Background: Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face unique vulnerabilities, including climate risks and resource constraints, which amplify the importance of robust National Geospatial Information Management (NGIM) systems for sustainable development. Despite the clear potential for NGIM to enhance climate resilience, disaster management, and informed decision-making, NGIM adoption in SIDS remains limited. This gap underscores the need for a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing NGIM adoption. Therefore, this study involved investigating the adoption of NGIM in SIDS focusing on the technological, organizational, and environmental factors influencing adoption.
Objective: This research aimed to use the Technology Organization Environment (TOE) framework to empirically identify and validate the factors influencing NGIM adoption in SIDS. It further examined the impact of a National Innovation System (NIS) on NGIM adoption.
Methods: Survey responses from 221 participants across SIDS in the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, and South China Sea, the Caribbean and Pacific regions were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. Short-answer responses from the survey provided qualitative insights to supplement the quantitative findings.
Results: The model applied explained 64.5% of the variance in NGIM adoption (R² = .645). The presence of National Innovation System (NIS) (β = .478, p < .001), external pressure (β = .343, p < .001), and top management support (β = .254, p < .001) were statistically significant predictors. These findings highlight the importance of leadership, external pressures, and innovation ecosystems in influencing adoption. Perceived complexity, organizational readiness, and regulatory support were found to have nonsignificant effects, suggesting that these constructs have limited direct impact. Qualitative insights from the survey also revealed the leadership driving adoption and the challenges of limited institutional capacity and misalignment with local needs.
Conclusions: The findings show that the TOE is a useful framework to understand the factors important to NGIM adoption. It highlights the importance of fostering national innovation ecosystems, leveraging external competitive pressures, and the value of strong local leadership support to accelerate NGIM adoption in SIDS. The study underscores the need to align donor priorities with local needs, strengthen institutional frameworks, and address capacity gaps. These insights provide a roadmap for policymakers and stakeholders to enhance geospatial infrastructure and resilience in SIDS.
KEYWORDS
NGIM Adoption; Small Island Developing States; National Innovation Systems; Technology-Organization-Environment; Spatial Data Infrastructure