| The adoption of biometrics as a conventional user authentication paradigm is a phenomenon scarcely studied by empirical researchers. This phenomenon, fueled by associated stigmas such as users' perceived inadequacy of privacy and security controls, cultivated the need for biometrics with inconspicuous and nonintrusive data capture and analysis qualities. The problem addressed in this research study was users tend to reject the adoption of biometrics as a favorable user authentication model because of the perceived stigmas associated with biometric technology. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational, non-experimental study was to assess factors that influenced information technology (IT) professionals' willingness to adopt audio-video (AV) biometrics as a feasible user authentication mechanism. The researcher utilized an online survey instrument to collect data on a sample of 204 IT professionals from across the United States. Also, the researcher conducted data analysis with SPSS version 19 and WarpPLS version 5.0 based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) theoretical framework. Overall, the proposed model explained an average of 75.5% of the variance in IT professions' willingness to adopt and recommend AV biometric technology (R2 = 0.755, p < 0.001). The proposed model predicted that performance expectancy, social influence, and cost-effectiveness were significant predictors of IT professionals' willingness to adopt AV biometrics. The proposed model also predicted that male IT professionals were more likely to recommend AV biometrics than female IT professionals. Variances not explained implied that additional constructs (e.g., perceived trust, perceived security, perceived credibility, and perceived performance) should be integrated into the proposed model to get a more comprehensive view of factors that influenced users' willingness to adopt and recommend AV biometrics. Therefore, future researchers should 1) modify the proposed model to envelop the recommended constructs mentioned above, 2) conduct research based on the UTAUT2 theoretical framework, and 3) use a wider sample population that encapsulate people from different countries to increase the generalizability of research findings. Research based on the future research concepts mentioned above would provide more predictive power to novel theories on users' adoption of biometrics. |
