Prof. Francesco Virili of the OrgLab, Università degli Studi di Cassino, visits the IS Research Group Thursday 26th March and will give a seminar on:
TAMLAB: Acceptance models for innovative artifacts: an experimental approach
Synopsis:
This talk is focused on acceptance models for innovative artifacts, proposing and discussing new ways for improving the state of the art by laboratory experiments.
Nowadays the dominant scientific model explaining user acceptance choices (focused on IT artifacts) is the so-called "Technology Acceptance Model" (TAM: Davis 1989; Davis et al. 1989). TAM represents an important and solid reference point for any theoretical and empirical analysis on acceptance. TAM shows that the individuals are likely to use the tools that they perceive as more useful and/or easier to use. But TAM takes not into account two fundamental aspects in the user choice of an innovative artifact: the user task/goal and the user network size and structure.
Therefore, in this talk it will be shown how to explicitly introduce in the TAM model the role played by the user task/goal, and the user network, for improving the explanatory and predictive power of TAM.
The research work proposed here is innovative in the following aspects:
1) It has a new methodological approach, based on laboratory experiments and not, as usual for TAM, on field work. The lab experiments enable us to insulate, detect and measure task/goals, network effects, and critical mass.
2) It has scientific relevance, because it aims at sensibly improving the explanatory and predictive power of the dominant scientific model for the acceptance processes.
3) It has practical relevance, because an improved modeling of acceptance may optimize the design of innovative artifacts and help maximizing the benefits of investments in innovation.
This talk is based o the paper: "Network effects in technology acceptance: laboratory evidence", presented at ICIS 2008, and available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1326319
Bio of Francesco Virili:
Francesco Virili, PhD in Management Information Systems at University of Siegen (Germany) is assistant professor at the University of Cassino in Italy. Francesco’s research focuses on the use of standards as tools for organizing and innovation. He has published different books and articles in leading international journals and conferences. His latest publication is: The strategic value of SOA: A comparative case study in the banking sector to appear in the International Journal of Information Technology and Management.