Digital Infrastructure Transformation in the Public Sector: Explaining IPv6 Adoption Through the UTAUT Framework

The Internet, as a product of advanced technological development, has evolved through a dynamic and synergistic process. However, its original architecture was not designed to accommodate such unprecedented growth, resulting in fundamental limitations, particularly in the addressing architecture. The exhaustion of the IPv4 address space has emerged as a major sustainability problem for the Internet. To overcome this limitation, Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), which provides a significantly larger address space and additional technical capabilities, was standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in 1998. Despite its technical superiority, IPv4—standardized in 1981—continues to dominate operational networks, indicating that IPv6 adoption has not yet reached expected levels. This study examines the factors influencing IPv6 adoption in public institutions using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework. Survey data were collected from 456 managerial and technical personnel employed in public institutions in Türkiye. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was conducted using SPSS and AMOS software. The findings reveal that facilitating conditions significantly affect both effort expectancy and performance expectancy. Furthermore, effort expectancy and performance expectancy positively influence behavioral intention, which in turn has a direct effect on actual IPv6 usage. These results emphasize the critical role of organizational and structural factors in accelerating IPv6 transition within the public sector. The findings further demonstrate that next-generation network deployment represents not only an engineering challenge but also a socio-technical transformation process shaped by human and organizational factors.