Toward a Deeper Understanding of the Technology Acceptance Model: An Integrative Analysis of TAM

Generally speaking, technology acceptance model (TAM, Davis, et al., 1989; Davis, 1989) is a successful model and prior studies have explored the TAM from different perspectives and many antecedents have been identified. However, the overview of TAM shows that the explanatory power of TAM is limited. Furthermore, more and more inconsistencies in results appeared along with the development of TAM. Motivated by these two problems, an analytical literature review is conducted in order to get a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of TAM. Eighteen TAM research articles were selected, based on which the TAM structures as well as the relationships in it were analyzed. Therefore, this study consists of two major parts. The first one is a literature review of TAM, in which the relationships and major concepts of the factors within or out of the original TAM are discussed. Based on the discussion of the first part, the second part includes a new model that highlights the moderating factors that may account for the inconsistencies in prior research. They are gender, user professions, experience, firm size, type of technology, and voluntariness. Despite the limitations, this study highlights the moderating factors that may account for the inconsistencies in prior research. The implications for future research and practice are also discussed.