A structural equation modeling of the Internet acceptance in Thailand
Abstract
The growth of the internet is a revolutionary phenomenon in this new century. The internet is one of the most important tools and has become the fastest growing mechanism for electronic markets by providing substantial market potential and offering a new channel for businesses for examples business trading and communicates with each other. The objective of this study is to test an integrated conceptual model of the internet acceptance. Based on the two dominant theoretical paradigms - the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this paper proposes a model of the internet acceptance to investigate the relationship between external variables such as individual differences, task characteristics, management support, and individual acceptance. The model is tested using data gathered from mailed questionnaires to 700 office personnel in Thailand, respondents returned 544. There is 20% response rate for a mail survey, without an appropriate follow-up procedure (Aaker, Kumer and Day, 2001). The data analysis is conducted using a structural equation modeling with LISREL. The analysis result show that significant relationships are found between experience and usefulness, between experience and ease of use, and between ease of use and usefulness (x2 = 1612.36, df = 499 , P = 0.00000, RMSEA = 0.064, GFI = 0.85, AGFI = 0.82), and the result of the hypothesis test are H2 - H3 and H5 partially accepted, H1 , H4 , H6 - H7 and H9 not accepted, and H8 accepted. This result implies that individual acceptance of the Internet is significantly related to external factors such as experience, task characteristics and organizational characteristics rather than beliefs.
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