Effect of perceived effort saved on user perceptions in a computer-aided decision environment

Acceptance of information technology is an important issue. While research has shown that the adoption of new technologies can improve productivity, many people are still reluctant to use new technologies. As technologies such as search engines, expert systems, decision support systems, and others become more pervasive; the importance of understanding which factors contribute to user acceptance becomes increasingly important. This dissertation attempts to introduce a new construct, perceived effort saved (PES), into the technology acceptance literature by examining its effect on three dominant technology acceptance research paradigms: the cost-benefit framework, the user satisfaction model, and the technology acceptance model. The research questions addressed are: (1) How does PES influence the cost-benefit framework? It is hypothesized that PES will increase the user's perception of the accuracy (PACC) of the decision tool. (2) What is the effect of PES on user perceptions of ease of use (EOU) and usefulness (USE)? It is expected that both EOU and USE will be positively influence by PES. (3) Does PES have an effect on perceived accuracy and user satisfaction (SAT)? It is expected that PES will have a direct positive effect on both PACC and SAT. (4) How does PES influence behavioral intention (BI) to adopt a new technology? It is expected that PES with influence BI indirectly through EOU, PACC, SAT, and USE. In order to better explain the role of PES on BI and integrated model is proposed and tested.; To examine the above questions two experiments were conducted with student subjects. In the first experiment seventy-eight subjects participated and experiment two involved seventy-one subjects. Linear regression was used to analyze the dataset and results were supportive of the proposed models. For the integrated model the effect of PES on SAT and USE was fully mediated. The theoretical implication of this research is that future research into user satisfaction should incorporate, or control for, perceived effort saved. Practical implications include the need for practitioners to proactively design and implement decision aids to increase the user's perception of the effort they saved by using the tool.