Students’ intentions to purchase electronic textbooks

Textbooks have played an important role in education for decades. Given the significant number of technology applications in education, it is not surprising that at least one such application is the electronic textbook (e-textbook). There are a variety of motivations to adopt an e-textbook, including frequent content updates and low costs. The research presented here examines students’ behavioral intentions to purchase an e-textbook when given the choice. The theoretical foundation of the research is provided by social cognitive theory. The data used in the empirical study were collected by distributing a questionnaire to students at a medium-sized university in the western United States. Student responses used in the analysis all reported prior use of an e-textbook. The model was estimated using a structural equations approach. The results showed that both ease of e-textbook use and verbal persuasion/social norm positively influence behavioral intentions to purchase an e-textbook through both self-efficacy and outcome expectancy/usefulness. Previous computer experience positively influences behavioral intentions to purchase an e-textbook only through self-efficacy. Based on these results, conclusions are provided.