A meta-analysis based modified unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (meta-UTAUT): a review of emerging literature.

TLDR: The analysis suggests that studies have started citing the relationships suggested by meta-UTAUT and researchers have reviewed it alongside other alternative models while analysing acceptance and use of technology.

Abstract: Over the past more than four decades, several theoretical models have been developed to understand the acceptance and use of information systems. Realising the dilemma in selecting the appropriate theoretical model to assess the acceptance and use of technology and considering the pattern of using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), a modified version (meta-UTAUT) has been developed based on the synthesis of results from 162 existing studies. The aim of this article is to review the emerging literature on meta-UTAUT and offer some future research recommendations. The analysis suggests that studies have started citing the relationships suggested by meta-UTAUT and researchers have reviewed it alongside other alternative models while analysing acceptance and use of technology.

Figures

Table 1. Meta-UTAUT general citation categories (Approach adapted from Tamilmani et al. [43])

Figure 1. Meta-UTAUT extensions (Source: Adapted from Dwivedi et al. [10]; Hossain et al. [20]; Huseynov and Yıldırım [22])

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What contributions have the authors mentioned in the paper "A meta-analysis based modified unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (meta-utaut): a review of emerging literature" ?

The aim of this article is to review the emerging literature on meta-UTAUT and offer some future research recommendations. The analysis suggests that studies have started citing the relationships suggested by meta-UTAUT and researchers have reviewed it alongside other alternative models while analysing acceptance and use of technology. 

Q2. What future works have the authors mentioned in the paper "A meta-analysis based modified unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (meta-utaut): a review of emerging literature" ?

The further use of meta-UTAUT was done where researchers used the reference of the paper on meta-UTAUT to support their findings. Transforming to a low carbon society ; an extended theory of planned behaviour of Malaysian citizens. 

Q3. What is the main purpose of the meta-UTAUT model?

The model also provides the direct and mediating effect of attitudes onto use behavior, which implies that IS/IT-based innovation is used by individuals based on their attitudes towards technology in question even though they do not deliberately anticipate using such innovation. 

Q4. What is the popular mechanism in meta-UTAUT?

In addition, there was one exogenous mechanism, which refers to new associations between external variables and any of theMeta-UTAUT New Exogenous mechanism New Endogenous mechanismcontextual conditions. 

Q5. What was the largest category of citations for meta-UTAUT?

Literature review and theoretical background emerged as the second largest citation category comprising studies that cited meta-UTAUT in those sections. 

Q6. What is the definition of effort expectancy?

Performance expectancy is the level to which an individual believes that an IS/IT system use will help them gain job performance whereas effort expectancy is the level of ease associated with the use of such system. 

Q7. What is the purpose of this study?

[This work utilised UTAUT2 and IS success model to empirically predict intention to use mobile banking services in the Saudi Arabian context. 

Q8. What is the important conclusion of the analysis?

The analysis suggests that the largest category of studies selected constructs similar to meta-UTAUT and cited the theory to support the proposed casual relationships. 

Q9. What were the main factors that were not considered by previous adoption theories?

UTAUT had included four moderators (i.e. age, gender, experience and voluntariness of use) to improve the predictive power of the model, which were not considered by preceding adoption theories. 

Q10. What are the main reasons why researchers should explore meta-UTAUT?

In future, researchers should explore opportunities to extend meta-UTAUT through other mechanisms such a new outcome mechanisms that involve measuring consequences of technology use aside from behavioural intention and use behaviour [48]. 

Q11. What is the role of attitudes in meta-UTAUT?

As outlined above and shown in Figure 1, meta-UTAUT has established the central role of attitudes as an additional mediating variable along behavioral intention between core exogenous variables (i.e. performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions) and ultimate dependent variable (i.e. use behavior) of the UTAUT model. 

Q12. How many studies in the fourth category supported the theory?

The final category comprised three studies, which either utilised the theory as a whole [19] or in part by including external variables [20, 22]. 

Q13. What is the main conclusion of the analysis?

The analysis presented in this article led to the conclusion that although the originating article of meta-UTAUT [10] has already gained sizable citations (more than 121 as per Scopus and 253 as per Google Scholar), it is yet to be widely utilized as a theoretical alternative for understanding adoption of emerging technologies. 

Q14. What are the main theoretical models that have been proposed to understand the adoption of IS/IT?

Several theoretical models have been proposed to understand the adoption of IS/IT including the theory of reasoned action (TRA), technology acceptance model (TAM), theory of planned behavior (TPB), unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and extended UTAUT (i.e. UTAUT2) to name a few. 

Q15. What was the largest category of studies that cited meta-UTAUT?

The second largest category comprised studies that cited meta-UTAUT in their literature review and theoretical background sections whereas the third largest category involved the studies where meta-UTAUT was cited while discussing the evolution of technology adoption models.