Abstract
Insight into the reasons why people adopt or reject technology is one of the most challenging issues in information technology research. This chapter draws on the Electronic Commerce Technology Acceptance (ECTA) framework, which is in turn based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and examines Jordanian government’s employees’ attitudes towards adoption and use of Electronic Mailing systems within their job. The chapter is aimed at providing an overview of the current state of use, adoption and implementation of electronic mailing innovation within organisations, specifically governmental institutions in developing countries like Jordan. More precisely, the author first quantify constructs relating to the current state of governmental institutions’ beliefs and attitudes toward E-Mailing systems technology in Jordan, and then develop and validate the relationships between the various factors that drive the adoption and acceptance of such innovation. A quantitative survey is used to establish and illustrates employee’s behavioural intention and decision to e-mailing systems. The main influencing issues discussed in this chapter that affect these employees imply perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, employees’ attitudes towards new technologies, and behavioural intentions to use. Whereas, these various issues are suggested in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the enhanced Technology Acceptance Model extends them to include the external social factors proposed in this chapter such as trust, cultural beliefs, and sociology of technology. Eventually, the significant insight emanated from the findings identifies ways of assisting and spurring employees to make use of technology more effectively.
TopTheoretical Background
The framework embarked in this study is based on the Electronic Commerce Technology Acceptance (ECTA) framework (Al-Haraizah & Choudhury, 2009), which is in turn built on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1989; Davis et al., 1989). The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was initially suggested as an instrument to predict the likelihood of new technology being adopted within a group or an organization. Fundamentally, it was originated from the theory of reasoned action (TRA) (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). In addition, it proposes that technology acceptance and its use can be explained in context of individual’s internal beliefs, attitudes and intentions. The original TAM measured the impact of four internal variables upon the actual use of the technology. These being: perceived ease of use (PEU), perceived usefulness (PU), attitude toward use (A), and behavioral intention to use (BI). Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) focuses on two dependent factors for determining behavioral intention: the attitude towards behaviour and the attitude towards subjective norm. These determinants correspond to behavioral and normative beliefs where the former refers to the extent of the adopter’s favourable or otherwise reaction (evaluation, appraisal, etc.) toward a given behaviour while normative beliefs considers the likelihood that referent persons approve or disapprove of performing a given behaviour. TRA with its robust nature lends itself well to generalization and has been applied to numerous areas consisting of the modelling of technology acceptance (Scannell, 1999).