Young adopters of Smartphones: Examining determinants of the adoption decision

An extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model was employed to examine the Smartphone acceptance process by young people and the possible determinants of Smartphone usage intention were empirically tested. Data from 73 prospect adopters was gathered by means of an online survey and analyzed to gain insights on the extent to which Smartphone usage intention was influenced by the following factors: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived entertainment, social pressure, and apprehensiveness. The latter three factors (perceived entertainment, social pressure and apprehensiveness) were specifically included for their expected relevance within the context of smartphone adoption by young consumers. Many previous TAM-based studies focused on technology acceptance within work environments and did not take entertainment, technology anxiety or social influences into account. Such influences were however expected to affect usage intention and, hence, were included in the model. The research results provided partial support for the employed model, confirming the hypothesized direct influences of perceived usefulness and perceived entertainment on usage intention. However, the results did not support the theorized direct effect of social pressure on usage intention; instead, social pressure was shown to operate through perceived usefulness and perceived entertainment. The findings also demonstrated that no correlation exists between perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, contrary to what was expected on the basis of various prior studies. Moreover, apprehensiveness was not found to unambiguously affect perceived usefulness or perceived entertainment, rejecting hypotheses that posited such effects to exist. Additionally, this study provides insight into the requirements prospect Smartphone users have with regard to such a device and demonstrates relations between a number of those Smartphone properties, such as battery life and processing speed, and perceived usefulness and perceived entertainment on the other. The results of this study contribute to a still emerging body of literature on user acceptance of smartphones and arguably on user acceptance of other devices such as tablet computers. The present study specifically aids in understanding of smartphone adoption for personal purposes outside work environments, whereas several previous studies focused primarily on adoption within a professional context.