An Updated and Streamlined Technology Readiness Index

TLDR

The Technology Readiness Index, a 36‑item scale first published over a decade ago, has been widely used across more than two dozen countries and now faces a rapidly evolving technology landscape dominated by mobile commerce, social media, and cloud computing. The authors set out to update and streamline the TRI to reflect these technological shifts. They conducted a two‑phase study that produced a 16‑item TRI 2.0, compared its content, structure, and psychometric properties to the original, and demonstrated its reliability, validity, and utility for customer segmentation. The paper concludes by outlining TRI 2.0’s potential applications and suggesting directions for future research.

Abstract

The Technology Readiness Index (TRI), a 36-item scale to measure people’s propensity to embrace and use cutting-edge technologies, was published in the Journal of Service Research over a decade ago. Researchers have since used it in a variety of contexts in over two dozen countries. Meanwhile, several revolutionary technologies (mobile commerce, social media, and cloud computing) that were in their infancy just a decade ago are now pervasive and significantly impacting people’s lives. Based on insights from extensive experience with the TRI and given the significant changes in the technology landscape, the authors undertook a two-phase research project to update and streamline the TRI. After providing a brief overview of technology readiness and the original TRI, this article (a) describes the multiple research stages and analyses that produced TRI 2.0, a 16-item scale; (b) compares TRI 2.0 with the original TRI in terms of content, structure, and psychometric properties; and (c) demonstrates TRI 2.0’s reliability, validity, and usefulness as a customer segmentation tool. The article concludes with potential applications of TRI 2.0 and directions for future research.