to enhance the teachers’ ability to facilitate students’ learning and the students’ capabilities to take part in formal educational teaching and learning experiences over the possibilities of normal classrooms (Shen et al., 2014; MacLeod et al., 2018). The use and adoption of smart classroom has a crucial role in Factors affecting smart classroom adoption The authors sincerely thank the editor and the anonymous Journal of Education þ Training’s reviewers for their constructive and valuable comments and suggestions. This work was funded by UAEU Program for Advanced Research (UPAR) Grant (UPAR (2) 2016- G00002120). The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/0040-0912.htm Received 14 March 2020 Revised 22 May 2020 30 June 2020 Accepted 1 July 2020 Education þ Training © Emerald Publishing Limited 0040-0912 DOI 10.1108/ET-03-2020-0049