Two Types of Attitudes in ICT Acceptance and Use

Information and communication technology (ICT) acceptance and use is a prolific research stream in the information systems field. Yet, studies on attitude have gone through ups and downs yielding inconsistent and inconclusive findings on attitude’s role and impact. In this paper, we provide clear definitions of two different types of attitudes and detail their relationships to each other and to technology use intention. Empirical data confirms that (1) at a theoretical level, attitude toward behavior (ATB) is a better predictor of intention (BI) than attitude toward object or ICT (ATO); ATO has a positive influence on ATB, and ATO’s effect on BI is fully mediated by ATB. (2) Attitudes toward a previous version of the ICT and its use have significant impacts on the current attitudes. (3) At the operational level, considering only one aspect of the attitude constructs will lead to different results of the roles of attitudes on intention.