Danielle Schumacher
IRLS 506 – Atkinson
Final Paper
12-12-08
Title: Mobile internet acceptance in Korea.
Author(s): Je Ho Cheong, Myeong-Cheol Park.
Source: Internet Research Year: 2005 Volume:15 Issue: 2 Pages: 125-140.
I chose this paper inline with my interests in East Asian studies and technology.
Changing technology is very important to LIS and knowledge about how different technologies
are being adopted and why can help people think of ways to serve their patrons better. Patrons
may want to receive notices in different ways or access a library’s items in a more mobile format.
Research into why people adopt technology is also useful to librarians as people who work in
libraries often have to convince users to learn new technologies in the libraries such as electronic
catalogs, databases, and ILL systems. Research into what motivates people to adopt new
technologies can be applied to these types of everyday problems. The paper is relatively recent;
unfortunately attitudes and trends in technology usage change quickly, so it may be a little bit
behind. Still, this paper has been an interesting start to look backwards into the field of
technology usage research.
The study measures how different variables affect mobile internet usage and acceptance
among Koreans. The main variables were perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived
playfulness, perceived price level, internet experience, intent to use, perceived content quality,
and perceived system quality. The first two, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, are
part of the “Technology Acceptance Model” developed by Davis and reviewed later in this paper.
One of the goals of the authors of this study was to create a more detailed version of the
Technology acceptance model using information that we’ve gained about the field since 1989
when the TAM was created.
Adding perceived playfulness to the TAM seems to be a well-accepted addition by other
scholars. This is supported within the paper by the results of a previous survey they’ve chosen
to include that lists the main uses of M-Internet. The top 5 most popular uses are entertainment
such as ring tones, and music downloads.
The paper presents the following 15 hypotheses all of which were supported by their
research:
H1. A customer’s perceived ease of use has a positive impact on his/her attitude toward M-internet.
H2. A customer’s perceived ease of use has a positive impact on his/her perceived usefulness.
H3. A customer’s perceived usefulness has a positive impact on his/her attitude toward M-internet.
H4. A customer’s perceived usefulness has a positive impact on his/her intention to use M-internet.
H5. A customer’s attitude toward M-internet has a positive impact on his/her intention to use M-internet.
H6. A customer’s perception of playfulness is positively influenced by his/her perceived ease of use.
H7. A customer’s perception of playfulness has positive impact on his/her attitude toward M-internet.
H8. A customer’s perception of playfulness has positive impact on his/her intention to use M-internet.
H9. The internet experience has positive impact on his/her perception of M-internet playfulness.
H10. The internet experience has positive impact on his/her perceived ease of using M-internet
H11. The perceived price level has negative impact on his/her attitude toward M-internet.
H12. The perceived price level has negative impact on his/her intention to use M-internet.
H13. A customer’s perceived system quality has positive impact on his/her perceived usefulness.
H14. A customer’s perceived system quality has a positive impact on his/her perceived ease of use.
H15. A customer’s perceived contents quality has a positive impact on his/her perceived usefulness.
H16. A customer’s perceived contents quality has a positive impact on his/her perceived playfulness.
The method they used was anonymous surveying. To develop the survey and question
wording they ran a pilot test using IT students and then modified the questions based on those
findings. It says the questions were reviewed by bilingual students. For the actual surveying the
researchers employed the services of a market research company to perform an online survey.
They collected 1468 replies over the course of four days of which 189 were discarded for
insincere responses.
I found it interesting that this is the first study I’ve chosen where the surveying was done
by a third party rather than the researcher. They mentioned that they used an online survey
company that offers “e-coins” to ensure voluntary participation. One of the problems with that is
hinted at; they had almost 200 “insincere responses.” I participate in reward-based online
surveys myself and often have to fight the temptation to try and “guess” what the “right answer”
would be so that I get the most points/cash. Some of the questions they used seemed ambiguous
or imprecise, but that could be a relic of translation as the original questions were in Korean.
Another weakness seems to be that they did not get as broad a demographic range as they hoped
for. The majority of responders were from the 30-39 year old age group, which was much larger
than the 20-29 year old age group. The authors of this study admit this is a weakness of online
surveys, and that this is not the ideal distribution they would hope for.
The findings were that attitude towards the service was most likely to predict adoption of
a technology followed by perceived playfulness. They suggest that these variables, as well as
perceived cost should be added to the TAM. They also say that perceived ease of use did not
have as strong of an influence on intention to use and is itself influenced by other variables. This
is an interesting study and it extends a useful and well established model of technology adoption.
Reference 1:
Title: An empirical study on the adoption of information appliances with a focus on interactive
TV.
Authors: 'Hun Choi *', ' Minseok Choi', 'Jinwoo Kim', 'Hyoshik Yu'.
Source: Telematics and Informatics Year: 2003 Volume: 20 Pages: 161 - 183
I chose this reference because it is another model on technology acceptance from Korea.
The purpose of this study is to develop a theoretical model of technology adoption of new
technologies. They have decided to use the relatively new technology of Interactive TV as their
focus in developing this new model. It’s interesting seeing a study trying to develop a model for
acceptance on a technology that is not yet adopted or refined and may not become popular. The
research
This study also references Davis’ Technology Acceptance Model was well as other
systems for studying how and why users adopt new technology. They give brief summaries of
each system and its strengths and weaknesses. The authors of this study point out that many of
these focus on businesses and real users, the goal of this study is to expand to potential users in
the home environment.
The study had the following hypotheses and subhypotheses:
h1: Attitude about interactive TV will affect behavioral intention toward technology adoption for interactive
TV.
h2: The subjective norm of a potential user regarding interactive TV will affect behavioral intention
regarding technology adoption for interactive TV.
h3: Perceived behavioral control that the subject will have over interactive TV will affect behavioral
intention toward technology adoption for interactive TV.
h4: Attitudinal belief that a person has about interactive TV will affect attitude toward technology adoption
for interactive TV.
h4-1: Perceived usefulness of interactive TV will constitute attitudinal belief of the potential user.
h4-2: Trialability for interactive TV will constitute attitudinal belief of the potential user.
h4-3: Result demonstrability for interactive TV will constitute attitudinal belief in the potential user.
h4-4: Image regarding interactive TV will constitute attitudinal belief in the potential user.
h4-5: Enjoyment of interactive TV will constitute attitudinal belief in the potential user.
h5: A person_s normative belief about interactive TV will affect the subjective norm of technology
adoption for interactive TV.
h5-1: Expectation of family members about interactive TV will constitute normative belief in the
potential user.
h5-2: Expectation of friends about interactive TV will constitute normative belief in the potential
user.
h6: A person_s control belief about interactive TV will affect perceived behavioral control of technology
adoption for interactive TV.
h6-1: Rapid change in technology and/or fear of obsolescence will constitute control belief in the
potential user.
h6-2: Cost of interactive TV will constitute control belief in the potential user.
h6-3: Ease of use of interactive TV will constitute control belief in the potential user.
This study also gathered its data through an online survey. The authors created their own
site, and so unlike the authors of Mobile Internet Acceptance did not use a third party system and
seemed to offer no “reward” for participation. They put up banner ads on three famous Korean
portal sites to attract respondents and gathered a total of 2291 useful responses. This was a much
larger sample size than the previous study, and they also did not have the problem of the 30-39
age group outnumber the 20-29 age group. The largest group of responders was males age 20-29.
Their sample is then much more representative of the internet using population.
They found that all their hypotheses were supported, and that enjoyment was one of the
most important factors. They admit that this may be because their focus was TV instead of
something like a refrigerator and further studies are needed to see if enjoyment is as important to
the adoption of general information devices.
The authors of the study point out that using an internet survey introduces a slight bias
into the results as people who are comfortable taking a survey on the internet already have a
certain degree of technological acceptance. They believe that they minimized this somewhat by
checking social security numbers, filtering out dishonest responses, and having a very large
sample size, but admit that more research needs to be done to further minimize the bias.
Reference 1:1
Title: Determinants of the intention to use Internet/WWW at work: a confirmatory study.
Authors: Chang, M. K. and Cheung, W.
Source: Information and Management Year: 2001 Volume:39 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-14
I chose this paper because it relates very closely to the first paper. While Mobile Internet
Acceptance was more specific in its focus on mobile internet, this is a study about use of the
internet at work. The study’s goal is to develop an improved model of the Triandis model of
choice that is more applicable to studies of modern technology adoption.
This paper, like the first one, references the TAM almost immediately. However, they
decide to use the Triandis model instead of the TAM. Their reasoning is that the Triandis model
has always included enjoyment and other factors that they view as important while the TAM has
been added onto and modified. They follow with a brief but thorough explanation of the
Triandis model and how they have altered and improved the model for their research.
The sample was gathered by distributing questionnaires to 320 MBA and diploma
students at 2 universities in Hong Kong. They received 255 usable responses. The surveys
measured complexity, near term and long term consequences, affect, social factors, facilitating
conditions, and intent as variables. The sample size was small and limited in scope and that is a
weakness of the study that the authors admit.
The authors found that their altered Triandis model showed a more detailed and nuanced
and therefore more accurate view of what real intention of use was. The main way they altered
the study was by changing the “flow” of variables. In Triandis all variables move towards one:
intention. The newer model proposed by the study authors shows the interrelation between
variables as well as how they affect intention. They were therefore able to show not only how
each variable affects intention directly, but also how it affects intention indirectly through other
variables. One of the findings that stood out was that perceived complexity (the opposite of
“ease of use” used in the first study and other studies such as ones using the TAM) did not have a
significant direct effect on intention but had a large indirect effect because of how it affected the
near and long term consequences and affect variables. They interestingly found that enjoyment
did not affect internet usage but that it did affect intent to use the internet.
It is an interesting study that, though using a different model, supports ideas found in the
other studies. In some ways it is more nuanced, but it was also, I’ll admit, a little difficult to
understand at first. The finding that enjoyment was more a factor in intent to use than actual
usage was interesting, but somehow not surprising as this is a study about internet usage at work.
Mobile Internet Acceptance was looking at technology adoption in a more general way and
found enjoyment to be most important and An empirical study on the adoption of information
appliances specifically was looking for information about the home user. For its weaknesses it
does support a need for a more detailed model of technology adoption behaviors and attitudes
and gives interesting insight into how to go about creating such a model.
Reference 1:2
Title: The influence of persuasion, training and experience on user perceptions and acceptance
of IT innovation.
Authors: Xia, W. and Lee, G.
Source: In Proceedings of the Twenty First international Conference on information Systems
Year: 2000 Pages: 371 – 384
I chose this paper because it shows yet another aspect of technology adoption research,
and one that may be especially relevant to the LIS field. Instead of simply studying determinants
of use they are researching what effects of change of attitude towards IT innovation. The authors
want to know what is most effective at convincing someone to change their attitudes and adopt
new technology. This is important in the LIS field because as a library adopts new technology
they have to convince users to adopt it. It’s one thing to know factors that affect technology
adoption and attitude, but it is important to look at how to change the attitudes of people who
might otherwise not adopt a technology.
The authors have the following hypotheses:
H1: The quality of persuasive arguments will have a significant effect on user perceptions, attitudes, and
intentions about an IT innovation.
H2: Training will have a significant effect on user perceptions, attitudes, and intentions about an IT
innovation.
H3: User perceptions, attitudes, and intentions about an IT innovation will change significantly as the
user’s direct-use experience increases over time.
The authors selected commercial CASE software for the study. The sample was 92
undergraduates who were selected and screened to make sure they had no existing knowledge of
the software. The students were divided into four groups. Two went just read persuasive
messages and then took a T1 questionnaire, and two groups went through training, then read
persuasive messages, and then took the questionnaire. Subjects were assigned either a high
quality or low quality persuasive message.
Independent Variables were Argument Quality, Training, and Direct-Use Experience.
Dependent variables measured in this study included perceived innovation characteristics
(relative advantage, ease of use, visibility, result demonstrability, compatibility, and trialability),
attitudes toward and intention to use the CASE software. (p 376)
The study found their hypotheses supported. Direct-use experience had a very significant
effect on a users attitudes, perceptions, and intentions to use software. They did find that
training didn’t affect perceived usefulness as much as perceived ease of use and at this point
directly referenced Davis’ TAM. They also found that persuasion was a very effective tool and
suggested that it would be useful to facilitate technology adoption. Training and persuasion
could be well used in libraries, but I’m not sure how direct-use experience would be synthesized.
During what was defined as training the students were given exercises to complete, and direct
use took place as part of a class where they have assignments to complete using the program.
Though, perhaps direct use experience occurs naturally in a library environment where
technology such as MARC or Interlibrary Loan applications are mandatory.
Reference 2:
Title: Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information
technology.
Author: Davis, F. D.
Source: MIS Quarterly Year: 1989 Volume: 13 Issue: 3 Pages: 319-340
I chose this paper to research as a reference because it is the source of the TAM that was
referenced in all three papers in the first “tree.” It is an obviously important piece of research, as
the initial paper was attempting to create a better version of it and other studies on technology
adoption reference it, whether they use the TAM or some other model.
The study begins by citing other studies that the author feels outline the idea that
perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are the two main variables in adoption of
innovation. He brings up several interesting points, including tying cost-benefit theory into the
perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use paradigm and cites a wide variety of studies.
The purpose of the investigation is not only to prove the hypothesis that perceived
usefulness and ease of use are determinants of computer usage, but to create a new scale to
measure these variables. As such, the methods used in this study are incredibly detailed and
methodical, moreso than can be described here. The scale was refined first with a small pretest
followed by two research studies. The first was a survey of 120 workers at IBM’s Toronto
development lab. They received 112 responses, 109 of which used electronic mail and 75 used
XEDIT. The researchers found their hypothesis that perceived usefulness and ease of use
correlated with usage. They did find some of their questions were invalidated due to common
method variance, and that those were only the questions phrased negatively. From those results
they were able to refine the scale for the second study.
The second study was a lab study involving 40 voluntary participants who were paid $25
for their involvement. The participants used two different programs, Pendraw and Chart-Master,
in a one hour hands on experience with a guided workbook stripped of value judgments. They
were then given a questionnaire. They found correlation between ease of use and usefulness
again, though they did find that flexibility does not correlate with ease of use.
They were able to refine their scale and confirm that ease of use and usefulness do
influence usage. He then discussed how ease of use might have a causal relationship with
perceived usefulness which then leads to more usage. He points out the need for more research
to uncover more variables that affect usage.
This study was interesting and very strong and tight, where it was weak it was
acknowledged by the author, often before I managed to think of it. One aspect that was probably
unavoidable in 1989 that is a concern now is that his sample size was heavily biased towards the
professional. That may be why perceived playfulness was left out of the study, which is a
weakness that other studies have pointed out that the TAM has. If at that time microcomputer
usage was simply not viewed in the same way it is easy to see why it would have been
overlooked. It is also easy to see why this study has held up over the years despite the speed at
which technology has been changing. The paper can easily be used as a blueprint to design and
refine a new study, it would seem natural to use it as a launching and reference point in the study
of technology adoption behaviors.
Reference 2:1
Title: Why Interactive Computer Systems are Sometimes Not Used by People Who Might
Benefit from Them
Author(s): Raymond S Nickerson
Source: International Journal of Man-Machine Studies Year: 1981 Volume: 15 Pages: 469 483
This is a qualitative study that addresses several complaints and problems about
microcomputer usage and suggests ways to solve these problems. I chose this study because
while it's called a research study, the author isn't actually very clear about his methods. While
most of the other studies I have chosen, even the least "statistical" have detailed their research
methods in great detail this one does not. Despite its weaknesses, it contains much valuable
information and advice. The date also seems like it would excuse the qualitative theorhetical
tone of the paper somewhat as in 1981 microcomputer usage was not as wide-spread so this
paper could be viewed as a starting point for more detailed research on technology
adoption. Another reason is because while we’ve technically been reviewing and critiquing
studies all semester, I’ve tried to choose studies that are “good” and clear about their methods of
sampling. Before this class I might not have noticed the weaknesses of this paper and instead
focused on the “good ideas” presented. This is a study could have been a lot better if there were
more references as to where they were getting their “complaints” from. Granted, I’m sure each
of those complaints was (and to a point still is) a valid obstacle in technology adoption, giving
sources for this information would have made this a stronger study. Though, to be fair, the
author does state in the introduction that the literature is cited in only a “few” instances and that
he will not avoid speculation.
The variables in this study were “Functionality,” “Accessibility/Availability,” “Start
Stop Hassle,” “System Dynamics and Response Time,” “Work Session Interrupts,” “Training
and User Aids,” “Documentation,” “Command Language,” “Consistency and Integration,” “User
Conceptualization of the System,” and “Miscellaneous Other Issues.” The author of the paper
concludes that attention should be paid to these areas to help increase usage. It’s interesting that
some of these have been “taken care of” to a point by the current day. This study is dealing with
professionals and technology usage at many professional jobs is mandatory. “Command
languages” as such barely exist anymore for the average professional. The author studied
complaints about users who were frustrated about system integration – that different programs
had vastly different commands for such thing as deleting characters. That is no longer as much
of a concern as it was. Granted, if you translate it out such issues still exist, but the age of this
paper makes it difficult to use for current research.
While I did say that this paper has some good practical advice for people who are
wondering how to increase microcomputer technology adoption, and a paper like this wouldn’t
be out of place in a modern discussion of the subject, this paper in particular is probably of less
interest to a modern audience except in an assignment like this or for someone researching the
field to exhaustion. It would be better to go with a more methodical study if one is looking at the
history of technology adoption study. Even if this is preliminary qualitative research it could be
more methodical and detailed.
Reference 2:2
Title: An Empirical Study of the Impact of User Involvement on System Usage and Information
Satisfcation
Author(s): Jack J. Baroudi, Margarethe H. Olson, and Blake Ives
Source: Communications of the ACM Year: 1986 Volume: 29 Number: 3 Pages: 232 – 238
I chose this paper because it begins with a detailed description the problems of other
studies on technology adoption and user involvement, and follows well after reviewing flawed
study. The authors make a good point about the use of terminology. At the time this paper was
written the field of computers and studying their usage was still developing, and he points out
that some confusion arises because definitions are imprecise, conflicting, or different words are
used to describe the same construct. Other weaknesses of previous research, according to these
authors, include studies that don’t take into account the reliability or validity of scales used,
studies that are too focused to one system and situation that cannot be applied widely, and a
failure to ground hypotheses in an existing theory or developing a new theory. (p. 232)
The variables they were studying were user involvement, by which they mean how
involved the user is in developing the system, system usage, and user information satisfaction.
The study lists several hypotheses. One hypothesis that as user involvement increases
satisfaction and system usage increases. Another is that as satisfaction increases system usage
will increase, and if satisfaction is low further use will be avoided. A third hypothesis is that
system usage increases users become familiar with the system and therefore more satisfied.
To get their sample they mailed out 800 surveys to a mailing list of production managers
of manufacturing organizations. They received a response rate of 200 total usable questionnaires
back. They said the mailing list was old and the forms were long and so they expected a low
response rate. This points out a weakness about surveys in general. The studies using internet
surveys have pointed out that respondees are opting in and therefore it’s a limited sample. This
survey was also limited to middle management of one mailing list, so it is in some way a very
narrowly defined group of people.
They found that what they called the “traditional model” hypothesis: that user
involvement leads to increased system usage and satisfaction was supported. They also found
that user information satisfaction led to system usage. However, they found that system usage
did not lead to increased satisfaction.
This is an interesting paper in that it is looking at problems of research in a thendeveloping field. It’s interesting that information system adoption has been an issue for twenty
years now. One thing that’s interesting is so far all the studies have been researching voluntary
system usage. In libraries we often have involuntary systems once we switch to automated
systems. In ILL at our library there is no way to do it offline, or to receive offline notifications.
This is also a business system, and the authors of the study An empirical study on the adoption
of information appliances with a focus on interactive TV pointed out that this is a weakness of
many existing models. It’s not surprising that this was an issue in 1986, but I am surprised that it
persisted until 2003.
Reference 3:
Title: Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in internet usage.
Author: Teo, T. S. H., Lim, V. K. G., & Lai, R. Y. C.
Source: Omega Volume: 27 Issue: 1 Year: 1999 Pages 25-37
I’ve chosen this paper because it is another paper examining internet adoption, which is
directly related to the first study’s use of M-Internet. The authors of this paper are defining
“extrinsic motivation” as variables such as perceived usefulness and ease of use, i.e. the TAM
variables and “intrinsic motivation” as “performance of an activity for no apparent reinforcement other than the process of performing the activity per se” in other words:
enjoyment. They point out that the TAM and many other studies on technology adoption were
developed in the United States and that results might be different in other countries. They are
working off a study by Finnish researchers and modified it to reference internet usage rather than
microcomputer usage. They also were questioning whether their findings would remain valid in
Asia, specifically Singapore.
The study had the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1a. Perceived usefulness is positively related to frequency of Internet usage.
Hypothesis 1b. Perceived usefulness is positively related to daily Internet usage.
Hypothesis 1c. Perceived usefulness is positively related to diversity of Internet usage.
Hypothesis 2a. Perceived enjoyment is positively related to frequency of Internet usage.
Hypothesis 2b. Perceived enjoyment is positively related to daily Internet usage.
Hypothesis 2c. Perceived enjoyment is positively related to diversity of Internet usage.
Hypothesis 3a. Perceived ease of use will positively affect frequency of Internet usage directly through
perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment.
Hypothesis 3b. Perceived ease of use will positively affect daily Internet usage directly through perceived
usefulness and perceived enjoyment.
Hypothesis 3c. Perceived ease of use will positively affect diversity of Internet usage directly through
perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment.
Hypothesis 4b. Perceived ease of use will positively affect daily Internet usage indirectly through perceived
usefulness and perceived enjoyment.
Hypothesis 4c. Perceived ease of use will positively affect diversity of Internet usage indirectly through
perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment.
The authors of this study used an internet survey they designed. They advertised it on
newsgroups, in the newspaper, and on Singapore websites with high traffic flows. They offered
free $2 phone cards to the first 100 respondents. They received a total of 1370 responses, 89%
of which were male and 11% of which were female. This is different from later studies where
the genders are more equal. They did have a similar age range to other studies with the 21-29
age group having the highest number of responses.
Hypotheses 1a – 1c were supported. Hypotheses 2a, 2b, 3a, and 3c were supported, but
hypotheses 2c and 3b were not. Hypotheses 4a – 4c were supported. The authors found that
usefulness was a more important factor than enjoyment in this study in determining usage. They
also found that ease of use did not positively affect daily internet usage and said that this may be
because once someone learns how to use the internet the concept of “ease of use” becomes a
non-issue.
This paper is an important step in technology adoption study because it begins to widen
the research into other cultures rather than North American and European. It’s easy to see why
researchers in Korea would want to cite a study from Singapore in addition to studies from the
US since attitudes can be different depending on the culture of respondents. The gender
difference of the sample could be a weakness of this study, but the sample size is large. And
those demographics may indeed accurately reflect the internet user profile of Singapore at this
time.
Reference 3:1:
Title: Microcomputer Applications an Empirical Look at Usage
Author(s): Magid Igbaria, Francis N Pavri, Sid L Huff
Source: Information and Management Year: 1989 Volume: 16 Pages: 187 – 196
I chose to review this paper because was written by the authors that created the model
that the authors of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation were modifying to obtain their results. This
paper was written around the same time as Davis’s TAM and does not reference it. Aside from
the papers in the chain under the Davis paper, this is the only paper to not reference Davis in
some way.
The research question of this study is “What is the current state of microcomputer
usage?” Specifically they looked at usage in five “dimensions” Actual time spent on a computer,
frequency of use, number of packages used, level of sophistication of usage, and relationship
between microcomputer usage and the person’s background or characteristics.
The authors sent surveys to 766 people in 54 large corporations across North America.
They received 519 completed surveys and 471 useful responses. Like the previous study this one
showed a majority of men at 84%. Again, this likely reflected the actual distribution at this time
and can’t really be viewed as a “weakness” of the study. They measured system usage, computer
anxiety, quality of the system, and experience and training.
Though only studying five dimensions the researchers broke down system usage much
farther and discussed the results at length. According to their research most people use
microcomputers for planning and most people used microcomputers for 1 to 2 hours per day.
They called this a “significant amount of time.” While the findings under system usage were
interesting and important at the time, they are a bit out of date and not worth spending much time
discussing anymore.
What was interesting was their research on computer usage vs individual variables. They
found that more educated people used computers more. And that contrary to their expectations
women did not show more computer anxiety or less computer usage. They did find that older
people had more anxiety and less usage, and that with increased usage anxiety went down. They
also found that increased training went along with higher rates of computer usage. Quality of the
system was important to success.
This study was quite broad and seemed in some ways harder to follow than the Davis
study even though Davis had more “math” in his paper. The organization seems a bit off and
they spend a lot of time talking about system usage which was broken down into variables that
were not clearly stated in advance. Perhaps at the time that was more important, but I found the
other sections of the study to be more interesting and more relevant to the present day. Still, it’s
good to look at an alternative to the TAM that reinforces why it simply has the staying power.
Reference 3:2:
Title: Microcomputer Playfulness: Development of a Measure with Workplace Implications
Author(s): Jane Webster, Joseph J Martocchio
Source: MIS Quarterly Year: 1992 Volume: 16 Issue: 2
Playfulness has been an important variable that was mentioned in the primary study, as
well as several of the secondary and tertiary studies I have reviewed. Therefore, I didn’t think a
review through the past of technology adoption research would be complete without examining
at least one study on playfulness and computer usage. What was interesting about this study is
that it studies playfulness with workplace implications, which to me was an interesting focus as
thinking of someone “playing” at work with computers leads one to think of the office slacker
who plays minesweeper while on the phone1. However, the authors define playfulness in this
case as “an individual’s tendency to interact spontaneously, inventively, and imaginatively with
microcomputers.” (p 202) They study playfulness as more of a state of mind than a personal trait
or inherent characteristic.
The study had the following hypotheses:
H1: There will be a positive relationship between computer attitudes and microcomputer playfulness
H2: There will be a negative relationship between computer anxiety and microcomputer playfulness.
H3: There will be a positive relationship between computer competence and microcomputer playfulness.
H4: There will be a positive relationship between computer efficacy beliefs and microcomputer playfulness.
H5: Hodling computer experience constant, microcomputer playfulness and gender will not relate.
H6: Holding computer experience constant, microcomputer playfulness and age will not relate.
H7. Microcomputer playfulness will exhibit discriminant validity from computer attitudes.
H8: Microcomputer playfulness will exhibit discriminant validity from computer anxiety.
H9: Microcomputer playfulness will be positively associated with involvement in the microcomputer
interaction.
H10: Microcomputer playfulness will be positively associated with positive mood.
H11: Microcomputer playfulness will be positively associated with satisfaction.
H12: Microcomputer playfulness will be positively associated with learning.
H13: Microcomputer playfulness will have greater predictive power than computer attitudes with respect to
the outcome measures of a: involvement, b: positive mood, c: satisfaction, and d: learning.
H14: Microcomputer playfulness will have greater predictive power than computer anxiety with respect to
the outcome measures of a: involvement, b: positive mood, c: satisfaction, and d: learning.
Data was gathered from five studies, three of which were survey studies and two were
training studies. Studies 1 and 2 surveyed students in a large private Northeastern University
with a sample size of 61 in study 1 and 158 in Study 2. Study 3 was undertaken as part of a
larger training program of undergraduate students training to use Lotus 123 with a sample size of
95. Study 4 was a survey study of MBA students to capture test-retest reliability with a sample
size of 32, and Study 5 like Study 3 was part of a larger training program, this time for
employees of a large public Midwestern University training to use WordPerfect.
The study seems to be a list of adjectives and respondents were to circle how much they
agreed each described them while they used microcomputers. I’ve seen surveys like this before
1
Only during boring calls, honest.
and they always struck me as a bit odd, granted it’s not as bad as “if Product Y were a person
what would their personality be like” but I’d be concerned at the ability of the surveyed to take
the study seriously. However, the authors of the study found support for all their hypotheses and
had strong test-retest reliability.
An interesting study, and while not one that attempts to add potential playfulness to the
Technology Adoption Model itself they do cite Davis as a reference and provide a detailed
methodology and scale for studying microcomputer playfulness.
Conclusion:
It was interesting to see how studies related to each other, and how one major study can
have a huge impact in a field. Also, when looking at a large variety of closely related papers at
one time the strengths and weaknesses of certain papers are easier to see than when picking one
or two papers from individual assignments. The field of technology adoption has changed
drastically from the 1980s but the main foundations are still referenced. Earlier studies were not
as strict with terminology. While one later paper did use the terms “extrinsic” and “intrinsic” to
essentially refer to existing constructs, they did provide us with the more widely used terms.
This terminology problem was a complaint in the paper An Empirical Study of the Impact of
User Involvement on System Usage and Information Satisfcation and seems to be reduced as
people see the need for consistency.
All papers but three referenced the Davis paper Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of
use, and user acceptance of information technology. Two of those papers were under Davis in
the “tree” and the other was written the same year that his paper was published so was likely
started before. Studies on technology adoption past the 1990s seem to reference Davis, even if to
simply explain why they chose a model that is not his Technology Adoption Model. Lack of
perceived playfulness in the TAM was seen almost immediately. How highly enjoyment effects
usage varies by time, situation, and perhaps location – more research may be needed, but noone
now would deny that it is important.
Early studies focused mostly on business users while later studies seem to focus on the
general user or the home user specifically. Also, earlier studies were biased towards males, and
the highly educated. This may come naturally out of the spread of technology from business and
schools to homes and widespread use. Later studies show a more balanced gender distribution
and in general highest usage in the 20 – 29 age group. That is a slow creep downwards in age
from the mid-80s. The original focus of studies was in North America but that also spread until
there are worldwide studies on Technology Acceptance allowing people to compare how
different cultures’ behaviors are affected by their perceptions of technology.
Considering that the main paper is essentially trying to develop a more comprehensive
model of TAM as one of its stated goals it is not too surprising that Davis was widely referenced.
And the authors of Mobile Internet Acceptance did extend the TAM with variables that they
thought were important including perceived playfulness and perceived cost. But, one thing I’d
question is the TAM seems to already be largely altered and discussed, with so many additions
and discussions, using any one particular new study as the definitive replacement as a
comprehensive TAM seems unlikely. It is, however, a great starting point for someone who
wants to research changes in the Technology Adoption Model. Someone looking to alter the
TAM for their own use would certainly want to refer to others who have done likewise.