Abstract
Technology acceptance model (TAM)—new media—has been widely viewed as a veritable medium for innovating businesses, specifically business positioning. However, organizations are hardly adopting it due to fear of losing control of information flow and cyber-attack, which has intensified and taken mutative dimensions recently. Although numerous studies have explored TAM, they have largely focused on users' perception of the system's usefulness, ease of use, intention to use, and the actual use, while leaving out the strategic implications of such business practice. Thus, relying on thematic textual analysis of interview data drawn from 41 respondents, this chapter empirically investigates how selected ICT firms in Nigeria are behaving towards TAM- new social media. Consequently, the study proposes that rather than dwell on avoidance model, following associated risks, TAM can be securely and effectively integrated to help stimulate business positioning: market positioning, market leadership, customer intimacy-relationship, and competitive advantage for organizational success.
TopIntroduction
Using the empirical lens of selected firms in Nigeria’s ICT sector, this chapter brings to bear the imperative of technology acceptance model (TAM) – new media – in strengthening organisational business positioning: market positioning, market leadership/dominance, customer intimacy-relationship and overall competitive advantage. TAM has become a prominent framework for understanding user’s behaviour toward technological innovation (Davies 1989; Legris et al., 2003, King and He, 2006; Sharp, 2007). The concept has been largely defined along two key variables: the process of interrogating the ‘ease of use’ and ‘usefulness’ of technology – as perceived by users (Davies, 1989), in relationship with the complex environmental factors, which determine users’ ‘intention to use’ and the ‘actual usage’ of such technology (Davies and Venkatesh, 2004; Chutter, 2009; Turner et al., 2010). The role of technology acceptance in enhancing operational efficiency and effectiveness has been widely captured in the extant literature across politics (Park, 2013), journalism, scientific communication (McCuliff, 2011) and education (Farahat, 2012) as well as in particular economics, business management (Khang et al. 2012), electronic commerce and marketing (Wirtz et al. 2013). However, as Marangunic and Granic (2015) noted, while the development and integration of information technology into the private and professional life of users has grown over the years; questions still linger regarding its user’s perception and level of acceptance (or rejection) – at both traditional and new media levels, to impact organisational strategy and “broader” economic prospect in an “increasingly digitalised business world” (Marangunic and Granic (2014: 97).