Empirical evaluation of Russian version of the Technology Acceptance Questionnaire

Abstract

Nowadays one could hardly imagine the information systems evaluation without taking into account user motivation usually operationalized by survey methods. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) proposed by F. Davis, asthe most universal, powerful, and cited model is widely used in the field of distance learning, healthcare, and public services. TAM has become an early attempt to capture psychological factors for studying different features of user`s adaptation and actual usage of information technologies by the target populations. In the West, the questionnaires based on TAM are used by system designers to get feedback on various characteristics and functions of the interface, as a justification for choosing between software packages, for evaluating the effectiveness of training. The study provides the analysis of reliability-consistency of TAM scales: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitudes toward using and behavioral intention (Cronbach's alpha), homogeneity-uniformity (Pearson correlation coefficient) and discrimination (Guildford criterion) of individual items, the reliability of the whole test (half-split) and factorial validity of the Russian version of the questionnaire (confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling). The listed tools of the classical test theory were supplemented by the method of modern psychometrics for the analysis of polytomous scales (generalized partial credit model). The overall reliability index of the questionnaire was 0,872; the factor structure identified largely corresponds to the initial theoretical framework.