A novel romance: The Technology Acceptance Model with emotional attachment

E-readers, or devices designed primarily for reading e-books, are taking the world by storm. Several papers in library studies and education have examined e-book consumption for academic reading. However, no previous marketing study has investigated consumers’ adoption of e-readers for pleasure reading. We address this gap by testing an extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with emotional attachment (TAME) in this context. Consumers’ attachment to paper books is proposed as a barrier to their adoption of e-readers. This speaks to a key deficiency of the TAM, being its focus on cognition at the expense of consumer emotion. A three-phase study finds support for the TAME, with 64% of the variance explained in consumers’ intentions to adopt e-readers. Emotional attachment to paper books is found to be weakly and negatively associated with consumers’ attitude toward using e-readers. The qualitative findings suggest that e-reader adoption may not involve a binary choice between paper and e-formats.

► First study to examine consumer adoption of e-readers for pleasure reading.
► An extended Technology Acceptance Model with emotional attachment is tested.
► The model is supported, with 64% of the variance explained in adoption intentions.
► Attachment to paper books is only weakly associated with attitude to e-readers.
► E-reader adoption may not involve a binary choice between paper and e-formats.