2008 PROCEEDINGS - Public Relations Society of America

Core Determinants
UTAUT contains four core determinants of intention and usage – performance
expectancy, defined as “the degree to which an individual believes that using the system will
help him or her to attain gains in job performance”; effort expectancy, defined as “the degree of
ease associated with the use of the system”; social influence, defined as “the degree to which an
individual perceives that important others believe he or she should use the new system”; and
facilitating conditions, defined as “the degree to which an individual believes that an
organizational and technical infrastructure exists to support use of the system” (Venkatesh et al.
2003).
Moderators
UTAUT identifies four key moderating variables that were found to significantly
influence intention and/or use behavior: gender, age, experience and voluntariness of use
(Venkatesh et al. 2003). While age, experience and voluntariness are likely to exert similar
moderating effects in this study, the effect of gender is more complex and may differ from
previous research on technology acceptance. The subjects of prior technology acceptance
research have been predominantly male, whereas the majority of public relations practitioners
are female and work in a female-dominated environment. Thus it is possible that gender does not
have the same influence as it has shown in male-dominated contexts.
While the original study identified seven constructs as significant direct determinants of
intention or usage, only four constructs were theorized to play a significant role as direct
determinants of user acceptance and usage behavior: performance expectancy, effort expectancy,
social influence, and facilitating condition (Venkatesh et al. 2003). Attitude toward using
technology, self-efficacy, and anxiety were theorized not to be direct determinants of intention.
Conceivably, public relations practitioners, as a group, may exhibit characteristics that
are different from other end users – such as business managers and students who have been the
traditional subjects of technology acceptance research. For this reason the current research
includes all seven constructs identified in the original research for empirical testing and
validation in the public relations sector.
Hypotheses
Performance expectancy is defined as the degree to which an individual believes using
blogs will help him or her attain gains in job performance. The performance expectancy
construct within individual models of technology acceptance is show to be the strongest
predictor of intention to use a particular technology (Compeau and Higgins 1995b; Davis et al.
1992; Taylor and Todd 1995a; Venkatesh and Davis 2000). Moreover, prior research suggests
the relationship between performance expectancy and intention to use blogs will be moderated
by gender and age. Research on gender differences indicates that men tend to be highly taskoriented
(Minton and Schneider, 1980) and therefore more assessable to the effects of
performance expectations. Further, research on job-related attitudes suggests that younger
workers may place more importance on extrinsic rewards (Porter, 1963). Gender and age
differences have been shown to exist in technology adoption contexts as well (Venkatesh et al.
2003). Finally, given the demographics of public relations is heavily skewed toward women, the
effects of gender and age could play an even greater role in moderating the effects of
performance expectation.
79