How individual characteristics influence people's evaluation towards information technology in different contexts

摘要

Prior research on technology acceptance has primarily focused on understanding why individuals accept a particular technology, while very little is known about how individuals evaluate various types of technology, especially when they have different levels of experiences. In this research, we try to understand how individual characteristics influence their evaluation towards different types of technology. To test the research model empirically, a laboratory experiment was conducted, and the resulting data was used to test both measurement and structural models. Based on the statistic results, we found that people's need for cognition and originality cognitive style had different effects on technology evaluation in various contexts. This study sheds light on the rarely studied evaluation aspect of the technology acceptance. The main contribution of this study is that people employ different mechanisms to evaluate technology in different contexts, and individual characteristics play an important role in influencing technology evaluation.