Using the Technology Acceptance Model to Predict Website Usage: Extensions and Empirical Test

Many organisations today are trying to increase the number of visits to their website, as well as the frequency and duration of their visits once they get there. In this paper, we empirically investigate an extension of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM, originally developed by Davis, 1989) to explain the individual acceptance and usage of a website. The project extends TAM with two “website” constructs: “perceived entertainment value” and “perceived presentation attractiveness”. To validate our model, we partnered with a Dutch portal site, that had over 300 000 subscribers at the time the research was conducted. Our measurement instrument was programmed into an online survey which was offered to every 20th subscriber that entered the portal. The survey was online for three subsequent days in Spring 2000, and resulted in a sample size of 887 respondents. The empirical test delivered the following results. In the first place, Entertainment Value is an equal partner to Usefulness, enjoying equally high or higher correlations with Website Usage. Second, Ease-ofUse does not seem to influence Website Usage directly, but indirectly through Usefulness. Likewise, Attractiveness does not appear to influence Website Usage directly, but indirectly through Entertainment value. The paper discusses these findings and considers the contributions and limitations of the extended TAM model for IS researchers.