User's Attitude - Contemporary Reflections of an Old Concept

摘要

User's attitude is a central construct in IT adoption models. Based on the Theories of Reasoned Action and Planned Behavior the affect-based attitude scales adapted by Davis et al. 1989 in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) have remained basically unchanged ever since. However, scientometric results from MISQ and ISR from 1989-2010 resulting in a total of 37 articles indicate that 26% of attitude-behavior-relations in IT adoption models are insignificant. This paper represents an attempt to explain and analyze these findings by adding aspects of contemporary social psychology research on attitude and developing a research framework that merges these aspects with IT adoption characteristics. As a result, two propositions are developed containing combinations of adoption characteristics, where attitude is assumed to have a larger impact on usage than in others. Scientometric data supports the proposition that the attitude-behavior relation is likely to be significant, when usage is voluntary combined with hedonic IT systems and post-adoption scenarios. This research questions the manner of adapting the attitude scales applied by Davis et al. and advocates the usage of situation-based scales that incorporate the specificities of IT adoption in order to reduce the level of insignificance of the attitude construct in IT adoption models.