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                   Article
                                                                                                                                                               Information Development
                                                                                                                                                               27(1) 32–45
                   Thesuitability of the Unified Theory                                                                                                        ªTheAuthor(s) 2011
                                                                                                                                                               Reprints and permission:
                   of Acceptance and Use of Technology                                                                                                         sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
                                                                                                                                                               DOI: 10.1177/0266666910385375
                   (UTAUT)modelinopenaccess                                                                                                                    idv.sagepub.com
                   adoption studies
                   Frankwell W. Dulle
                   Sokoine University of Agriculture
                   M.K. Minishi-Majanja
                   University of South Africa
                   Abstract
                   Technology acceptance models or theories are commonly used in studies aiming at predicting and explaining
                   theindividual behaviours towardstheacceptanceandusageofnewtechnologies.Thispaperreportspartofthe
                   findings from a doctoral research project which focused at analysing the acceptance and usage of open access
                   within public universities in Tanzania. The study was guided by the Unified Theory of Technology Acceptance
                   and Usage (UTAUT) model). The survey questionnaire targeted 544 respondents selected through stratified
                   random sampling from a population of 1088 university researchers at six public universities in Tanzania.
                   Aresponse rate of 73 percent was achieved and the binary logistic regression statistics of the Statistical Pack-
                   age for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data analysis. The study findings suggest support for the application
                   of the UTAUT model in studying the adoption of open access in a research environment. Among the findings,
                   attitude, awareness, effort expectancy and performance expectancy were established as the key determinants
                   for the researchers’ behavioural intentions of open access usage. Similarly, age, awareness, behavioural inten-
                   tion, facilitating conditions and social influence were found to significantly affect researchers’ actual usage of
                   openaccess. These factors should therefore be taken into account in the planning and implementation of open
                   access projects. A further validation of the open access research model in similar research institutions in
                   Tanzania and elsewhere is recommended.
                   Keywords
                   open access publishing, public universities, scholarly communication, technology acceptance models, Unified
                   Theory of Technology Acceptance and Usage, UTAUT, Tanzania
                   TheUTAUTmodelhasprovedsuitableinguidinganunderstandingofthefactorsthat
                   contribute to the acceptance and usage of open access by researchers in Tanzania.
                   Introduction                                                                                 [an] intermediary between theory and empirical data
                   Atheory emanates from a systematic and formalized                                            but such a difference is regarded not fundamental’’.
                   expression of previous empirical generalizations and                                         Based on such observations, a theory can be
                   experimental testing. This is contrary to a model,
                   which need not necessarily be derived from empirical
                   generalizations and testing (Burch, 2003). According                                         Corresponding author:
                                                                                                                Frankwell W. Dulle, Senior Librarian, Sokoine University of
                   to Burch (2003:280), ‘‘some authors distinguish the-                                         Agriculture, PO Box 3022, Morogoro, Tanzania
                   ories and models by assigning the latter a role as                                           Email: nzengamshe@yahoo.com
                 Dulle and Minishi-Majanja: The suitability of the UTAUT model in open access adoption studies                            33
                 considered to be emanating from a model that has               (Venkatesh et al., 2003; Schaper and Pervan, 2007;
                 undergone repeated tests and validation to support             Wu, Tao and Yang, 2007). As a result of its accept-
                 empirical generalizations. Nevertheless, the terms             ability, the UTAUTmodelhasbeenappliedinseveral
                 models and theories are in most cases used inter-              studies investigating the general acceptance and usage
                 changeably as a result of being closely related. The-          of information and communication technologies
                 ories or models are considered to play a critical role         (ICTs) in different work environments (see for exam-
                 in the research process including planning, data col-          ple, Anderson and Schwager, 2004; Louho, Kallioja
                 lection and explanation of the emerging findings.              and Oittinen, 2006; Kripanont, 2007; Schaper and
                 Supporting this view, Neuman (2006:77) observes                Pervan, 2007; Al-Qeisi, 2009; Birth and Irvine,
                 that ‘‘researchers who proceed without a theory or             2009; Tibenderana and Ogao, 2009; Suhendra, Her-
                 model, rarely conduct top-quality research and fre-            mana and Sugiharto, 2009; and Zhou, Lu, and Wang,
                 quently find themselves in quandary’’ in reporting             2010). It should however be noted that the UTAUT
                 their research findings. It is thus not surprising that        model has rarely been applied in open access (OA)
                 manyscholarsinvestmuchoftheirtimeindeveloping                  related studies, especially in a developing country
                 and validating a variety of models and theories for            environment like Tanzania.
                 application in different research environments. Tech-             OAis scholarly communication achieved through
                 nology acceptance and use models and theories are              openaccessrefereedelectronic journals (golden road)
                 commonly used in many studies that investigate hin-            and self-archiving in open access repositories (green
                 drances to the acceptance and usage of technologies            road) (Mann et al., 2008). The basic concept of OA
                 for the purpose of promoting innovations adoption              is the online availability of scientific literature to
                 (Kripanont, 2007). According to Louho, Kallioja and            readers at no charge and without any legal barrier
                 Oittinen (2006: 15), ‘‘technology acceptance is about          (Chan and Costa, 2005; Bailey, 2006; Mann et al.,
                 how people accept and adopt some technology to                 2008). This study used the UTAUT model in studying
                 use’’.                                                         factors contributing to the acceptance and usage of
                    Anumberofmodels/theories designed to facilitate             open access. In this context, open access publication
                 the understanding of factors impacting the acceptance          is regarded as a technology that provides scientists
                 anduseoftechnologieshavebeendocumented.Some                    withatooltoreachtheirgoalsofdistributingresearch
                 of the well known technology acceptance models and             results and documenting their copyrights as well as
                 theories include: Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA);             accessing scholarly content from other scholars
                 Motivational Model (MM); Theory of Planned Beha-               (Mannetal., 2008). The findings reported in this arti-
                 viour (TPB); Decomposed Theory of Planned Beha-                cle are part of the doctoral study titled ‘An analysis of
                 viour   (DTPB); Technology Acceptance Model                    open access scholarly communication in Tanzanian
                 (TAM); Technology Acceptance Model (TAM2);                     public universities’. The objectives of the main study
                 Combined TAM and TPB (C-TAM-TPB); Model of                     were to:
                 PC Utilization (MPCU); Social Cognitive Theory
                 (SCT); Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) and; the              1.   investigate the general awareness and open
                 Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technol-                    access usage
                 ogy (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al, 2003; Kripanont,                 2.   find out factors affecting adoption of open access
                 2007;Wu,TaoandYang,2007;Ghobakhloo,Zulkifli                    3.   determine researchers’ and policy makers’ per-
                 and Aziz, 2010; Jayasingh and Eze, 2010). Due to the                ceptions on open access
                 existence of several competing technology accep-               4.   formulate and validate a research model of tech-
                 tance theories and models as noted above, researchers               nology acceptance regarding the acceptance and
                 analyse and compare them in order to identify the                   usage of open access
                 mostpromisingonesinrespectoftheabilitytopredict                5.   suggest strategies to resolve the hindrances to
                 and explain individual behaviour towards the accep-                 open access adoption.
                 tance and usage of technology. Thus it has been
                 acknowledged by various studies that the UTAUT                    This article emanates from the findings for the
                 model contributes to better understanding about the            fourth objective with respect to the formulation and
                 drivers of behaviour of acceptance and use of new              validation a research model of acceptance and use
                 technologies than other similar theories and models            of open access. This article attempts to exhibit the
               34                                                                                                    Information Development 27(1)
                             Attitude 
                     Performance expectancy                                                                  Behavioural            Use behaviour 
                                                                                                               intention 
                        Effort expectancy 
                         Social Influence 
                       Internet self-efficacy 
                      Facilitating conditions 
                                                         Age           Awareness         Experience          Gender           Position
               Figure 1. Open access research model based on UTAUT.
               suitability of the UTAUT model in studying factors                   gender, voluntariness and experience) as having spe-
               contributing to the acceptance and usage of open                     cific moderating roles to indirectly and directly deter-
               access.                                                              mine technology usage behaviour. According to
                                                                                    Serenko, Turel and Yol (2006), moderators are vari-
               Theresearch model                                                    ables that affect the strength or direction of relation-
               The Unified Theory of Technology Acceptance and                      ships between independent and dependent variables.
               Use (UTAUT) model was adopted in the process of                      The theoretical basis for the UTAUT model con-
               formulating the research framework for this study.                   structs and moderators is well documented by several
               ThismodelwasdevelopedbyVenkateshandhisteam                           studies (Venkatesh et al., 2003; Kripanont, 2007;
               based upon the conceptual and empirical similarities                 Schaper and Pervan, 2007).
               among eight competing technology acceptance mod-                         The researchers formulated an open access
               els (Venkatesh et al., 2003; Kripanont, 2007). The                   research model comprised of six constructs and five
               eight technology acceptance and usage models that                    moderators, as illustrated in Figure 1, for guidance
               were used in formulating the UTAUT model include:                    of this study. The original UTAUT model was modi-
               TR, TAM, MM, TPB, C-TAM-TPB, MPCU, IDT, fied by adding two constructs (attitude and Internet
               and SCT (Venkatesh et al., 2003; Kripanont, 2007;                    self-efficacy) and two moderators (awareness and
               Schaper and Pervan, 2007).                                           position). The effects of these additional constructs
                  The choice of the UTAUT model for the current                     on the adoption of new technology including open
               study was motivated by its comprehensiveness and                     access have been established by other studies, as
               highexplanatory powerascomparedtoothertechnol-                       reported by Kripanont (2007), Mann et al. (2008) and
               ogy acceptance and use theories (Venkatesh et al.,                   TibenderanaandOgao(2009).Thusforthisstudy,the
               2003;Kripanont,2007;Hessetal.,2007;Schaperand                        key determinants of the researchers’ behavioural
               Pervan, 2007; Tibenderana and Ogao, 2009). The                       intention and usage of open access in Tanzanian pub-
               UTAUT model is comprised of two direct determi-                      lic universities were conceptualized as attitude, effort
               nants of usage behaviour (intention and facilitating                 expectancy,        Internet     self-efficacy,     performance
               conditions) and three indirect determinants of tech-                 expectancy, social influence, and facilitating condi-
               nology usage (effort expectancy, performance expec-                  tions. Furthermore, age, awareness, gender, experi-
               tancy, and social influence) (Venkatesh et al., 2003).               ence and position were conceived to have various
               In addition to the core constructs, the UTAUT model                  moderating effects on main constructs towards the
               developers also identified four moderators (age,                     acceptance and usage of open access. Voluntariness
                 Dulle and Minishi-Majanja: The suitability of the UTAUT model in open access adoption studies                            35
                 was dropped as a moderator in this respect because it          2006). The current study also conceptualized Internet
                 is only relevant when technology usage is mandatory            self-efficacy to affect individuals’ decisions towards
                 (Venkatesh et al., 2003; Tibenderana and Ogao,                 behavioural intention and usage of open access by
                 2009), which is not the case in the current study.             researchers.
                    Attitude is an individual’s overall affective reac-            Facilitating conditions are defined as the degree
                 tion to using a system (Venkatesh et al., 2003). In this       to which an individual believes that an organizational
                 study, the attitude of researchers towards open access         and technical infrastructure exists to support the use
                 was conceptualized to affect both their intention and          of a system (Venkatesh et al., 2003). Age and experi-
                 usage behaviour of open access with its effect being           ence were considered to play moderating roles on
                 moderated by awareness.                                        facilitating conditions towards usage of open access.
                    Performance expectancy relates to how individu-             Facilitating conditions have been established to
                 als believe new technology will help them perform              impact actual usage of technology rather than beha-
                 their job better, and most of the previous technology          vioural intention (Schaper and Pervan, 2004; Gar-
                 acceptance studies have acknowledged the strength              field, 2006). In addition to facilitating conditions
                 of this factor in predicting behavioural intention             and Internet self-efficacy, the current study also con-
                 (Venkatesh et al., 2003; Louho, Kallioja and Oittinen,         ceptualized behavioural intention to have a significant
                 2006). With respect to the current study, performance          positive influence on usage of open access scholarly
                 expectancy, moderated by gender, was assessed to               communication.
                 determine its effect on researchers’ adoption of open
                 access.
                    Effort expectancy is the degree of ease or diffi-           Data collection and analysis procedures
                 culty associated with the use of the system and is said        The study adopted the survey as the main method for
                 to significantly affect technology adoption during             data gathering. Data was collected at six of the eight
                 early stages but becomes non-significant over periods          public universities in Tanzania, namely: Ardhi Uni-
                 of extended and sustained usage (Venkatesh et al.,             versity (ARU); Muhimbili University of Health and
                 2003). Age, experience and gender were conceptua-              Allied Sciences (MUHAS); Mzumbe University
                 lized to moderate effort expectancy significance on            (MU); Open University of Tanzania (OUT); Sokoine
                 researchers’ behavioural use intention of open access.         University of Agriculture (SUA); and the University
                 Such moderators increase the effect of effort expec-           of Dar es Salaam (UDSM). The other two public uni-
                 tancy towards researchers’ future usage of open                versities did not meet the selection criteria. The cri-
                 access. In other words, the impact of effort expec-            teria  for   selecting such universities were their
                 tancy in shaping researchers’ usage of open access             existence as higher learning institutions for at least
                 in  future is reduced in the absence of those                  10 years as well as evidence of postgraduate pro-
                 moderators.                                                    grammes.Theabovecriteria ensured that the selected
                    Social influence relates to how an individual is            institutions had a comparatively well established
                 affected by his/her peers or other leading researchers         research infrastructure, generated more research out-
                 and/orhis/herorganizationindecidingonopenaccess                put and hence were more likely to benefit from open
                 usage. This factor has been established to signifi-            access initiatives. The study targeted public universi-
                 cantly affect the adoption of technology in both vol-          ties on the understanding that being publicly funded,
                 untary and involuntary contexts (Venkatesh et al.,             they are obliged by social mandate to make their
                 2003; Schaper and Pervan, 2004 and 2007). This                 research findings available widely (e.g. through open
                 study considered social influence moderated by age,            access) to the user community (Comba and Vignoc-
                 experience and gender to affect researchers’ beha-             chi, 2005).
                 vioural intention and usage of open access in scho-               A self-administered questionnaire was distributed
                 larly communication.                                           to 544 respondents selected through stratified random
                    Internet self-efficacy refers to what individuals           sampling from a population of 1088 university
                 believe they can do with technology skills they have           researchers. The sample included researchers within
                 already acquired (Venkatesh et al., 2003). Several             the ranks of lecturers, senior lecturers, associate pro-
                 studies have demonstrated that technology self-                fessors and full professors from the main campuses
                 efficacy plays a key role in the acceptance and usage          of the six public universities in Tanzania. Through the
                 of technology (Hsu, Chiu and Ju, 2004; Ifinedo,                stratified random sampling the desired representation
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...View metadata citation and similar papers at core ac uk brought to you by provided unisa institutional repository article information development thesuitability of the unified theory theauthor s reprints permission acceptance use technology sagepub co journalspermissions nav doi utaut modelinopenaccess idv com adoption studies frankwell w dulle sokoine university agriculture m k minishi majanja south africa abstract models or theories are commonly used in aiming predicting explaining theindividual behaviours towardstheacceptanceandusageofnewtechnologies thispaperreportspartofthe findings from a doctoral research project which focused analysing usage open access within public universities tanzania study was guided model survey questionnaire targeted respondents selected through stratified random sampling population researchers six aresponse rate percent achieved binary logistic regression statistics statistical pack age for social sciences spss data analysis suggest support application ...

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