An Empirical Study on User Acceptance of the Internet in South Korea

摘要

The objective of this study was to develop and test an integrated conceptual model of technology acceptance. Based on two dominant theoretical paradigms-the theory of reasoned action(TRA) and the technology acceptance model(TAM)-we proposed a model of technology acceptance to investigate the relationship between external variables such as individual differences, task characteristics and management support, and individual acceptance of information technology. The model was tested using data gathered from 374 end users of the Internet technologies in Korean firms and data analysis was conducted using a structural equation modeling with LISREL. Significant relationships were found between experience and usefulness and ease of use, and between ease of use and usefulness. Organizational support was found to influence usefulness, ease of use and subjective norm. We also observed that actual usage was significantly influenced by experience, usefulness and ease of use. Thus this study implied that individual acceptance of the Internet was significantly related to external factors such as experience, task characteristics and organizational characteristics as well as beliefs.