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Venkateshetal./UserAcceptanceofITMISQuarterlyVol.27No.3,pp.425-478/September2003425RESEARCHARTICLEUSERACCEPTANCEOFINFORMATIONTECHNOLOGY:TOWARDAUNIFIEDVIEW1By:ViswanathVenkateshRobertH.SmithSchoolofBusinessUniversityofMarylandVanMunchingHallCollegePark,MD20742U.S.A.vvenkate@rhsmith.umd.eduMichaelG.MorrisMcIntireSchoolofCommerceUniversityofVirginiaMonroeHallCharlottesville,VA22903-2493U.S.A.mmorris@virginia.eduGordonB.DavisCarlsonSchoolofManagementUniversityofMinnesota32119thAvenueSouthMinneapolis,MN55455U.S.A.gdavis@csom.umn.eduFredD.DavisSamM.WaltonCollegeofBusinessUniversityofArkansasFayetteville,AR72701-1201U.S.A.fdavis@walton.uark.edu1CynthiaBeathwastheacceptingsenioreditorforthispaper.AbstractInformationtechnology(IT)acceptanceresearchhasyieldedmanycompetingmodels,eachwithdifferentsetsofacceptancedeterminants.Inthispaper,we(1)reviewuseracceptanceliteratureanddiscusseightprominentmodels,(2)empiri-callycomparetheeightmodelsandtheirexten-sions,(3)formulateaunifiedmodelthatintegrateselementsacrosstheeightmodels,and(4)empiri-callyvalidatetheunifiedmodel.Theeightmodelsreviewedarethetheoryofreasonedaction,thetechnologyacceptancemodel,themotivationalmodel,thetheoryofplannedbehavior,amodelcombiningthetechnologyacceptancemodelandthetheoryofplannedbehavior,themodelofPCutilization,theinnovationdiffusiontheory,andthesocialcognitivetheory.Usingdatafromfourorganizationsoverasix-monthperiodwiththreepointsofmeasurement,theeightmodelsex-plainedbetween17percentand53percentofthevarianceinuserintentionstouseinformationtechnology.Next,aunifiedmodel,calledtheUnifiedTheoryofAcceptanceandUseofTech-nology(UTAUT),wasformulated,withfourcoredeterminantsofintentionandusage,anduptofourmoderatorsofkeyrelationships.UTAUTwasthentestedusingtheoriginaldataandfoundtooutperformtheeightindividualmodels(adjustedR2of69percent).UTAUTwasthenconfirmedwithdatafromtwoneworganizationswithsimilarresults(adjustedR2of70percent).UTAUTthusprovidesausefultoolformanagersneedingtoVenkateshetal./UserAcceptanceofIT426MISQuarterlyVol.27No.3/September2003assessthelikelihoodofsuccessfornewtechno-logyintroductionsandhelpsthemunderstandthedriversofacceptanceinordertoproactivelyde-signinterventions(includingtraining,marketing,etc.)targetedatpopulationsofusersthatmaybelessinclinedtoadoptandusenewsystems.Thepaperalsomakesseveralrecommendationsforfutureresearchincludingdevelopingadeeperunderstandingofthedynamicinfluencesstudiedhere,refiningmeasurementofthecoreconstructsusedinUTAUT,andunderstandingtheorganiza-tionaloutcomesassociatedwithnewtechnologyuse.Keywords:Theoryofplannedbehavior,inno-vationcharacteristics,technologyacceptancemodel,socialcognitivetheory,unifiedmodel,integratedmodelIntroductionThepresenceofcomputerandinformationtech-nologiesintoday’sorganizationshasexpandeddramatically.Someestimatesindicatethat,sincethe1980s,about50percentofallnewcapitalinvestmentinorganizationshasbeenininforma-tiontechnology(WestlandandClark2000).Yet,fortechnologiestoimproveproductivity,theymustbeacceptedandusedbyemployeesinorgani-zations.Explaininguseracceptanceofnewtech-nologyisoftendescribedasoneofthemostmatureresearchareasinthecontemporaryinfor-mationsystems(IS)literature(e.g.,Huetal.1999).Researchinthisareahasresultedinseveraltheoreticalmodels,withrootsininforma-tionsystems,psychology,andsociology,thatroutinelyexplainover40percentofthevarianceinindividualintentiontousetechnology(e.g.,Davisetal.1989;TaylorandTodd1995b;VenkateshandDavis2000).Researchersareconfrontedwithachoiceamongamultitudeofmodelsandfindthattheymust“pickandchoose”constructsacrossthemodels,orchoosea“favoredmodel”andlargelyignorethecontributionsfromalternativemodels.Thus,thereisaneedforareviewandsynthesisinordertoprogresstowardaunifiedviewofuseracceptance.Thecurrentworkhasthefollowingobjectives:(1)Toreviewtheextantuseracceptancemodels:Theprimarypurposeofthisreviewistoassessthecurrentstateofknowledgewithrespecttounderstandingindividualacceptanceofnewinformationtechnologies.Thisreviewidentifieseightprominentmodelsanddiscussestheirsimilaritiesanddif-ferences.Someauthorshavepreviouslyob-servedsomeofthesimilaritiesacrossmodels.2However,ourreviewisthefirsttoassesssimilaritiesanddifferencesacrossalleightmodels,anecessaryfirststeptowardtheultimategoalofthepaper:thedevelop-mentofaunifiedtheoryofindividualaccep-tanceoftechnology.Thereviewispresentedinthefollowingsection.(2)Toempiricallycomparetheeightmodels:Weconductawithin-subjects,longitudinalvalidationandcomparisonoftheeightmodelsusingdatafromfourorganizations.Thisprovidesabaselineassessmentoftherelativeexplanatorypoweroftheindividualmodelsagainstwhichtheunifiedmodelcanbecompared.Theempiricalmodelcompari-sonispresentedinthethirdsection.(3)ToformulatetheUnifiedTheoryofAccep-tanceandUseofTechnology(UTAUT):Baseduponconceptualandempiricalsimi-laritiesacrossmodels,weformulateaunifiedmodel.TheformulationofUTAUTispre-sentedinthefourthsection.(4)ToempiricallyvalidateUTAUT:AnempiricaltestofUTAUTontheoriginaldataprovidespreliminarysupportforourcontentionthatUTAUToutperformseac