Information Technology Reference
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Although the sophisticated management science, operations research, and computer science
techniques I learned in class (optimization, simulation, queuing theory, data structures, algorithms,
etc.) could be incorporated into decision support systems, a key limiting factor was the ability to
get end users to actually accept and use the systems. In my hospital work, I discovered that systems
based on surprisingly simple analytical techniques could provide considerable leverage for prac-
tical organizational decision making and, importantly, were more likely to be embraced by users
than their more powerful but complex counterparts. These experiences motivated me to pursue
doctoral studies in MIS at MIT's Sloan School of Management, beginning in 1980.
My main research interest concerned how to harness the rapidly expanding power of computer
technology to solve real-world organizational problems by designing systems that would not only
successfully exploit effective analytical techniques, but would also achieve user acceptance and imple-
mentation success. In the early 1980s, I interviewed numerous end users regarding their acceptance
or rejection of various technologies including executive information systems, decision support sys-
tems, collaborative groupware, personal computing, office automation, and expert systems.
IDENTIFYING PERCEIVED USEFULNESS AND PERCEIVED EASE OF USE
One day I was returning by helicopter from New Hampshire to Massachusetts after completing
a day of interviews. Watching a brilliant sunset, a simple but important insight occurred to me.
Although interviewees expressed it in many different ways, the dominant reasons they cited for
accepting or rejecting a new system at work strongly hinged on two issues: how
useful
and
easy to
use
they found the system to be. We landed, the attendant opened the helicopter door, and my folder
of interview notes spilled out. While the spinning rotor blade scattered yellow sheets all around, I
was amused instead of concerned because the simple insight about usefulness and ease of use was
now in my head. I recovered most of the interview notes, but never typed them up. Instead I turned
my focus to the literature on MIS attitudes and implementation success to craft the idea into a dis-
sertation topic.
Previous research on MIS implementation success factors did not align with the idea of usefulness
and ease of use as key ingredients of successful systems. The current thinking in the early 1980s
emphasized top management support and user involvement as the two most important factors driving
implementation success (e.g., Markus, 1983; Swanson, 1974). Although numerous studies had been
published on various MIS implementation attitudes (e.g., Bailey and Pearson, 1983; Ginzberg, 1981;
Robey, 1979), these exhibited only mixed and inconclusive relationships with actual workplace usage
of systems (for a review, see Swanson, 1982). These MIS attitude measures tapped into various feel-
ings toward, liking of, and satisfaction with target systems, but did not specifically target perceptions
of usefulness or ease of use.
DEVELOPMENT OF TAM
This situation provided the opportunity to make a specific contribution by investigating the role of
perceived usefulness and ease of use as key determinants of MIS user acceptance, specifically by
placing the ideas on a more solid conceptual foundation and developing valid measures for the con-
structs. Two key developments in the literature made such an opportunity promising. First, Ajzen and
Fishbein's (1980) theory of reasoned action from social psychology drew key theoretical distinctions
between beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms, and intentions as determinants of behavior, and provided
explicit guidelines about how these constructs should be specifically framed and measured in order to
explain a particular behavior. The theory of reasoned action was proving successful for a wide range
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