Explaining undergraduates’ behavior intention of e-textbook adoption

Abstract

Purpose – The current study aims to investigate college students' behavioral intentions to adopt e-textbooks for their studies according to well-known theoretical intention-based models. Design/methodology/approach – This paper empirically assesses five theoretical models of technology acceptance, including the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the technology acceptance model (TAM), the decomposed TPB model (DTPB), the combined model of TAM and TPB (C-TAM-TPB), and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). The survey methodology and structural equation modeling (SEM) were employed to examine and compare these five models. Moreover, explanatory power, goodness-of-fit indices, and model parsimony were taken into consideration in the model comparisons. Findings – Both TPB and TAM provided less effective but adequate predictive behavioral power. However, TPB appeared to be more parsimonious than TAM and the other models. By focusing on specific beliefs of attitude, social and control influences, DTPB shares many of the same advantages as TPB and TAM, but is less parsimonious. Similarly, C-TAM-TPB, an augmented version of TAM that incorporates social influences and behavioral control, is superior to TPB and TAM in terms of its explanatory power of behavioral intention to use e-textbooks. Overall, however, the results indicated that UTAUT appeared to be the best model in terms of the metrics of parsimonious fit and explanatory power. Originality/value – Theoretical comparison of different models is important. This is believed to be the first study to present model comparisons by investigating undergraduates' intention to adopt e-textbooks as tools for their on-campus learning in Taiwan.

Exploring College Students’ Intention to Adopt e-Textbooks: A Modified Technology Acceptance Model

“…Stone and Baker-Eveleth (2013) indicated that students' satisfaction and perceived usefulness (PU) significantly relate to their electronic textbook continuance intentions. Most recently, Hsiao and Tang (2014) assessed five theoretical models of technology acceptance to investigate students' adoption intentions for e-textbooks, and supported the adequacy of TAM. This study therefore adopts TAM as our research theoretical base to test the adoption of e-textbooks.…”

“…Hsiao and Tang (2014) have investigated the usage intention of textbooks with the comparison of five models, and support the applicability of the technology acceptance model (TAM). The current study therefore integrates the TAM with another intrinsic factor, namely perceived enjoyment (PE), to explore college students' e-textbook adoption intention.…”

What’s Wrong with SISDALSKRIPSI? An Evaluation of the Thesis Control System at UNNES

“…Many researchers try to use other concepts such as TAM, TPB, TRA, MM, and others to investigate factors that affect the acceptance behavior and use of technology [4,16]. The UTAUT concept is well suited for understanding the behavior of students in receiving and willingness to use SISDALSKRIPSI.…”

“…Moreover, the campus provides adequate computer to access the system, then students will increasingly often utilize SISDALSKRIPSI. DOI Many researchers have successfully proven the effect of the UTAUT dimension [2][3][4]18]. Other researchers did not succeed [6,13].…”

“…Some researchers use the concept of UTAUT in understanding the use of technology within the framework of education. The UTAUT concept is the best model for understanding acceptance and use of technology over TAM and TPB (Theory of Planned Behavior) [4]. Many researchers use the concept of UTAUT with various models and analysis tools [16].…”