Affect and Acceptance: Examining the Effects of Positive Mood on Technology Acceptance Model

While the technology acceptance model (TAM) is generally robust, TAM’s antecedent constructs, ease of use and usefulness of a system, do not always adequately explain acceptance behavior. Recent studies argue that including individual characteristics in TAM is a way to determine those conditions under which ease of use and usefulness are not adequate for explaining acceptance behavior. Using this argument, we examine the effects of positive mood, one individual characteristic that significantly affects an individual’s cognition and behavior, on acceptance of a DSS that supports uncertain tasks. Our results show that positive mood has a significant influence on DSS acceptance and that its influence on users’ behavior is not due to a halo effect.