IST-Africa 2013 Conference Proceedings Paul Cunningham and Miriam Cunningham (Eds) IIMC International Information Management Corporation, 2013 ISBN: 978-1-905824-38-0 Copyright © 2013 The authors www.IST-Africa.org/Conference2013 Page 1 of 13 Determinants of Technology Innovation Implementation Effectiveness in Higher Education Institutions John KANDIRI 1 , Nixon MUGANDA 2 1 Department of Computing and Information Technology, Kenyatta University, P.O. Box 43844- 00100, Nairobi, Kenya Tel. +254-20-8710901, +254 722 376 553, Email: jkandiri@gmail.com Kandiri.john@ku.ac.ke 2 Faculty of Engineering, Department of Informatics Built-Environment and Information Technology, University of Pretoria, South Africa, Tel: +27 0 12 420-3111 Fax: +27 0 12 420-4555, Email: Nixon.Ochara@up.ac.za, nixon.muganda@gmail.com Abstract: Higher education institutions have continued to acquire technologies with alacrity. However, the transition from adoption to application in teaching and learning has been below expectations. This exploratory study investigated the lack of cadence between adoption and effective implementation of educational technology initiatives. The study was based on PHEA-ETI projects that ran between June 2008 and June 2012. The projects entailed implementation of technology initiatives for example animating science content among others. A questionnaire was sent to all persons involved in the implementation of the projects. Out of the 163 targeted respondents, 105 usable responses were received. Team leaders were interviewed with focus groups held with implementation teams. The study adopted: top management, financial motivation, organizational culture. The new model added the variables: team leadership, monitoring and evaluation and innovation efficacy. When the data was analysed using SPSS version 17, the results confirmed determinants from earlier studies while also showing that team leadership and project efficacy were significant factors to consider in technology innovation implementation. Keywords: Technology Adoption Theories, Organizational Theory, implementation effectiveness, Higher education, information and communication technologies 1. Introduction The question on how to scale up success in implementation of instructional technologies in higher education institutions (HEIs) has been a concern to stakeholders. This is because generally the success rate in adoption and implementation of ICTs and generally educational technologies has been less than 30% (Peansupap & Walker 2005, Gichoya, 2005). There is a lot of research done on ICT adoption amidst this high failure. This study undertook to investigate factors causing the success and failure of education technology innovation projects, with emphasis of the PHEA-ETI funded projects between 2008 – 2012. As with other countries, African universities have invested heavily in technology for all sectors of education, but with below par realization of expected benefits of the adopted innovations. The heavily funded projects have resulted in short-lived success or outright failure (Kirschner et al 2011). Traditionally, technical issues were viewed as being the major cause of implementation failure but contemporary research has shown organizational factors impact more (Peansupap et al 2005, Nurdin et al 2011). But the challenge is in knowing what organizational factors will lead to effective implementation of technological innovations. The study adopted an organizational theory stance developed by Sawang and Unsworth (2011) whose work was again based on study by Klein et al (2001). Data was