Assessing the intention to use e-book among engineering undergraduates in Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

摘要

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intention of using e-books as learning material among undergraduates from an engineering department by using the technology acceptance model (TAM) and gender as its external variable. Design/methodology/approach: A survey through questionnaire was conducted to collect data from the respondents. Data from 169 respondents who had experience in using e-book were analyzed in terms of factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Results: The analysis shows that perceived ease of use is positively related to perceived usefulness. Perceived usefulness has significant effect on attitude and intention to use e-books. Meanwhile, attitude has significant effect on intention to use. However, perceived ease of use has no significant effect on attitude towards using e-books. In addition, gender appeared to have no significant effects either on perceived ease of use or perceived usefulness. Research limitations/implications: The study did not utilize the entire TAM where actual technology use is not included in this study. Practical implications: The study is important in terms of obtaining better understanding of e-book reading intention among engineering undergraduates who are the real users of e-books. By obtaining the respondents' perception on their intentions, action can be taken on how to motivate the non-users of e-books to form the intention to use e-books. Originality/value: This is believed to be the first published study of engineering undergraduates' intention on using e-books in Universiti Putra Malaysia.