Toward explicit measures of intention to predict information system use: An exploratory study of the role of implicit attitudes

Users' acceptance of new technologies in schools or companies is a critical challenge in modern society. In this study, we used self-reported intentional measures, an objective measure of actual behavior, namely university students' use of a new virtual learning environment platform, and a measure of their implicit attitude towards technology which we compared with two classic acceptance models (TPB, Theory of Planned Behavior; and TAM, Technology Acceptance Model). Our findings indicated that TPB was a better predictor of the intention to use the platform than TAM, but both models failed to predict actual behavior. On the contrary, implicit measures were linked to the degree to which the students explored the platform but not to their reported intention to use it. Taken together, these results provide a first argument for considering implicit measures in the field of technology acceptance.