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Voluntary use of information technology: an analysis and synthesis of the literature

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Journal of Information Technology

Abstract

Voluntariness is recognized as an important influence on individual and collective technology acceptance. We conducted a comprehensive review of this literature and identified a rich set of voluntariness concepts and methods of operationalization. However, while considerable empirical evidence is reported in the literature, our review also revealed inconsistent results concerning the relationship between voluntariness and other concepts. Against that backdrop, we synthesized the literature into three types of voluntariness – perceived, intended and realizable voluntariness (RVOL), and showed how prior literature had not adequately accounted for RVOL. Moreover, we examined the multiple mechanisms that influence voluntariness and created a model to describe how to advance new knowledge about the important relationships among the three types of voluntariness and between voluntariness and user behavior. We argue that these concepts and relationships may help advance our knowledge of how a new technology is used individually and collectively in organizations.

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Notes

  1. Our study sample differs from that of Wu and Lederer (who identified 71 studies) because we only included those studies that explicitly measured voluntariness. Wu and Lederer’s procedure allowed them to include any study where they could construct an assessment of voluntariness, regardless of whether the study authors included it as a formal construct. Thus, for example, Wu and Lederer’s sample includes the paper by Agarwal and Karahanna (2000) on cognitive absorption even though voluntariness does not appear in the model. We excluded this study as we were interested in how the original authors conceptualized voluntariness.

  2. Moore and Benbasat (1991) is based on the dissertation of Gary Moore in 1989.

  3. At the extremes of volitional control are behaviors such as sneezing, where control is almost entirely absent, and voting choice, where control is very high (Ajzen, 2005). But most behaviors, according to Ajzen (ibid), fall between these extremes, limited by internal factors such as skills, or external factors, such as resources, opportunity or dependence on others.

  4. This motive would not encompass the 3rd of Kelman’s mechanisms, internalization (i.e., accepting influence because of the merits of the content of the induced behavior), as this mechanism would then be consistent with the autonomy motive.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Information Technology Management, Cedarville University, Cedarville, USA

    HsingYi Tsai

  2. Department of Management, Information Systems, and Entrepreneurship, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA

    Deborah Compeau

  3. Information Systems, Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Darren Meister

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  1. HsingYi Tsai
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Supplementary information accompanies this article on the Journal of Information Technology website (www.palgrave-journals.com/jit)

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Appendices

Appendix A

Table A1

Table A1 Voluntariness as a predictor of use
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Appendix B

Table B1

Table B1 Voluntariness as a Predictor of Intention
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Appendix C

Table C1

Table C1 Voluntariness as a predictor of beliefs
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Appendix D

Table D1

Table D1 Voluntariness as a moderator between subjective norm and intention/use
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Appendix E

Table E1

Table E1 Voluntariness as a moderator between other concepts
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Tsai, H., Compeau, D. & Meister, D. Voluntary use of information technology: an analysis and synthesis of the literature. J Inf Technol 32, 147–162 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/jit.2016.6

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