This paper extends the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT-3) to innovation environments to evaluate the influence of employee experience in technology development inside higher education institutions in Rajasthan, India. We investigated how traditional technology acceptance elements interact with innovation-specific characteristics to influence technology development outcomes using a mixed-methods approach using survey data from 120 respondents across government and private universities. Participatory design experience emerged as the best predictor of behavioral intention (β = 0.276, p = 0.001), outperforming conventional constructs such performance expectancy (β = 0. 234, p = 0.001) according to partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) study. The expanded model revealed strong explanatory power (R2 = 0.613 for behavioral intention) and found technology development involvement as a fundamental mediator between employee experience characteristics and technology acceptance. Multi-group research revealed notable variations in institution types; innovation context elements had more influence in private colleges than in government institutions. These results imply that, with particular attention to government colleges to remove structural obstacles to employee participation, higher education institutions should create formal mechanisms for including different employee viewpoints throughout the technology development lifetime. By showing how employee experience may be used as a strategic resource in technology development projects inside the organizational setting of higher education institutions, this study adds to both theory and practice.