Advantages of Technology acceptance model

        Apart from these empirical studies validating the applicability of TAM, scholars have studied the theory itself and shown that TAM has a higher predictive power compared to other technology acceptance models (Hong et al. 2006). TAM has been validated in a variety of technology adoption studies in diverse settings. With a two- dimensional measure of behavioural intention, the model is relatively parsimonious in comparison to other theories and has less complications predictions in empirical research. Mathieson (1991) found TAM better than TPB since it is not only easier to apply, but its constructs allow uniform measurement in different situations. It has become the most widely used (Thowfeek & Jaafar 2010) and popular model in technology acceptance studies (McCoy et al. 2007). As evidence of its higher predictive power over other theories, Venkatesh and Davis (2000) state that TAM has been found to account for approximately 40 per cent of variance in usage intention in empirical research in contrast to other studies using alternative models such as TRA and TPB. This is also affirmed by Chau and Hu’s (2001) research on physicians’ usage of telemedicine which found that TAM explained 40 per cent of the variances in usage intention whereas TPB explained 32 per cent.

        TAM can easily and conveniently gather general information about individuals' perceptions of a technology and measure levels of satisfaction across a range of users with diverse interests (Mathieson 1991, p. 187). TAM is also easy to implement in different national cultural contexts. It can be integrated with factors of rural/urban location, gender, age, race, religion and types of organisation. Several studies using TAM to analyse email usage have obtained results with high validity in Western countries (Adams et al. 1992; Davis 1989, 1993) and Eastern countries (Mutlu & Ergeneli 2012) as well as Malaysia (Baninajarian 2009). TAM possesses the flexibility and capacity to interact with moderators of national culture in international studies (McCoy et al. 2007), Western countries (Davis 1989; Mathieson 1991; Segars & Grover 1993), Eastern countries (Al-Sukkar 2005; Alhujran 2009; Huang 2003) and Malaysia (Ebrahimi et al. 2010). In Malaysia, TAM has been widely used in many fields. For example, Ndubisi et al. (2001) used TAM for predicting IT usage among Malaysian entrepreneurs, Ramayah et al. (2005) to explain computer usage among tertiary students and Ma’ruf et al. (2005) for predicting internet shopping. Given these positive appraisals of TAM, the researcher also chose to use TAM as the foundational theory of technology acceptance for this study.