Abstract
This study aims to verify and propose a modified technology acceptance model (TAM) to understand the antecedents of e-textbook adoption among college students. An extended TAM is to investigate college students’ intention to adopt e-textbooks. Measurement items were drawn and modified from existing validated scales. After data were collected from college students in Taiwan, structural equation modelling was employed to examine and compare the proposed model with the original model. Moreover, two tests were conducted to determine the extent of common method variance in the current data. The empirical findings support the inclusion of perceived enjoyment in the TAM. The proposed model explained 43% of the variance in behavioural intention, but explained 71% of the variance in attitudes, suggesting an explication of how the different determinants influence college students’ adoption of e-textbooks. The significance of the chi-square difference between the two models indicates that our proposed model shows a better fit to the data than the TAM does. Besides, perceived enjoyment is a critical factor in the influence of attitudes towards the usage of e-textbooks. Perceived ease of use is more influential than perceived usefulness in the determination of attitudes.
Funding statement: Funding: Part of the work of the co-author Chun-Hua Hsiao was sponsored by the National Science Council of Taiwan under grant NSC 100–2410–H–424–0–12.
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Appendix
Measures of Constructs
| Construct | Source | |
| Perceived ease of use (PEOU) | ||
| 1. | Using e-textbooks is clear and understandable. | Davis (1989); Davis, Bagozzi, and Warshaw (1989) |
| 2. | Using e-textbooks does not require a lot of mental effort. | |
| 3. | I find e-textbooks to be easy to use. | |
| 4. | I find it easy to get the e-textbook to do what I want it to do. | |
| Perceived usefulness (PU) | ||
| 1. | Using e-textbooks in my study would increase my productivity. | Davis (1989); Davis, Bagozzi, and Warshaw (1989) |
| 2. | Using e-textbooks would enhance the effectiveness of my learning. | |
| 3. | I would find it useful to use e-textbooks in my learning. | |
| Enjoyment (EY) | ||
| 1. | I find e-textbooks entertaining. | Nysveen, Pedersen, and Thorbjornsen (2005) |
| 2. | I find e-textbooks pleasant. | |
| 3. | I find e-textbooks fun. | |
| Attitudes (AT) | ||
| 1. | Using e-textbooks is a good idea. | Ajzen (1991) |
| 2. | I like the idea of using e-textbooks. | |
| 3. | Using e-textbooks would be pleasant. | |
| Behavioural intention (BI) | ||
| 1. | I intend to use e-textbooks this term. | Ajzen (1991) |
| 2. | I intend to use e-textbooks to print projects, papers or assignments this term. | |
| 3. | I intend to use e-textbooks frequently this term. | |
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