Consumer Acceptance of Windows 7 and Office 2010 - The Moderating Effect of Personal Innovativeness

The sustained upgrade of information systems provides most users with more comprehensive functions that make an individual’s everyday tasks simpler and easier. This study investigated the moderating effect of an individual’s personal innovativeness (PI) on the relationship within a core attitudinal model to Windows 7 and Office 2010. A total of 812 usable subjects, coming from two phases of field survey from different time periods, chosen from university students and faculty members for phase I and professionals and employees for phase II, were split into two groups—high personal innovativeness and low personal innovativeness—to test empirically the proposed research model. Results indicated that, with greater PI, positive relationship compatibility and attitude was significantly strengthened, and a positive relationship between attitude and adoption intention was significantly strengthened, but the relationships between computer playfulness and attitude, and between relative advantage and attitude were attenuated; the influence of both computer playfulness and relative advantage on perceived usability indicated a positively strengthened relationship. The findings provide a foundation for an enhanced theory on users’ acceptance of a new OS and its applications.