Perpetual Adoption Overlap (PAO): A Conceptual Framework for Technological Assimilation and Change Management under Accelerated Innovation
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Successive technological innovations may reach organizations before earlier generations have completed assimilation and delivered their intended benefits. Existing research recognizes nonlinear adoption, innovation overload, continuous change, and absorptive capacity; overlap alone is therefore not assumed to be a new discovery. This paper proposes Perpetual Adoption Overlap (PAO) as a timing-based, testable construct: the recurrent arrival of materially relevant successor technologies while earlier adoption-to-value cycles remain unfinished. It introduces an exploratory Absorption Pressure Ratio (APR = OAT/TRT) to compare organizational assimilation time with the renewal interval, and considers the temporal resilience of supplier technologies as a potential product-quality dimension. A continuous governance response is outlined for both adopters and technology developers. The proposed constructs and measures require empirical validation.
Author: Alshabatat, Amjad Odeh
Language: English
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225453201