From Knowledge to Confirmation: A Stage-Based Analysis of Collaborative Robot Adoption in Manufacturing

Abstract

This study investigates how collaborative robots (cobots) are adopted in manufacturing firms by conceptualizing adoption as a process of navigating evolving socio-technical tensions across stages. Drawing on a multi-case qualitative study of ten companies, we use the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework and the model of Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) as sensitizing structures to trace how adoption unfolds from initial awareness to confirmation. Rather than treating adoption as a static outcome, our analysis shows how adoption trajectories are shaped by persistent and shifting tensions related to human factors, financial issues, and external dependencies. These tensions do not disappear over time but are continuously reconfigured as firms move across stages. Organizations respond by mobilizing enablers such as workforce transition, collaborative networks, and flexible integration, which allow tensions to be managed rather than resolved. We identify three early-stage drivers—operational excellence, workforce enhancement, and strategic value—that initially frame adoption but are challenged during implementation. The study contributes to theory by showing how paradoxical tensions in technology adoption become salient at different stages and how organizations oscillate between narrowing and integrating responses over time. Empirically, we offer a phase-specific framework that captures adoption as a negotiated and adaptive process under conditions of uncertainty.