Why do people use information technology? A critical review of the technology acceptance model

Information systems (IS) implementation is costly and has a relatively low success rate. Since the seventies, IS research has contributed to a better understanding of this process and its outcomes. The early efforts concentrated on the identification of factors that facilitated IS use. This produced a long list of items that proved to be of little practical value. It became obvious that, for practical reasons, the factors had to be grouped into a model in a way that would facilitate analysis of IS use. In 1985, Fred Davis suggested the technology acceptance model (TAM). It examines the mediating role of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness in their relation between systems characteristics (external variables) and the probability of system use (an indicator of system success). More recently, Davis proposed a new version of his model: TAM2. It includes subjective norms, and was tested with longitudinal research designs. Overall the two explain about 40% of system's use. Analysis of empirical research using TAM shows that results are not totally consistent or clear. This suggests that significant factors are not included in the models. We conclude that TAM is a useful model, but has to be integrated into a broader one which would include variables related to both human and social change processes, and to the adoption of the innovation model. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.