No abstract

Using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this research investigated gender differences in the overlooked context of individual adoption and sustained usage of technology in the workplace. User reactions and technology usage behavior were studied over a five-month period among 342 workers being introduced to a new software system. At all three points of measurement, compared to women, men's technology usage deci-1 Ron Weber was the accepting senior editor for this paper. sions were more strongly influenced by their perceptions of usefulness. In contrast, women were more strongly influenced by perceptions of ease of use and subjective norm, although the effect of subjective norm diminished over time. These findings were robust even after statistically controlling for key confounding variables identified in prior organizational behavior research (i.e., income, occupation, and education levels), and another possible confound from technology research, prior experience with computers in general. Thus, in addition to identifying key boundary conditions in the role of the original TAM constructs (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use), this research provides the basis for the integration of subjective norm into the model. In light of these findings, implications for theory and practice are discussed.

This research investigated age differences in individual adoption and sustained usage of technology in the workplace using the theory of planned behavior. User reactions and technology usage behavior were studied over a 5-month period among 118 workers being introduced to a new software system. At 2 points of measurement, compared to older workers, younger workers' technology usage decisions were more strongly influenced by attitude toward using the technology. InWe thank Ttacy Ann Sykes of the University of Maryland for her help in improving the readability of the paper and copyediting.Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Professor Michael G. Morris, Air Force Institute of Rchnology (AFITENV), Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio 45433; michael.morris@afit.af.mil.COPYRIGHT 0 Zoo0 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY, INC

This research investigated gender differences in the overlooked context of individual adoption and sustained usage of technology in the workplace using the theory of planned behavior (TPB). User reactions and technology usage behavior were studied over a 5-month period among 355 workers being introduced to a new software technology application. When compared to women's decisions, the decisions of men were more strongly influenced by their attitude toward using the new technology. In contrast, women were more strongly influenced by subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. Sustained technology usage behavior was driven by early usage behavior, thus fortifying the lasting influence of gender-based early evaluations of the new technology. These findings were robust across income, organization position, education, and computer self-efficacy levels. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

Building on recent unique, yet potentially complementary, approaches to understanding the formation of user perceptions about technology (Venkatesh, 1999; Venkatesh & Speier, 1999), the present work reanalyzes the data from both studies to develop an integrated model of technology acceptance. The integrated model specifically examines the influence of pre-training and training environment interventions (termed user acceptance enablers) to understand how user perceptions are formed prior to system implementation. The model is then further extended and tested using longitudinal data in a field setting. The results indicate that the integrated model emerged as a better predictor of user behavior when compared to the existing models.