Factors influencing behavioural intention to patronise restaurants using iPad as a menu card

Recently, several restaurants have launched mobile technology-based self-services by replacing their printed menus with iPads. To assess the perceived value of the iPad menu from the customers’ perspective, this study proposed and tested a new research model which includes both functional and emotional aspects of customers’ attitudes. The aim was based on the supposition that an overall value judgement in regard to using the iPad menu to promote dining experience will influence customers’ behavioural intention to patronise restaurants that use the new technology; 332 usable data gathered from cyberspace were tested against the research model. The results demonstrated the importance of perceived value. All functional factors (i.e. perceived control, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) and emotional factors (i.e. perceived enjoyment and perceived novelty) were significantly affecting perceived value. For managers interested in investing in these mobile self-service technologies, the findings provided them with sound advice based on empirical research.     

An Integrated Model of Voice-User Interface Continuance Intention: The Gender Effect

Advanced speech recognition technology facilitated the development of voice-based smart devices. Voice user interface (VUI) is now a common feature on smartphones, computers, smart home devices, and car systems. The fragmented and context focused literature on VUI motivates this examination of the relationship between perceived quality and customer satisfaction in VUI portable devices. This study is the first to introduce extrinsic motivational factors as an extension to Wixom and Todd’s model. These additional antecedent factors add an enriched explanation of VUI user behavior. This study is also the first to consider the role of gender in a VUI behavior model. Our findings suggest that the proposed driving factors, including trust, perceived risks, perceived enjoyment, and mobile self-efficacy, significantly affect VUI user attitudes, which influence their continuance intention. Our results also address the role of gender on the association of attitude toward VUI use and its antecedents. The findings show that perceived risk (privacy concerns) and perceived ease of use are more influential on VUI use behavior of males than females. However, the effect of trust and mobile self-efficacy play a more crucial role for females than males.     

IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION SUBCONTRACTOR EVALUATION PERFORMANCE USING ESIM

The evaluation of potential subcontractors is a complex task for construction companies. The success of such evaluations currently relies heavily on personal factors that include management experience and intuition. The object of this study was to propose a support model that would improve current subcontractor performance evaluation practices. The appropriateness of employing the Evolutionary Support Vector Machine Inference Model (ESIM) in evaluation procedures was studied and analyzed, and a Subcontractor Rating Evaluation Model (SREM) was developed by adapting the ESIM to fit subcontractor performance cases in the historical record. The effectiveness of the proposed SRPM was subsequently validated in a case study on an actual general contractor. The proposed method assigned ratings to subcontractors that were substantively the same as ratings assigned by traditional means. Results demonstrate the value of employing the proposed SREM in subcontractor evaluations.     

The utilization of e‐government services: citizen trust,innovation and acceptance factors*

Abstract. Electronic government, or e‐government, increases the convenience and accessibility of government services and information to citizens. Despite the benefits of e‐government – increased government accountability to citizens, greater public access to information and a more efficient, cost‐effective government – the success and acceptance of e‐government initiatives, such as online voting and licence renewal, are contingent upon citizens’ willingness to adopt this innovation. In order to develop ‘citizen‐centred’ e‐government services that provide participants with accessible, relevant information and quality services that are more expedient than traditional ‘brick and mortar’ transactions, government agencies must first understand the factors that influence citizen adoption of this innovation. This study integrates constructs from the Technology Acceptance Model, Diffusions of Innovation theory and web trust models to form a parsimonious yet comprehensive model of factors that influence citizen adoption of e‐government initiatives. The study was conducted by surveying a broad diversity of citizens at a community event. The findings indicate that perceived ease of use, compatibility and trustworthiness are significant predictors of citizens’ intention to use an e‐government service. Implications of this study for research and practice are presented.     

An empirical study of information contribution to online feedback systems: A motivation perspective

Online feedback systems (OFSs) are increasingly available on online shopping websites; they allow consumers to post their ratings and consumption reviews for products. We employed motivation theory and a goal attainment perspective to model a set of motivating and inhibiting factors that could influence a consumer's intention to contribute to an OFS. Our experiment, which involved 168 university students, showed that a consumer's intention to contribute product reviews is influenced by perceived satisfaction gained in helping other consumers, perceived satisfaction gained in influencing the merchant, perceived probability of enhancing self-image, and perceived executional costs. In addition, the presence of an economic rewarding mechanism was found to promote a contribution when a consumer's perceived probability of enhancing self-image was relatively high or when perceived cognitive cost was relatively low. Implications of our findings are discussed.     

Understanding critical risks of business process outsourcing from the vendor perspective: A dyadic comparison Delphi study

Business process outsourcing (BPO) enables organizations to enhance operational capability, shorten response time, and gain strategic value. Yet, BPO risks are real and BPO initiatives can and do go awry. While prior research has attempted to understand BPO risks from the client perspective, the critical risks of BPO from the vendor perspective (and how they differ from those of the client perspective) are not well understood. By using the Delphi method, this study identifies and ranks BPO risk factors from the perspective of vendors as well as clients (for comparison purposes) across two countries. We identify a list of 68 BPO risk factors perceived by vendors and clients and top-ranked risk factors perceived by vendors. We categorize these factors into six risk dimensions (i.e., organizational environment, client, complexity, contract, execution, and vendor). Our findings indicate that vendors are concerned about not only the risks that influence their own business, but also those that may impact the business of clients. However, vendors focus more on client and execution risks, whereas clients focus more on vendor and organizational environment risks. Our research contributes to the existing literature by not only investigating the top-ranked risks from the perspective of vendors, but also revealing the similarities and differences in the perceptions of vendors and clients with respect to BPO risk. Our research also has practical utility for BPO vendors and clients.     

Quick Assessment of Web Content Perceptions

ABSTRACT

In digital media and on the World Wide Web, content is king. As such, users’ subjective perceptions of content can influence a variety of their evaluations, thereby altering their attitudes and behavioral outcomes. Thus, users’ content perceptions need to be assessed using a valid measure, but this often has to be done while keeping the survey time as short as possible. For these situations, we created a four-item short version of the Web-CLIC questionnaire. We tested this version, called the Web-CLIC-S, in a series of three studies, including 1,414 participants and 33 fully functional websites of different content domains. Confirmatory factor analysis confirms that the Web-CLIC-S reflects an unidimensional g-factor of subjective web content. The Web-CLIC-S also demonstrates high internal consistencies and high short- to medium-term retest reliabilities. Furthermore, we find strong evidence for construct validity in terms of convergent, divergent, discriminative, concurrent, incremental, and predictive validity. In a fourth study, encompassing 12,568 ratings on 183 websites, we provide benchmarks for 12 different content domains and optimal cut points. Overall, the present research suggests that the Web-CLIC-S can serve as a sound screening tool to assess users’ subjective perception of content in research and practice settings.     

Drivers’ willingness to drive in old age: a case study on young and mid-aged drivers in China

Previous studies on driving have found connections among age, gender, perceived driving ability, self-regulatory behavior and driving intentions. However, young and mid-aged drivers’ willingness to drive in old age has not been examined in prior studies. The aim of the present study was to gain a better understanding of Chinese drivers’ willingness to drive in old age as well as the influence of predictors of this willingness. A sample of 334 participants (aged 20–62 years) completed the perceived driving abilities scale, the driving willingness scale and scales of driving behavior and general information. A multivariate logistic model was used to explore the factors that changed individuals’ willingness to drive in old age. The results indicated that drivers’ willingness to drive in old age was significantly correlated with age, current driving experience and perceived driving ability in the future. With respect to drivers’ perceived driving abilities, visual acuity and executive skills were important predictors of drivers’ willingness to drive in old age. In addition, both subjective attitudes and objective attitudes significantly impaired drivers’ willingness. Conversely, we found that drivers’ willingness to drive increased with restrictive measures. These findings extend our understanding of how attitudes and awareness can influence drivers’ willingness to drive in old age. Although drivers’ current willingness may subsequently change, the findings are valuable for the study of the driving behavior of older drivers in China.     

Factors that determine residents’ acceptance of smart city technologies

ABSTRACT

While some cities attempt to determine their residents’ demand for smart-city technologies, others simply move forward with smart-related strategies and projects. This study is among the first to empirically determine which factors most affect residents’ and public servants’ intention to use smart-city services. A Smart Cities Stakeholders Adoption Model (SSA), based on Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2), is developed and tested on a mid-size U.S. city as a case study. A questionnaire was administered in order to determine the influence of seven factors – effort expectancy, self-efficacy, perceived privacy, perceived security, trust in technology, price value and trust in government – on behaviour intention, specifically the decision to adopt smart-city technologies. Results show that each of these factors significantly influenced citizen intention to use smart-city services. They also reveal perceived security and perceived privacy to be strong determinants of trust in technology, and price value a determinant of trust in government. In turn, both types of trust are shown to increase user intention to both adopt and use smart-city services. These findings offer city officials an approach to gauging residential intention to use smart-city services, as well as identify those factors critical to developing a successful smart-city strategy.     

Computer use,confidence, attitudes,and knowledge: A causal analysis

This study introduces a casual model which links measures of computer experience, computer-related attitudes, computer-related confidence, and perceived computer-based knowledge. The model is based on the concept of computer literacy, and on an attitude-behavior theory which argues that beliefs lead to attitudes, and that attitudes are an important precursor to behavior. The causal model suggests that computer use has a positive effect on perceived computer self-confidence, as well as on computer-related attitudes. The model hypothesizes that computer attitudes and computer confidence have a positive mutual effect, and that both factors positively effect perceived computer knowledge. Questionnaires were administered to 309 students in Grades 7–12. The theoretical model was tested by structural equation analysis (LISREL) and, as expected, all causal effects, including the reciprocal one, were confirmed. The contribution and relevance of these findings to future educational research and to school practices are discussed.     

The influence of product aesthetics and usability over the course of time: a longitudinal field experiment

A longitudinal field experiment was carried out over a period of 2 weeks to examine the influence of product aesthetics and inherent product usability. A 2 × 2 × 3 mixed design was used in the study, with product aesthetics (high/low) and usability (high/low) being manipulated as between-subjects variables and exposure time as a repeated-measures variable (three levels). A sample of 60 mobile phone users was tested during a multiple-session usability test. A range of outcome variables was measured, including performance, perceived usability, perceived aesthetics and emotion. A major finding was that the positive effect of an aesthetically appealing product on perceived usability, reported in many previous studies, began to wane with increasing exposure time. The data provided similar evidence for emotion, which also showed changes as a function of exposure time. The study has methodological implications for the future design of usability tests, notably suggesting the need for longitudinal approaches in usability research. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY: This study indicates that product aesthetics influences perceived usability considerably in one-off usability tests but this influence wanes over time. When completing a usability test it is therefore advisable to adopt a longitudinal multiple-session approach to reduce the possibly undesirable influence of aesthetics on usability ratings.     

Understanding online purchase intentions: contributions from technology and trust perspectives

This paper explores factors that influence consumer's intentions to purchase online at an electronic commerce website. Specifically, we investigate online purchase intention using two different perspectives: a technology-oriented perspective and a trust-oriented perspective. We summarise and review the antecedents of online purchase intention that have been developed within these two perspectives. An empirical study in which the contributions of both perspectives are investigated is reported. We study the perceptions of 228 potential online shoppers regarding trust and technology and their attitudes and intentions to shop online at particular websites. In terms of relative contributions, we found that the trust-antecedent ‘perceived risk’ and the technology-antecedent ‘perceived ease-of-use’ directly influenced the attitude towards purchasing online.     

Predicting user response to sponsored advertising on social media via the technology acceptance model

Sponsored advertising has generated strong advertising revenues for Facebook in recent years. As sponsored ads are built on an interactive platform that could be seen as invasive to user privacy, the growth of this advertising platform has important implications for consumers, and advertisers alike. As little research is available on consumer response to sponsored advertising as an interactive technology innovation, the current study assesses the effects of user perceptions of privacy risk, intrusiveness concerns and utilities of sponsored advertising on consumer attitudes and purchase intent. Testing a model derived form the technology acceptance model (TAM), the study found that privacy and intrusiveness concerns are both valid antecedent variables to perceived usefulness but not perceived ease of use of sponsored advertising. While both antecedent variables also influence consumer attitudes toward sponsored advertising, only privacy concerns have an impact product purchase intentions. The hypothesized relations between perceived usefulness, ease of use, attitudes and purchase intentions were also validated.     

The influence of the commercial features of the Internet on the adoption of e-commerce by consumers

Taking the Theory of Planned Behavior as a theoretical framework, this study analyzes how commercial features of the Internet determine its adoption as a sales system. In particular, the study examines the influence of product perception, shopping experience, information provided or the level of risk perceived on the adoption of B2C e-commerce. The results show that attitudes toward e-commerce, subjective norm and perceived risk are the main factors that affect the decision to purchase from electronic retailers. Moreover, the results show that the influence of the commercial features of the Internet is mediated through attitudes toward e-commerce.     

Evaluating the consistency of immediate aesthetic perceptions of web pages

Two experiments were designed to replicate and extend [Lindgaard et al.'s, 2006. Attention web designers: you have 50 ms to make a good first impression! Behaviour and Information Technology 25(2), 115–126] findings that users can form immediate aesthetic impression of web pages, and that these impressions are highly stable. Using explicit (subjective evaluations) and implicit (response latency) measures, the experiments demonstrated that, averaged over users, immediate aesthetic impressions of web pages are remarkably consistent. In Experiment 1, 40 participants evaluated 50 web pages in two phases. The average attractiveness ratings of web pages after a very short exposure of 500 ms were highly correlated with average attractiveness ratings after an exposure of 10 s. Extreme attractiveness evaluations (both positive and negative) were faster than moderate evaluations, landing convergent evidence to the hypothesis of immediate impression. The findings also suggest considerable individual differences in evaluations and in the consistency of those evaluations. In Experiment 2, 24 of the 50 web pages from Experiment 1 were evaluated again for their attractiveness after 500 ms exposure. Subsequently, users evaluated the design of the web pages on the dimensions of classical and expressive aesthetics. The results showed high correlation between attractiveness ratings from Experiments 1 and 2. In addition, it appears that low attractiveness is associated mainly with very low ratings of expressive aesthetics. Overall, the results provide direct evidence in support of the premise that aesthetic impressions of web pages are formed quickly. Indirectly, these results also suggest that visual aesthetics plays an important role in users’ evaluations of the IT artifact and in their attitudes toward interactive systems.     

Identifying factors that influence the acceptability of smart devices: implications for recommendations

This paper presents results from a web-based study that investigates users’ attitudes toward smart devices, focusing on acceptability. Specifically, we conducted a survey that elicits users’ ratings of devices in isolation and devices in the context of tasks potentially performed by these devices. Our study led to insights about users’ attitudes towards devices in isolation and in the context of tasks, and about the influence of demographic factors and factors pertaining to technical expertise and experience with devices on users’ attitudes. The insights about users’ attitudes provided the basis for two recommendation approaches based on principal components analysis (PCA) that alleviate the new-user and new-item problems: (1) employing latent features identified by PCA to predict ratings given by existing users to new devices, and by new users to existing devices; and (2) identifying a relatively small set of key questions on the basis of PCs, whose answers account to a large extent for new users’ ratings of devices in isolation and in the context of tasks. Our results show that taking into account latent features of devices, and asking a relatively small number of key questions about devices in the context of tasks, lead to rating predictions that are significantly more accurate than global and demographic predictions, and substantially reduce prediction error, eventually matching the performance of strong baselines.     

Attitudes toward search engines as a learning assisted tool: approach of Liaw and Huang’s research model

The purpose of this research is to develop new approach to investigate individual attitudes toward search engines as a learning assisted tool. This research is based on Liaw and Huang’s research model that included motivation perspective, social cognitive theory, and technology acceptance model. After factor analysis and regression analysis, the results show that the factor of perceived satisfaction of system’s quality and the factor of experience using the Internet and search engines will influence the factor of perceived enjoyment and the factor of self-efficacy. In addition, perceived enjoyment and self-efficacy can predict of the factor of individual intention to use search engines as a learning assisted tool. Furthermore, based on [Liaw and Huang’s model (2003). An investigation of user attitudes toward search engines as an information retrieval tool. Computers in Human Behavior, 19(6) 751–765] and the results of present study, we propose a new approach – three-Tier Use Model (3-TUM), the tier of individual experience and system quality can influence the affective and cognitive tier, and the affective and cognitive tier has positive effects on the behavioral intention tier.     

Understanding pre-service teachers' computer attitudes: applying and extending the technology acceptance model

Abstract   Computers are increasingly widespread, influencing many aspects of our social and work lives, As we move into a technology-based society, it is important that classroom experiences with computers are made available for all students. The purpose of this study is to examine pre-service teachers' attitudes towards computers. This study extends the technology acceptance model (TAM) framework, with subjective norm and facilitating conditions acting as external variables. Results shows that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and subjective norm were significant determinants of pre-service computer attitudes. Facilitating conditions did not influence computer attitude directly but through perceived ease of use. These findings demonstrate that social norm and facilitating conditions are potential variables that may be used to extend the TAM for research on computer attitudes.     

Customers perspectives on adoption of cloud computing in banking sector

The advent of cloud computing has transformed the role of the Internet in many businesses and organizations. Currently, banks are increasingly adopting cloud technologies to fulfil their varied purposes and to create a flexible and agile banking environment that can quickly respond to new business needs. However, past studies tend to focus more on the adoption issues of cloud computing from the organizational perspective with little attention paid on the users’ view of these cloud-based services. Therefore, this paper attempts to investigate the factors influencing cloud computing adoption in the banking sector from the customers’ perspective and to propose an adoption model for this purpose. The model is mainly developed based on the TAM-diffusion theory model (TAM-DTM) with the introduction of three new constructs namely trust, cost, and security and privacy. Questionnaires were randomly distributed to 162 bank customers in Malaysia. Survey data were analyzed using the partial least squares (PLS) method while SmartPLS was used to test the hypotheses and to validate the proposed model. The results suggest that trust, cost, and security and privacy can be successfully integrated within the TAM-TDM. The security and privacy constructs exhibited strong positive influence on perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and trust. The study concludes that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, cost, attitudes toward cloud and trust significantly influence users’ behavioral intention to adopt cloud computing. Thus, the finding of this study will enable banks to focus more on customer perspectives on cloud-based applications and identify their attitude towards their adoption.     

The study of perceived adverse effects of digital piracy and involvement: insights from adult computer users

In this study, we focus on two sets of expected negative consequences of engaging in digital piracy among the seldom studied adult computer users rather than student population. We delve into the role of perceived risk and moral intensity as drivers of consumers’ attitudes and behavioural intentions, and explore the rarely examined moderating effect of issue involvement on the relationship between the attitude and intention to pirate. The dominant attitude–behaviour theory is extended with an ethical decision-making theoretical perspective. The hypotheses are tested via mail survey data from a random sample of adult consumers using structural equations modelling. The results of this cross-sectional study show unfailing support for the relationships proposed in our model. Our findings suggest that, in addition to perceived risk, moral intensity (i.e. the expected consequences for others), has a particularly strong total effect on the intention to pirate, and that consumer involvement in illegally downloading files is a salient factor moderating the relationship between attitudes and behavioural intentions. Based on this pattern of results, we offer theoretical and practical implications.