기술수용모델은 잠재적 혁신수용자가 혁신(신기술 또는 신제품)을 어떤 과정을 통해 수용하게 되는지에 관한 프레임웍을 제공하고 있고, Bass 확산모델은 사회 시스템 안에서 타인과의 상호작용을 통해 혁신이 확산되는 과정에 관한 프레임웍을 제공하고 있다. 즉, 기술수용모델은 혁신에 대한 개인수준의 혁신 채택과정을 설명하고 있으며, Bass 확산모형은 혁신의 채택자와 잠재적 채택자간의 상호작용에 기반하여 집단수준의 혁신 채택과정을 설명하고 있다는 측면에서 두 모델은 깊은 연관성이 있다. 본 연구는 지각된 위험을 통해 두 모델이 연결될 수 있음에 주목하고, 혁신에 대한 지각된 위험을 통해 기술수용모델과 확산모델에 어떻게 통합될 수 있는 살펴보고 있다. 이를 위해, 지각된 위험의 역할에 관한 기술수용 모델의 선행연구의 다양한 견해를 정리하고, 타인의 혁신수용 수준의 증가는 잠재적인 혁신수용자의 지각된 위험을 줄이고 최종적으로는 혁신에 대한 수용의도를 높여 준다는 실증분석 결과를 도출하고, 이를 바탕으로 기술수용모델과 확산모델의 통합을 시도하였다. 본 연구의 결과는 기술수용모델과 혁산모델의 통합모델 개발의 단서를 제공하고 있다는 측면에서 그 의의가 있다고 할 수 있다.

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) explains an individual’s cognitive acceptance process of an innovation (i.e., a new product or service). It specifies the causal linkages between two key beliefs (i.e., perceived usefulness and perceived easy of use) and an individual’s attitude and intention to adopt an innovation. In contrast, the Bass Model (BM) explains the acceptance process of an innovation which is defined by two forces in a social system: One is the effect of imitators and the other is the effect of imitators. The former is referred to as the external effect which is independent from others in a diffusion system and the latter is referred to as the internal effect which is dependent on others in the system. The TAM may be linked with the BM because the both models explain the adoption process of an innovation even though their frameworks are different. The integration of the two models may allow researchers to systematically understand the adoption process of an innovation. Thus, we tried to link the two models based on the role of perceived risk in the adoption process. The previous studies have presented different roles of perceived risk in the adoption process of an innovation. Some researchers treat the perceived risk as an influential variable on consumers’ adoption intentions whereas others do it as a mediating variable in the adoption process. Thus, we conducted an experiment study to identify the true role of perceived risk in the adoption process. Subjects for the experiment study were 160 university students in Korea. They were randomly assigned to one of three conditions which represent different levels of others’ adoptions of a new product: Other’s choice probabilities of a new product were 0, 0.2, and 0.5 in the three conditions.
According to the empirical study, the perceived risk has a main effect on individuals’ adoption intentions. Thus, based on the empirical finding, we proposed an integration model of the two models (i.e., TAM and BM) in which the external effect of the BM is represented as a function of the perceived usefulness and easy of use whereas the internal effect of the BM is done as a function of the perceived risk. We believe that the proposed model may give researchers some valuable insights on consumers’ adoption behaviors of an innovation.