The relationship between the technology acceptance model and preference for ebooks at a large research university
| Pages | 13-15 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-11-2018-0069 |
| Date | 07 May 2019 |
| Published date | 07 May 2019 |
| Author | Susan Lynn Smith,Allyson Rodriguez,Erin DeWitt Miller,Lu Xu |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Library & information services |
The relationship between the technology
acceptance model and preference for ebooks at a
large research university
Susan Lynn Smith, Allyson Rodriguez, Erin DeWitt Miller and Lu Xu
Introduction
The advent of ebooks means that
neither libraries nor scholars are limited by
the constraints of a physical collection.
According to Walters (2013),94to97per
cent of libraries subscribe to ebooks. The
provision of an extensive library ebook
collection provides support to advance
academic excellence and research. But if
users prefer print books over ebooks
(Baron, 2013), how do libraries ensure
they are providing ebooks that will be used
andusedthemost?
A study that applied the technology
acceptance model (TAM) to acceptance
of ebooks by faculty found those who
think ebooks are easier to use, use them
(Nasser Al-Suqri, 2014). This current
study applied technology acceptance
constructs such as performance
expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating
conditions, attitude, self-efficacy and
anxiety to students’ ebook preferences by
surveying current undergraduate students.
Here, the construct ebook preference is
analogous to and expands upon intention
to use by asking respondents in which
situations/contexts would they prefer to
use ebooks (Yu, 2012;Maduku, 2015).
Building upon models from psychology,
the theory of reasonable action and the
theory of planned behavior, the TAM has
two main constructs: perceived usefulness,
the belief that using the system will
improve performance, and perceived ease
of use, the belief that using the system will
be easy (Davis, 1989;Davis et al., 1989).
Previous research has shown that
perceived usefulness determines intention
to use (Davis, 1989;Davis et al., 1989).
Building on TAM and other theories, the
unified theory of acceptance and use of
technology (UTAUT) forwarded individual
acceptance research by bringing together
common theoretical perspectives and
integrating four moderators of influences
(Venkatesh et al., 2003), grouping them
into performance expectancy, effort
expectancy, facilitating conditions, attitude,
self-efficacy and anxiety.
Two recent studies published in the
library literature looked at technology
acceptance and ebooks using the
original TAM. Each found perceived
ease of use was a factor in acceptance;
Letchumanan and Muniandy (2013)
with the undergraduates and Nasser Al-
Suqri (2014) with the faculty. Lee
(2013) found perceived usefulness and
ease of use impact intention to use.
Maduku (2015) used the UTAUT model
to study undergraduate intention to use
ebooks, finding performance
expectancy, social influence and
facilitating conditions to be significant.
This study seeks to uncover factors
related to students’ preference for
ebooks with hopes that understanding
what drives these preferences will help
librarians to figure out how to increase
students’ use of ebooks. See the
proposed research framework and
corresponding hypotheses in Figure 1.
Methodology
Starting with a model for ebook
preference, this survey combined
questions adapted from the UTAUT
(Venkatesh et al.,2003) on performance
expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating
conditions, attitude, self-efficacy and
anxiety with questions about preferences
for ebooks in specific situations and use
cases (Raini et al., 2012). The survey also
included standard demographic questions.
A group of experts vetted all questions.
Two professors distributed the survey near
the end of the Fall 2016 term to
undergraduates in two lecture sections of a
required political science course at a large
public university in the southwestern USA.
Students were offered extra credit for
completing the survey, and 221 usable
responses were received. Of those
responses, 40.27 per cent (89) were male
and 59.28 per cent (131) were female.
The majority of respondents ranged in
agefrom18to24.Thefamilyincomeof
respondents was fairly evenly distributed
between bands of $30,000. While 50.21
per cent (117) of respondents reported they
were white, 22.32 per cent (52) were black
or African–American and 27.52 per cent
(60) said yes, they were Hispanic or
Latino.
Results/analysis
Reliability and validity were
measured for each construct (Table I).
As the Cronbach’s alpha for each
construct is greater than 0.7 (Nunnally,
1978), these results support reliability.
Because all factor loadings except one
are greater than 0.7 and each
corresponding t-value is greater than
1.96 (Gefen and Straub, 2005) and the
one that is not, social influence, is close
to 0.7, convergent validity is supported.
Because Cronbach’s alpha for each
construct is larger than the average
inter-construct correlations (Ghiselli
et al., 1981), discriminant validity is
supported. The overall R
2
is 0.21,
indicating that 21 per cent of ebook
preference is explained by changes in
the other constructs.
Figure 2 shows the results of
structural equation modeling (SEM),
which differ from those of the proposed
research framework (Figure 1), as the
suggested configuration increased the
significance and power of the paths and
the overall model (Hox and Bechger,
1998). The hypotheses were based on
the UTUAT that each construct had a
direct effect on the preference for
ebooks. This new model has ebook
anxiety, ebook performance expectancy
LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 3 2019, pp. 13-15, V
CEmerald Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/LHTN-11-2018-0069 13
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