Integrating Technology Acceptance Model, Theory of Diffusion of Innovations and Theory of Planned Behaviour to Study the Adoption of Facebook Marketplace

Abstract

With the rapid innovation of technology and the cheaper internet, e-commerce is swiftly reaching new heights. The latest form of e-commerce, called online classified business, has emerged based on a consumer-to-consumer e-commerce model. It is mainly used to deal with posting ads online on classified portals. However, in the contemporary world, it also facilitates and fosters consumers to buy and sell brand-new and used merchandise from each other without any intermediary. A long-standing and overlooked form of e-commerce has lately caught researchers’ interest. Facebook marketplace, launched by Facebook, is one of the latest portals augmenting online classified business. The present study is the first of its kind, which intends to integrate the technology acceptance model with two critical theories, namely Theory of Diffusion of Innovations and theory of planned behaviour, to study the adoption of an online classified portal like Facebook marketplace. The research used structural equation modelling to test the hypothesized relationships. The study asserts that Perceived ease of use is the most vital determinant, followed by Subjective Norm and Perceived Usefulness, which affects the Intention to use the Facebook marketplace. Visibility was found to play no role in influencing Intention to use. The study can have many implications for the Facebook marketplace and other stakeholders.