The Importance of Ease of Use, Usefulness, and Trust to Online Consumers - End User Computing Challenges and Technologies: Emerging Tools and Applications - page 261

use. This more parsimonious model hypothesizes
that ease of use and usefulness will have a direct
affect on usage. To adequately address electronic
commerce participation by older consumers, three
modifications were made to the traditional TAM.
Electronic commerce participation is defined in
four ways and age and trust have been added as
both direct and indirect variables. The proposed
model is depicted in Figure 1. The numbers in the
figure correspond to the numbered hypotheses,
which are detailed in the following section.
The issue of electronic commerce usage needs
to be defined. There are two distinct ways that
consumers can “use” or participate in e-com-
merce. The obvious use would be to purchase
items via the Internet. Consumers shop, check
prices, choose shipping methods and then pay
and complete the transaction online. For some
products and industries, such as houses, cars,
and financial services, data gathering or browsing
may take place over the Internet, but the actual
purchase or transaction is made in another way.
Since the motivation and barriers for participation
would conceivably differ for buying and browsing

online, this model will address only purchases of
products online. Additionally, there are a number
of ways that the usage of online shopping can be
addressed. This research will address usage from
four perspectives, whether it has been used, how
many times, how frequently and the amount of
money spent online. As many other researchers
have validated, ease of use and usefulness are
critical precursors to system usage.

H1: Ease of use will be a significant factor
in the four measures of electronic commerce
participation for older consumers.
H2: Usefulness will be a significant factor in
the four measures of electronic commerce par-
ticipation for older consumers.

Additionally, perceived ease of use impacts
usefulness to the extent that a system or application
must be easy to use for people to use it and thus
realize its' usefulness. This relationship has been
strongly supported by prior research (Adams et. al.,
1992; Chen, Gillenson, & Sherrell, 2002; Gefen,
2003; Gefen et al., 2003; Segars & Grover, 1993).

Figure 1. TAM adapted for electronic commerce acceptance

e-Comm
partiCipation

9

Yes or No

1

EASE OF USE

5

3

6

Frequency

2

8 USEFULNESS

AGE

Number of
times

10 4

TRUST

7

Dollars
spent
online