Prediction of Internet and World Wide Web usage at work: a test of an extended Triandis model

The Internet/World Wide Web (WWW) has significantly impacted every facet of operations in organizations. As information systems, including Decision Support Systems, are rapidly moving to the Internet platform to facilitate remote access and group cooperation, it is crucial to understand the adoption process of the Internet. This paper studies various factors affecting Internet/WWW usage in working environments. Previous studies on Internet or WWW usage have adopted the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as their research framework. As such, important factors, such as facilitating conditions and social factors, which we consider important in explaining the use of the Internet/WWW, were left out. Therefore, a more comprehensive theoretical model is constructed for this study by modifying the Triandis social psychological model based on the results of previous studies. Factor analysis and multiple regression were used to analyze data collected from 241 questionnaires. The results support our modified model. Facilitating conditions and social factors are confirmed as the two most important factors affecting Internet/WWW usage. Other significant factors include perceived near-term consequences and perceived complexity. All new paths that we have added to the original Triandis model are found to be significant. The proposed model should provide a valuable alternative theoretical basis for technology adoption studies in the future.