Toward an Integrative Framework of Technology Use (IFTU): Alternative Three-Wave Panel Models and Empirical Tests

The integrative framework of technology use (IFTU) posits that to fully explain technology adoption and sustained usage, four mechanisms—namely, reason-oriented action, sequential updating, feedback, and habit—should be taken into account simultaneously in a unified model. Recently, a TAM-based two-wave panel model drawing on the IFTU paradigm has been shown to be superior to other partial models in explaining individuals’ use of a Web-based portal. In a continuing effort to reinforce the IFTU paradigm, this study first develops and tests a TPB-based three-wave panel model to explain individuals’ use of a software application in an organizational context. In addition, this study attempts to refine the IFTU paradigm by examining long-time (as opposed to short-time) effects of the four mechanisms that cannot be systematically examined in a two-wave setting. The findings of this three-wave panel study indicate that the proposed model integrating the four mechanisms represents technology use better than other conventional models. Yet, this research also shows that IFTU should be refined further in a way to represent the distal effects of sequential updating and habit on post-adoption phenomena. Overall, this research clearly reveals that a refined IFTU paradigm will be a simple, but powerful, conceptual tool for explaining how user evaluations and behavior evolve with experience. This article concludes with a discussion of distal effects vis-à-vis proximal effects and suggestions of interesting avenues for further development of the IFTU paradigm.