The Relative Importance of Perceived Ease of Use in IS Adoption: A ...

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the IT itself provides the primary product or service. The data collected in this study,analyzing potential adopter intended use of a book-selling Web site for the twodistinctly different activities of inquiry about and purchase of books, support thisproposition. The responses show that PU influenced adoption of the Web site forboth purchase and inquiry objectives, while PEOU influenced adoption of the Website only when its intended use involved inquiries.II. LITERATURE REVIEWTHE TECHNOLOGY ACCEPTANCE MODELTAM is one of the most widely researched models predicting IT adoption.Davis (1989) originally examined an e-mail system and a file-editor used at the timeat IBM Canada and found that both PEOU and PU were significantly correlated withself-reported use of both systems. However, when the combined effect of PU andPEOU on self-reported use was examined using linear regression, only PUsignificantly affected use. In a follow-up study presented in the same paper, Davisasked 40 MBA students to evaluate two graphics systems with which they werepreviously unfamiliar. The subjects used workbook manuals to learn how to useboth packages before filling in the instruments. Analysis of the responses given bythe MBA subjects showed that for both graphic systems, only PU determined theirintention to use the software.In a separate study, Davis et al. (1989) asked MBA students to fill outinstruments regarding a word-processor after examining it for one hour and againafter 14 weeks. Unlike the first study, Davis et al. found that PEOU, after one hour,significantly affected intended use even when the effect of PU on intended use wascontrolled. This significant regression relationship became insignificant, however,when reexamined 14 weeks later with the same subjects. Unlike PEOU, PUsignificantly affected self-reported use in both time-periods.Later studies in the TAM research stream are also inconsistent with respectto the effect of PEOU on downstream effects and on the mediating effect of PU.Journal of the Association for Information Systems 4
Table 1 lists a representative group of TAM studies to show this variation. A quickglance at the far right column indicates the extent to which studies to date reportvariant findings about the role of PEOU in TAM. It is important to note in the contextof this study that the TAM studies in the tables below dealt with an unspecified task,mainly asking subjects generally about “use” or “adoption” and without indicating thespecific tasks to which the IT would be applied. The next section will discuss howthe intrinsic and extrinsic nature of the task might help to explain this apparentchanging role of PEOU in TAM.THE ROLE OF PEOU: TASKS AND SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICSAccording to TAM (Davis 1989; Davis et. al. 1989), PEOU and PU areimportant perceptions determining IT adoption. In a later study that expanded onthe original TAM studies, Davis et al. (1992) explained the role of these beliefs,suggesting that user intention to adopt a new IT is affected by both extrinsic andintrinsic motivations. According to Davis et al., “extrinsic motivation refers to theperformance of an activity because it is perceived to be instrumental in achievingvalued outcomes that are distinct from the activity itself” (1992, p. 1112). Incontrast, “intrinsic motivation refers to the performance of an activity for no apparentreinforcement other than the process of performing the activity per se” (p. 1112).Davis et al. classified enjoyment as a type of intrinsic motivation and PU as a typeof extrinsic motivation, arguing that extrinsic motivation should have a strongerimpact on IT adoption. The reason PU is such an important antecedent of IT adoptionis that in many cases a new IT is adopted primarily because it is instrumentalin achieving tasks that are not inherent in the use of the IT itself. PU deals with userassessments of these aspects of a new IT (Davis et al. 1992).However, the possible intrinsic or extrinsic contributions of PEOU to ITadoption were not discussed by Davis et al. (1992). What they did posit was thatPEOU would affect IT adoption indirectly through its effect on PU, because ease-ofuseis instrumental in making a new IT more useful.Journal of the Association for Information Systems 5
Page 2 and 3: helps users achieve task-related ob
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Page 8 and 9: Table 1. Summary of TAM Studies (19
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Page 16 and 17: V. ANALYSIS AND RESULTSThe data wer
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Page 22 and 23: VII. REFERENCESAdams D. A, Nelson,
Page 24 and 25: Premkumar, G., and Potter, M. “Ad
Page 26 and 27: Appendix AResearch Operationalizati
Page 28 and 29: Please indicate your agreement with
Page 30: JAIS EDITORIAL BOARDPaul AlparPhill

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