e-Infrastructure adoption in the social sciences and humanities: cross-national evidence

Abstract

This paper is a first attempt to describe and compare the adoption of e-Infrastructure across the UK, continental Europe, and the USA in the social sciences and humanities. A survey of early adopters identified three differences across these countries, each potentially affecting adoption: funding approaches, the technical configuration of projects, and research support. Our findings also suggest that the sustainable adoption of e-Infrastructure co-varies with the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and the involvement of other people in the adoption decision.

This paper is a first attempt to compare e-Infrastructure adoption across the UK, continental Europe and the USA. Using data from a survey among early adopters in the social sciences and humanities we find three differences across these countries, each potentially affecting adoption: funding approaches, the technical configuration of projects and research support. Our findings also suggest that the purpose of e-Infrastructure adoption (for research or teaching) as well as the scientists’ orientation from a geographical perspective – local embeddedness versus a non-local, mainly national, orientation – influence why some successfully work with e-Infrastructure and others do not.