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the heart of consumer attitude formation and behavioural intentions” [11]. Over the
past few decades, various categories of needs theories - e.g., Maslow's well-known
hierarchy of needs [28] - have been developed so as to understand and predict human
behaviour. They have become widely accepted in research studies, because they are
considered to be the most enduring ways to understand an individual's motivation to
act in a particular way [3]. According to the needs theories, an individual in an agent-
target relationship is expected to be influenced by a certain user influence tactic
(UIT), if this UIT corresponds to his or her desires and needs (e.g., the need for
knowledge, affiliation with peers, etc.). Many definitions of basic needs have been
proposed, of which Ryan and Deci's [42] is most consistent with the scope of this
study. They indicate that “a basic need, whether it be a physiological need or a psy-
chological need, is an energizing state that, if satisfied, conduces toward health and
well-being but, if not satisfied, contributes to pathology and ill-being” [42]. This im-
plies that, if an methodology attribute is not aligned with the potential adopters' basic
needs, this might result in serious stress, anxiety, and depression, and that this dis-
comfort might be visible in the weak effect of the particular attribute to motivate
an individual to use the methodology. This view might help explain why previous
methodology acceptance found inconsistent results (i.e. because they were void of
personality factors such as needs of an individual).
Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory [27] is one of the most fundamental and influ-
ential needs theories. It suggests that there exists a hierarchy of needs and that certain
lower needs must be satisfied in order for higher needs to be recognised as unfulfilled.
However, critics of the theory state that: a) there is hardly any evidence of the
existence of a definite hierarchy of needs or that fundamental human needs are non-
hierarchical, and b) little evidence suggests that people satisfy only one motivating
need at a time, except in situations where needs conflict (i.e. are mutually exclusive)
[52]. Empirical research, finds that a) more than one need may motivate at any one
time, and b) that different needs have different values for different people. For the
purpose of our study, we therefore employ, Murray's theory of psychogenic needs
[32], and Reiss' theory of 16 basic desires [36] as these are considered the most fun-
damental and comprehensive list of underlying psychological human needs and have
been empirically tested in a number of studies.
3 Conceptual Model and Research Hypotheses
The decision as to whether or not to adopt a methodology often requires time, energy,
and careful consideration by the potential adopter [38]. Based on the complementary
use of DOI and needs theory in humanistic psychology, individuals are expected to
use a methodology based on their perceptions that methodology attributes will enable
them to fulfil their specific needs. Needs of an individual are therefore expected to
play a
moderating
role (see Figure 1), and influence the explanatory power of the
effect of different methodology attributes on an individual's use of a methodology.
The reason why we focus on
perceptions
of methodology attributes, rather than
primary
attributes (intrinsic to a methodology, independent of the perceptions of po-
tential adopters) is that individual behaviour is predicted by how one perceives these
