Electronic newspaper and its adopters: examining the factors influencing the adoption of electronic newspapers in Taiwan

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0736-5853(02)00002-3Get rights and content

Abstract

This study used Rogers’ diffusion of innovation model to examine the factors that influence the adoption of electronic newspapers in Taiwan. Four factors were identified from the literature review as having significant effects on the adoption of electronic newspapers, and the four factors are technology ownership, innovativeness, demographic composition, and mass media use. A telephone survey with a probability sampling was conducted to collect data for this study. This study obtained 1006 valid respondents, among which 311 (31%) were adopters, 431 (43%) likely adopters, and the remaining 263 non-adopters. The data analysis shows that the four sets of variables explained approximately 30% of the adoption behavior, indicating that these variables were good predictors for the adoption behavior. More detailed findings were presented in the paper.

Introduction

With government encouragement, Taiwan’s Internet-using population is rapidly growing. A survey by the government’s Management Information Commission showed that more than 35% of the population was using the Internet by the end of 2001 (MIC Survey, 2002). With more and more people becoming Internet users, electronic newspapers are getting popular in Taiwan. Experts believe that the creation of electronic newspapers help traditional newspapers regain their competitive advantages because electronic newspapers possess both the strengths of newspapers and of television news. In addition, the capacities of interactivity and database allow electronic newspapers to outperform traditional news media (Li, 2001a; Tu and Chou, 2000).

The first electronic newspaper in Taiwan (China Times Interactive, www.chinatimes.com.tw) was established in September 1995, and is operated by one of the two largest daily newspapers, The China Times. When China Times Interactive began operation, many experts and even China Times were not optimistic about the future of electronic newspapers in Taiwan because the bandwidth then did not allow too much video/audio presentation, and China Times used only three full-time employees for the operation of its electronic newspaper. However, with rapid advancement of the Internet technology, China Times Interactive is able to fully utilize the features of the Internet technology in its news presentation and attract more and more advertising income. Now, China Times Interactive has more than 50 full-time employees and has become a successful business (Chyi and Sylvie, 1998; Tsai, 1999). The success of China Times Interactive attracts many enterprises to establish their own electronic newspapers (Lai and Liang, 1998; Li, 2001a; Yang, 1996).

The purpose of the study was to examine the factors that influence the adoption of electronic newspapers in Taiwan. Many theories and models have been developed by communication technology scholars to explain and predict adoption behaviors, however, a close examination of the adoption literature shows that Rogers’ diffusion of innovation model is the most frequently used theoretical framework (Atkin, 1995; Atkin and LaRose, 1994; Leung, 1998; Leung, 2000; Leung and Wei, 1998; Lin, 1998; Lin, 2000; Lin and Jeffres, 1998; Li and Yang, 2000; Reagan, 1987; Rogers, 1986, Rogers, 1995).

Section snippets

Literature review

According to Rogers’ diffusion of innovation model, three sets of variables, technology ownership, adopters’ characteristics, and innovation attributes, have enduring impacts on the adoption of new technologies. This study takes the first two sets of variables into consideration to investigate the adoption of electronic newspapers in Taiwan.

Operationalization of variables

Four factors were identified from the literature review as having significant effects on the adoption of electronic newspapers.

Technology ownership

This study looked at several studies that examined technology adoption behaviors in Taiwan, and identified a list of 23 communication technologies available in Taiwan (Li and Yang, 2000; Li, 2001b, Li, 2001c). Using the functional classification by Atkin (1995), these 23 technologies were divided into one of the three types: entertainment-oriented, information-based,

Adoption likelihood

This study identified from the literature four sets of variables that may exert important impacts on the adoption of electronic newspapers. The four sets of variables, demographic elements, mass media use, technology ownership, and innovativeness, were then entered into a hierarchical multiple regression equation to see how these variables worked together to account for the adoption likelihood. The results were summarized in Table 1.

The data in Table 1 show that the four sets of variables

Discussion of the findings

This study found that the penetration rate of electronic newspapers was 31% by July of 2000, and a survey by the government’s Management Information Commission shows that approximately 32% of Taiwan’s population was Internet users by the end of 2000 (MIC Survey, 2001). The two findings suggest that most Internet users in Taiwan are also the adopters of electronic newspapers. Electronic newspapers are parts of the Internet, so it is reasonable to find that the adopters were almost overlapped

Conclusions

This study identified from the literature review four sets of variables as having significant effects on the adoption of electronic newspapers in Taiwan, and found that the findings on the three sets of variables, technology ownership, demographics, and mass media use, were congruent with those of past adoption studies, but the findings on innovativeness were not. Therefore, most of the findings of the study support the predictions of Rogers’ diffusion of innovation model. This study suggests

References (32)

  • Lai, H., Liang, D.P., 1998. The development of electronic newspapers in Taiwan. Paper Presented at the Meeting of...
  • Leung, L., 2000. Societal, organization, and individual perceptual factors influencing the adoption of telecommuting in...
  • L. Leung et al.

    Factors influencing the adoption of interactive TV in Hong Kong: Implications for advertising

    Asian Journal of Communication

    (1998)
  • S.S. Li

    New media and market competition: A niche analysis of television news, electronic news, and newspaper news in Taiwan

    Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media

    (200la)
  • S.S. Li

    New Communication Technologies and the Management of Media Organizations’ Market

    (2001)
  • Li, S.S., 2001c. Interactive cable television services and their adopters: Examining the factors influencing the...
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text