Sources of Influence on Beliefs about IT Use: an Empirical Study of Knowedge Workers

An Article by William Lewis,Ritu Agarwal, V. Sambamurthy

This research examined the simultaneous of individual belief, institutional, and social context of influences on beliefs about usefulness and ease of use in the context of a contemporary technology targeted at autonomous knowledge workers.


Lewis et al. 2003 stated that research on individual beliefs as the main factor for the acceptance of an information system in an organization is acceptable. However, A research that focus only on the individual beliefs without understanding why the individual has the beliefs is no longer interesting. This is because we know that the beliefs is formed by a process from collecting, processing to synthesizing. Therefore, a factor that to be as antecedents of the beliefs need to be examined. Although there have been previous empricial studies that have examined the factors, but unfortunately the studies only focus upon a specific and limited set of antecedents.


The primary purpose of Lewis et al. 2003 research, therefore, was to present empirical evidence that institutional forces, social forces, and individual characteristics exhibit significant and differential impacts on two key individual beliefs about the use of information technologies such as beliefs related to usefulness and ease of use from Davis (1989) and Davis et al. 1989.


Lewis' et al.2003 findings suggest that beliefs about technology use can be influenced by top management commitment to new technology and the individual factors of personal innovativeness and self efficacy. Surprisingly, social influences from multiple sources exhibited no significant effects.


This research used field study research by inviting 1,121 academic faculty members that use internet technology in his/her activities to fulfill a paper form which was delivered via campus e-mail. Of These, 229 respondents have participated in this research, 181 of which were completed questionnaires and used for data analysis.


The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling by using partial least square. PLS, a latent structural equations modeling technique, was utilized to test the posited research hypotheses. PLS uses a component based approach to estimation that places minimal demands on sample size and residual distributions (Chin 1998). It also permits simultaneous analysis of both the measurement model and the
structural model.


The analysis data consist of descriptive statistics, factor analysis, inter-construct correlations, and t-test.


The implication of this research are:
1. Provide additional evidence regarding salient predictors of key beliefs in technology acceptance.


2. Help sift out and provide initial insights into the relative effects of these predictors on the target beliefs. Lewis et al. 2003 posited and confirmed that the effects of all factors are not invariant across beliefs. Institutional influences were most salient for instrumental outcomes, and individual factors, in contrast, were significant antecedents of both usefulness and ease of use. Finally, the
non-significance of social influences in this study is an interesting finding. It is possible that social influences manifest effects through beliefs not specifically examined in this work, such as image. Indeed, Venkatesh and Davis (2000) found a
significant relationship between subjective norm and image beliefs.



3. From a pragmatic perspective, it is evident that the institutional context for technology use is a critical predictor of individual behavior toward information technologies, via its effects on the mediating construct of beliefs. Our findings suggest that managers need to focus careful attention on exhibiting commitment to a new technology for contingent adoption decisions. Unless individuals perceive the power elite within the organization as strongly behind the use of a new technology
through the messages conveyed as well as overt and specific resource provisioning actions, they are unlikely to develop positive beliefs about the usefulness of that technology. Managerial commitment and support serves the key role of providing structures for the signification and legitimization of technology use. As observed by others (e.g., Compeau and Higgins 1995), it is important for technology implementers to assist individuals in developing positive perceptions about their ability to use the new technology. Finally, as suggested by Agarwal and Prasad
(1998), individuals who are personally more innovative in the use of information technology could be utilized as important change agents because they are likely to exhibit positive beliefs about technology use.