Antecedents of acceptance and use of a digital library system. Experience from a Tier 3 Indian city

Published date25 January 2020
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/EL-03-2019-0074
Pages170-185
Date25 January 2020
AuthorAvinash Shivdas,Dileep G. Menon,Chitra S. Nair
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet
Antecedents of acceptance and
use of a digital library system
Experience from a Tier 3 Indian city
Avinash Shivdas
Department of Management, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Amritapuri
Campus, Amritapuri, India
Dileep G. Menon
School of Commerce, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies University,
Mumbai, India, and
Chitra S. Nair
Department of Management, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Amritapuri
Campus, Amritapuri, India
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the critical factors that drive the adoption of digital
library system (DLS) in institutes located in remote India. An integrated model of the unied theory of
acceptance and use of technologymodel-2 (UTAUT2) and information systems success model (ISSM)is used
to evaluate the criticalfactors.
Design/methodology/approach The survey method of researchwas used, and the data collected was
analysedby using PLS-SEM, which proved helpful to evaluateand validate the model.
Findings Departing from past research,where most of the factors of the UTAUT2 and ISSM were found
to inuence the adoption of DLS, in this context, it is noted that performance expectancy, facilitating
conditionsand habit were the only constructs that inuenced the intention to use DLS.
Originality/value The study addressesthe requirement for further research in DLSdomain in emerging
markets. It is one of the few studies addressingDLS adoption in remote India. The ndings are unique to this
context,which differ from developed nations, thus, answering the call to advance UTAUTmodel.
Keywords Digital libraries, Technology adoption, Behavioural intentions, Emerging markets,
ISSM model, UTAUT2
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Rapid advances in computing, storage and internet technologies have made information
sharing and storage far more effective and affordable.This advancement is being embraced
by the education sector, which led to the dawn of the digital library system (DLS) (Kumar
and Rao, 2014). DLS is an electronic collectionof information that is accessible remotely by
users with internet connectivity(Trivedi, 2010). A DLS helps users access updated research
as well as digitised representations of original works from any location and at any time. It
was introduced in India during the 1990s; that is, two decades after its implementation in
developed nations (Sheeja, 2010). However, several supply-side barriers, such as the lack of
infrastructure, commitment from institutes/librarians, legislation, trained manpower and
nancial aid, inhibited the adoptionof DLS in India (Gaur, 2003;Gurram, 2008). To enhance
EL
38,1
170
Received20 March 2019
Revised8 July 2019
8 October2019
3 December2019
Accepted27 December 2019
TheElectronic Library
Vol.38 No. 1, 2020
pp. 170-185
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-03-2019-0074
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0264-0473.htm
the adoption, the Indian Government designed an education policy based on three core
principles access, equity and quality [India Department of Higher Education (DHE), 2016]
and developed the National Digital Library of India [India Press Information Bureau (PIB),
2016]. In spite of these initiatives, the levels of adoption remained low. Studies have shown that
providing necessary resources does not guarantee successful usage (Singh et al., 2015), as users
fail to nd value using the services (Coughlin et al.,2016).
On the other hand, prior research has indicated that success of electronic information
systems depends on the user acceptance of these services (Alajmi, 2018;Jeong, 2011),
indicating the importance of focussingon demand-side drivers of DLS. Though research on
user acceptance of DLS is widely addressed in developed nations (Abdul Rahman et al.,
2011), research in emerging economies, such as India, is limited (Singh et al.,2015).
Additionally,research on DLS in developing economies has never focussed on rural areas.In
India more than 60 per cent of educationalinstitutes are located in rural areas of the country
[India Department of Higher Education (DHE), 2018]. The behaviour of students in rural
locations could vary from their urban counterparts with respect to the intention to use new
technologies. Given the majority of colleges being located in rural regions, it becomes
imperative to understand the factors driving the intention to use DLS in colleges in these
regions. This research addresses this gap by evaluating DLS adoption in rural locations,
with a specic focus on a Tier 3 city in India. Tier 1 cities have a population of more than
four million people, while Tier 2 cities have between one and four million,and Tier 3 cities
have a population of less than one million (Sankhe et al., 2011). Findings from this study
could provide policymakers with insights into factors that truly drive DLS adoption, thus
leading them to frame effective policiesand incentives to drive DLS acceptance. This article
integrates the UTAUT2 and ISSM models to achievethe proposed aim. The results indicate
that performance expectancy (PE), habit (HB) and facilitatingconditions (FC) are inuential
predictors of a students intention to use DLS in Tier 3 cities. It deviates from the earlier
literature in that factors, such as effort expectancy (EE), social inuence (SI), hedonic
motivation (HM) and information quality (IQ), do not inuencethe usage of DLS in students
from Tier 3 cities in emerging economiessuch as India.
The subsequent sections review the past literature, discuss the theoretical frameworks
employed in this study and then describe the research methodology applied to test the
model. The results and the ndings are presented and discussed in the concluding sections
of this paper.
Literature review
Several studies have focussedon evaluating the antecedents to behavioural intention(BI) to
use DLS based on prominent user acceptancemodels. Cheng (2014) proposed a hybrid model
based on the expectation-conrmation model, technology acceptance model (TAM) and
ISSM to examine userscontinuanceintention of DLS among university students in Taiwan.
It was found that information relevance,system accessibility, and technical support are key
drivers explaining a users continuance intention of using DLS. Further, with an aim to
evaluate the applicability of the TAM across developing countries, Park et al. (2009)
conducted research across Africa, Asia and Central/Latin America. It was observed that
relevance strongly inuenced the perceived ease of use which in turn inuenced the
intention to use DLS. The results also indicate that attributes, such as experience, domain
knowledge and interest, along with supporting system attributes, such as relevance,
accessibility and library assistance were critical to enhance the use intention. In a separate
cross-country study between Kenya and Peru based on the TAM, Miller and Khera (2010)
observed that perceived usefulness was the main driver to use intention of DLS. Also,
Experience
from a Tier 3
Indian city
171

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