The introduction of technology and developments in communication has reduced the need for traveling across the world. The way people conduct meetings and communicate with other branch offices has changed a lot compared to the past times. When a new technology is introduced, people must start using it to make the technology a successful one. However, the facilities provided by the technology determine the usage of the technology. If a technology is not effectively used by the people, the time and effort spent in using the technology becomes a waste. It is for this reason that technology acceptance model (TAM) has gained significance. The technology acceptance model was developed by Fred Davis and Richard Bagozzi. This model explains user behavior in using the technology, from the perspective of the end user.
When a new technology comes into use, the users must be able to accept the technology. This is possible if the user believes that the technology is useful. With the introduction of a new technology, certain changes have to be made for the users to make use of the new technology. If the user feels that the technology will not be useful, he will not be ready to make the changes. The willingness of the user to believe that the new technology can enhance his performance is defined as perceived usefulness (PU) by the technology acceptance model. This factor is essential for a technology and hence, the information system of technology acceptance model is widely preferred.
After making changes to the existing technology, the user must be able to use the new technology without much effort. When a new technology does not reduce the work load and efforts of the user, it will never be a success. The perceived ease of use (PEOU) is defined by TAM as the degree to which the user believes that the new technology will reduce his efforts. This factor is also essential to make the technology useful.
The relationship between the user and technology is very important for the developers of the technology. A positive attitude from the users about the new technology is essential to make the technology usable. In other words, if TAM model shows higher values of PU and PEOU, then it means that the technology is revolutionary and it will be highly accepted by the users. PU has direct influence on the attitude of user towards the new technology while PEOU has indirect influence on the technology through PU. The usefulness of neither of the factors can be ignored.
Using TAM, one can determine how the users perceive the technology. This model concentrates only on the design characteristics of the system. A variety of technologies is influenced by social factors. These social factors are not considered by TAM, as they cannot be determined easily. The technology is empirically analyzed from the user perspective to determine its efficiency and usefulness. Further, technical details of the technology are not completely analyzed by TAM because the end users are not concerned about how something works and they want something that really works.




