Abstract
<p>Technology acceptance research measures voluntariness as a perception and, in its consumer flagship, assumes it outright, while parallel stream studies explicitly mandate use. It is between the perception and the mandate that a state lies which neither can classify: a use that is formally optional and reported as chosen while the adopter’s set of viable alternatives has been closed off by conditions beyond their control. This paper names that state foreclosed adoption, where the voluntariness assumption of acceptance research is adapted through the lens of the self-determination theory, whose definition of autonomy as endorsement rather than independence entails that the experience of free adoption cannot certify that alternatives existed. The paper goes on to develop a typology of adoption states (volitional, foreclosed, mandated), three foreclosure mechanisms (economic, architectural, relational) with distinct sources and visibilities, an account of leadership style as the mechanism converting foreclosure into internalisation or bare compliance, and eight propositions with an operationalisation agenda. Green digital technology is argued to be the domain where the resulting misclassification costs most, because foreclosed green adoptions are counted twice over, as voluntary and as value driven, inflating estimates of environmental motivation in research and in organisational sustainability metrics.</p>