IV. Results
4.4 Discussion
4.4.1 General Discussion
The current research attempts to provide the intellectual development of TAM to identify the dissemination and main trends related within research about this model.
Using document co-citation analysis, 72 papers on TAM published in SSCI journals are collected as our core papers to be the basis for three statistical analyses, which are factor analysis, cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling. The results of this study show the presence of our key findings in two major aspects: (1) TAM appliance in different IT context; (2) extended TAM and combination of diversified theories.
On applying TAM in different IT context, researchers have conducted their studies incorporating four main IT categories: (1) job-related IT; (2) information-acquiring IT for knowledge management; (3) leisure IT; and (4) e-commerce.
Observing the relation between the year of publication of core papers in this study and the applied context of IT, it might be induced that the works in early years investigate the adoption of IT which people utilize in the workplace in order to improve work performance. According to Legris’ meta-analysis on TAM (2003), he groups these studies under three software tool categories: office automation (e.g.
spreadsheet, text-editor, e-mail), software development (e.g. programming tools, software maintenance tools), and business application (e.g. software used in the core 29usiness). To enhance work performance and efficiency are always important issues in business management. Researchers put job-related IT as the first priority to apply in
TAM research. These works are conducted in mandatory settings like work tools.
However, as the degree of penetration of personal computers (PC) is getting higher, research trends are gradually transferred to voluntary IT usage context like information-acquiring IT for knowledge management, leisure IT, and e-commerce.
As for information-acquiring IT such as e-learning, digital library, and ERP, the common feature of these media is convenient electronic collections to convey rich content for knowledge management. Knowledge management refers to identifying and leveraging the collective knowledge in an organization (Alavi & Leidner, 2001) or an individual to help build competency. These works have been proven that TAM has been successfully applied to these content-based systems or IT-based systems that are developed to support the organizational or individual processes of knowledge storage, retrieval, transfer, creation, and application (Alavi & Leidner, 2001).
Knowledge management is crucial for organizations or individuals as one of the key successful, even survival, factors in today’s knowledge-based economy. This shows another main issue in the trends of research of TAM.
Leisure IT includes on-line games, websites providing recreational information, and so on. Leisure IT aims to provide self-fulfilling rather than instrumental value to users (van der Heijden, 2004), and people use them for leisure purpose. The attention on enjoyment and flow experience as people use IT are caught commonly in academic research. Flow experience describes one’s action with total involvement. When people are in the flow state, they are absorbed in this activity; their awareness is narrowed into the activity; they even lose their self-consciousness so that they feel in control of the environment. Studies indicate flow experience might occur in gaming, shopping, and so on (Hsu & Lu, 2004). Many TAM researchers put enjoyment or flow experience in the TAM studies as a new construct to examine the influence on users’
IT adoption, and they have quite good explanation. The third main trend is revealed.
E-commerce is another important issue emerging with the penetration of PCs and Internet. In this trend, traditional e-commerce (using media with PC interface) and e-commerce with new IT (using media with mobile phone and interactive TV interface) are applied on TAM investigations. As it is mentioned previously, online consumers care about trust and risk of e-commerce because the environment of e-commerce lacks of the typical human interaction which is one of important reasons to lead to trust (Gefen, et al., 2003). This shows that the importance of trust on users’
e-commerce adoption.
The current analysis reveals different constructs and theories that have been
combined with TAM in IT adoption research. This is an interesting dissemination.
Many researchers attempt to form a comprehensive model to get a better understanding about IT adoption with diverse constructs to attitude, different antecedents toward PU and PEOU, and diversified theories and models to combine with. But the parsimonious TAM, which have merely two variables – PU and PEOU – to influence attitude and then affect IT adoption, is still widely discussed and commonly treated as a solid basis for modification. This shows that TAM is certainly a powerful model to predict and explaining IT usage.
4.4.2 Prediction for Future Research Trend
Reviewing the papers which are published in SSCI journals in management of information system (MIS) with the top three highest impact factors – MIS Quarterly (impact factor: 5.826), Information System Research (impact factor: 2.862), and Information & Management (impact factor : 1.631) after 2006 (Table 12), we found that TAM research in e-commerce context (Kamis, et al, 2008; Xiao & Benbasatis, 2007; Kamis & Stohr, 2006; Ahn et al., 2007; Cyr, et al., 2006; Diney & Hart; 2006) are still popular. New technology adoption is also a popular research topic in TAM. As more and more technology innovation coming, we expect that new technology adoption and e-commerce with new medium will still catch researchers’ attention in the future.
Topic Author Year Title Source Impact Factor
e-commerce Kamis, A; Koufaris, M; Stern, T 2008 Using an attribute-based decision support system for user-customized products online: An experimental investigation MIS Quarterly 5.826 e-commerce Xiao, B; Benbasat, I 2007 E-commerce product recommendation agents: Use, characteristics, and impact MIS Quarterly 5.826 e-commerce Kamis, AA; Stohr, EA 2006 Parametric search engines: What makes them effective when shopping online for differentiated products? Information &
Management
1.631 e-commerce Ahn, T; Ryu, S; Han, I 2007 The impact of Web quality and playfulness on user acceptance of online retailing Information &
Management
1.631 e-commerce Cyr, D; Head, M; Ivanov, A 2006 Design aesthetics leading to m-loyalty in mobile commerce Information &
Management 1.631
e-commerce Diney, T; Hart, P 2006 An extended privacy calculus model for E-commerce transactions Information Systems Research
2.862 new technology adoption Castaneda, JA; Munoz-Leiva, F;
Luque, T
2007 Web Acceptance Model (WAM): Moderating effects of user experience Information &
Management
1.631 new technology adoption Kim, SH 2008 Moderating effects of Job Relevance and Experience on mobile wireless technology acceptance: Adoption of a
smartphone by individuals
Information &
Management
1.631 new technology adoption Ha, I; Yoon, Y; Choi, M 2007 Determinants of adoption of mobile games under mobile broadband wireless access environment Information &
Management
1.631 new technology adoption Shin, DH 2009 Determinants of customer acceptance of multi-service network: An implication for IP-based technologies Information &
Management 1.631
new technology adoption Premkumar, G; Ramamurthy, K;
Liu, HN
2008 Internet messaging: An examination of the impact of attitudinal, normative, and control belief systems Information &
Management
1.631 e-learning Chiu, CM; Wang, ETG 2008 Understanding Web-based learning continuance intention: The role of subjective task value Information &
Management
1.631 ERP Kwahk, KY; Lee, JN 2008 The role of readiness for change in ERP implementation: Theoretical bases and empirical validation Information &
Management
1.631 meta-analysis Schepers, J; Wetzels, M 2007 A meta-analysis of the technology acceptance model: Investigating subjective norm and moderation effects Information &
Management
1.631
meta-analysis King, WR; He, J 2006 A meta-analysis of the technology acceptance model Information &
Management 1.631
new construct Karahanna, E; Agarwal, R;
Angst, CM
2006 Reconceptualizing compatibility beliefs in technology acceptance research MIS Quarterly 5.826 new construct Mao, E; Palvia, P 2008 Exploring the effects of direct experience on IT use: An organizational field study Information &
Management
1.631
new construct Walczuch, R; Lemmink, J;
Streukens, S
2007 The effect of service employees’ technology readiness on technology acceptance Information &
Management
1.631 new construct Burton-Jones, A; Hubona, GS 2006 The mediation of external variables in the technology acceptance model Information &
Management 1.631
new construct Hasan, B 2006 Delineating the effects of general and system-specific computer self-efficacy beliefs on IS acceptance Information &
Management
1.631 post adoption stage Saeed, KA; Abdinnour-Helm, S 2008 Examining the effects of information system characteristics and perceived usefulness on post adoption usage of
information systems
Information &
Management
1.631 theories combination Pagani, M 2006 Determinants of adoption of High Speed Data Services in the business, market:
Evidence for a combined technology acceptance model with task technology fit model
Information &
Management
1.631