An empirical investigation of habitual usage and past usage on technology acceptance evaluations and continuance intention

Although much research has examined information technology (IT) usage that involves deliberate evaluation and decision-making, we know less about automatic use that occurs spontaneously with little conscious effort. In this study we have investigated this issue by studying how habitual usage and past usage may influence the predicting power of perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) on intention. Using 232 cross-sectional responses from subjects who have continuously used the Google search engine, the results show that as individuals get into the habit of continuously using a system, the predicting power of PU and PEOU on intention is diluted by the addition of either habitual usage or past usage. This indicates that the stronger the habitual use of the Google search engine, the less conscious planning is involved, and the relationship between subjects' evaluations of PU/PEOU and their intention to use weakens. Furthermore, our study shows that past usage, often employed as a proxy of habitual usage, demonstrates a similar effect but differs in the predicting power from habitual usage. This result suggests that researchers may employ habitual usage for studies of post-adoption phenomenon concerning continuous information system usage.

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