User Acceptance of Information Technology: Research Progress, Current Controversies, and Emerging Pa

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User Acceptance of Information Technology
Research Progress, Current Controversies, and
Emerging Paradigms

• Fred Davis
• Walton College of Business
• University of Arkansas
• December 8, 2007
• Workshop on HCI Research in MIS

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Outline

• TAM overview and evolution
• TAM metaanalyses
• Paradigms and scientific progress
• Current TAM impasse
• Gaps and limitations in TAM research
• Promising directions for TAM research
• Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuro IS

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TAM Overview

• Problem Statement
• High failure rate of IS implementations
• 1980s IS Implementation Research
• Mixed and inconclusive
• Keen 1980 reference disciplines and cumulative
  tradition
• TAM
• Theoretical foundations
• Psychometrically validated measures
• IT Design Characteristics
• Functionality
• User Interface

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Technology Acceptance Model(TAM)
Perceived
Usefulness
External
Behavioral
Usage
Variables
Intention
Behavior
Perceived
e.g., Training
Ease of Use
System Chars.
(Davis 1989--MISQ Davis et al. 1989--Mgmt
Science)
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Summary of Key Findings from Early TAM Research

• Perceived usefulness is key determinant of
  acceptance
• Perceived ease of use is a secondary determinant
  (direct and indirect effect on BI)
• TAM compares favorably with other models
• TAM is robust across populations, settings,
  technologies

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TAM Evolution

• 1990s Proliferation
• Consolidation
• 1999 antecedents of EOU
• 2000 antecedents of Usefulness
• 2003 Unified Theory (UTAUT)
• Metaanalyses (2003-2007)
• Citations
• 1989 MISQ cited 900 times
• 1989 Mgt Sci cited 750 times
• TAM in Workshop on HCI in MIS, ICIS

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Venkatesh 1999 ISR Determinants of EOU
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Determinants of EOU
Anchors
Computer Self-Efficacy
Perceived Usefulness
Perceptions of External Control
2
3
2
Behavioral Intention to Use
Computer Anxiety
Perceived Ease of Use
Computer Playfulness
1
1
Perceived Enjoyment
1
Objective Usability
Adjustments
Notes 1 indicates that experience moderated
the relationship between the two constructs, as
expected 2 indicates that experience moderated
the relationship, though not expected 3
indicates that experience had a a direct effect
on the construct, as expected
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Venkatesh Davis 2000 Mgt SciDeterminants of
Usefulness
Technology Acceptance Model
Experience
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Social Influence Processes
A
B
C
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Cognitive Instrumental Processes
Social Influence Processes
Experience
Perceived Usefulness
Job Relevance
Intention to Use
Usage Behavior
Output Quality
Perceived Ease of Use
Results Demo.
Experience
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Venkatesh et al 2003 MISQUnified Model
Job Performance Expectancy
Complexity Expectancy
.46
A
.20
.56
Social Influence
Behavioral Intention
Technology Usage
.18
B
R2 .40
R2 .41
.05
.08
A
.19
Attitude Toward Using Tech.
Facilitating Conditions
A 2-way interaction, with experience as
moderator B 3-way interaction, with experience
and voluntariness as moderators
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Different Types of Technology

• Individual productivity tools
• Groupware
• Enterprise systems
• E-Commerce
• Workflow
• Mobile technology

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King He 2006 IM

• Meta-analysis of 88 studies
• The results show TAM to be a valid and robust
  model that has been widely used, but which
  potentially has wider applicability.
• Moderators
• User types
• Usage types

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Jeyaraj, et al. 2006 JIT

• Metaanalysis of 99 adoption studies
• 48 individual level studies
• 51 organizational level studies
• Best individual adoption predictors
• Perceived Usefulness
• Top Management Support
• Computer Experience
• User Support
• Behavioral Intention
• Best organizational adoption predictions
• Top Management Support
• External Pressure
• Professionalism of IS unit
• External Information Sources
• Top Management Support was main linkage between
  individual and organizational IT adoption
• Identify 10 areas for further exploration

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Schepers Wetzels 2007 IM

• Metaanalysis of 63 TAM studies
• Focused on role of subjective norm
• Confirmed original TAM relationships
• Large effect sizes of SN
• On usefulness (internalization)
• On intention (compliance)

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Sun Zhang 2006 IJHCS

• Role of moderating factors in technology
  acceptance
• Low explanatory power of TAM models (lt60)
• Inconsistent relationships found
• 69 studies reviewed
• Ten moderating factors in three groups
• Organizational factors (voluntariness, nature of
  task and profession)
• Technology factors (complexity, purpose,
  individual vs. group)
• Individual factors (gender, intellect,
  experience, age, culture)
• Moderators increase explanatory power

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Sabherwal et al 2006 Mgt Sci

• Individual and organizational determinants
• Metaanalysis of 121 studies
• Integrated, emergent model
• Top mgmt support
• Facilitating conditions
• User experience, attitude, training,
  participation
• System Quality
• Perceived usefulness
• User satisfaction
• System use
• Consistent with prior research on technology
  adoption and use

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Scientific Progress

• Every scientific truth goes through three states
  
• first, people say it conflicts with the Bible
• next, they say it has been discovered before
• lastly, they say they always believed it.
• Louis Agassiz

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Nature of Scientific Progress

• Role of Paradigms (e.g., Kuhn 1962)
• Container (how much can it hold)
• Vehicle (how far can it go? How fast?)
• Advantage enables research progress
• Disadvantage constrains research progress
• Theory can obstruct research progress
• Selective filter, lens
• Confirmation bias
• Revolution vs. Evolution
• Parsimony, Power, Generality

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TAM Research Impasse

• JAIS Special Issue April 2007
• Lucas, Swanson, Zmud Implementation
• Benbasat Barki Quo Vadis, TAM?
• Proliferation of ad hoc incremental extensions
  with no overarching conceptual structure
• Successive studies that provide diminishing
  marginal contributions
• IS researchers attention being overly restricted
  to minor extensions of TAM

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• Restlessness and discontent are the first
  necessities of progress.
• Thomas Edison

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Recommended Directions for TAM

• Benbasat Barki
• Go back to TRA/TPB
• Better conceptualization of system usage
• Longitudinal, multi-stage models
• Impact of IT design characteristics
• Objective usefulness
• Bagozzi
• Goal self-regulation
• Group, cultural, social aspects
• Emotions

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Return to TRA/TPB?

• Benbasat Barki 2007 JAIS advocate this
• Claim that UTAUT does this
• Provides structure for expanding TAM
• Pavlou Fygenson 2006 MISQ
• B2C top beliefs elicited
• Usefulness, ease of use, trust
• TPB omits direct influence of beliefs on BI
• Bagozzi 2007 JAIS
• TPB has many same limitations as TAM

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Usage Reconceptualizations

• Beyond frequency duration
• Burton-Jones Straub 2006 ISR
• User-System-Task
• Cognitive Absorption
• Deep structure usage (task-relevant feature use)
• Objective performance
• Barki et al 2007 ISR
• Task-technology-individual
• Hierarchical goal-oriented actions
• Task-technology adaption
• Individual adaption

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Three Key Limitations of TAM Paradigm

• Static, cross-sectional, snapshot-oriented
• Individual level of analysis
• Limited span across causal chain
• Emphasis on controlled, conscious processing
• Exclusion of automatic processing
• Overlook multitasking
• Limited account of social processes
• Knowledge collaboration
• Collective processes

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Longer span across causal chainWixom Todd
2005 ISR

• Theoretical Integration of User Satisfaction and
  Technology Acceptance
• Bridge from design and implementation of system
  characteristics (a strength of the user
  satisfaction literature) to prediction of usage
  (a strength of the TAM literature)

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Venkatesh 2006 Dec Sci

• Business process change process standards
• Business process characteristics
• Interventions (e.g., simulation based training)
• Supply-chain technologies
• Multi-stakeholder technologies
• Interventions to reduce goal incongruence and
  information assymetry
• Services
• Service quality, failure, recovery
• Service design characteristics

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Major Theoretical Extensions of TAM

• Principal-Agent Theory
• Ba, et al. 2001 Mgt Sci Bhattacherjee 1998 Dec
  Sci Pavlou et al 2007
• Multi-level studies of adoption
• Lapointe Rivard 2005 MISQ, 2007 ISR Frambach
  Schillewaert 2002 J. Bus Res Gopalakrishnan, et
  al. IEEE TEM
• Longitudinal multi-stage modeling
• Kim et al 2006 Mgt Sci

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Devaraj Kohli 2005 Mgt Sci

• Performance Impacts of Information Technology Is
  Actual Usage the Missing Link?
• actual usage may be a key variable in
  explaining the impact of technology on
  performanceomittion of this variable may be a
  missing ling in IT payoff analyses

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Automaticity and Multitasking

• TAM models presume conscious processing
• Conscious intentions and beliefs
• Theory of Reasoned Action/Planned Behavior
• Cognitive skill acquisition
• Habit versus intention
• Intention-behavior relationship weakens with
  habit
• Habits toward previous behavior can undermine
  intentions to adopt new behavior

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Dual Processing and Economics

• Daniel Kahneman 2002
• Two modes of cognitive processing
• System 1 (intuition) fast, automatic,
  effortless, associative, difficult to modify
• System 2 (reasoning) slower, serial, effortful,
  deliberately controlled, rule-governed, flexible
• Vernon Smith 2002
• human activity is diffused and dominated by
  unconscious, autonomic, neuropsychological
  systems that enable people to function
  effectively without calling upon the brains
  scarcest resource attentional and reasoning
  circuitry

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Automaticity in IS Research

• Habit in IS Continuance
• Mindfulness-Mindlessness Paradox
• Butler Gray 2006 MISQ
• Routine-based reliability
• Mindfulness-based reliability
• Individual and collective mindfulness

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Dual-Task Interference

• Primary task demands most attention
• Secondary task can be performed with limited
  attention
• Bottlenecks, working memory load
• Task and tool as dual tasks
• Electronic brainstorming
• Heninger et al 2006 ISR

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Neuro-IS

• Dimoka, Pavlou, Davis 2007 ICIS
• The potential of cognitive neuroscience for IS
  Research
• Neural underpinnings of cognitive processes
• Brain scanning (fMRI, etc.)
• Many recent discoveries
• Decision making, risk, uncertainty
• Trust, cooperation, competition
• Goal self-regulation
• Automaticity and multitasking

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Major Areas of the Brain
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Brain Areas Activated for Focal Processes
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Neuro-IS and TAM Research

• Neural correlates of perceived usefulness and
  ease of use
• Social influence processes and theory of mind
• Automaticity and habit
• Goal Self-regulation
• Emotional processes

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Genetic Epistemology and Piagets Philosophy of
Science

• Piaget (vs. Kuhn) on Scientific Progress
• J.Y. Tsou 2006 Theory and Research
• Continuity vs. discontinuity
• Series of successive approximations to truth
• Equilibration
• Assimilation and accommodation of existing
  knowledge structures (reorganization)
• Progress as integrative, cumulative process

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Summary

• Reaching the limits of TAM paradigm
• Need to identify and remove limitations of TAM
  paradigm
• Emphasize impact of IT design characteristics
• Integrate across levels of analysis
• From static to dynamic analyses of complex
  adoption processes
• Neuro-IS
• Build upon and go beyond accumulated knowledge

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• However much our knowledge of human behavior
  falls short of our need for such knowledge, still
  it is enormous
• Herbert Simon 1978