Psychological Theories Affecting the Information

The study of social psychological theories to understand information and communication technology acceptance and usage

            The study of social psychological theories to understand information and communication technology acceptance and usage are beginning to transform organizational structures and processes, as well as the ways in which people work. It is difficult to obtain information on the extent of usage as much information is held by the suppliers of the technologies, and this is commercially valuable. There argues that technological issues command most of the resources during process implementation first, the psychological matters addressed when systems are operational users of such advanced systems are perceived as sources of error that ideally should be designed out and community has appropriated IT for itself (Westin, Schweder, Baker and Lehman, 1987). Furthermore, the performance of new investments in IT is often disappointing, falling below expectation and aspiration and one of the explanations could be the lack of consideration of the psychological issues (Kearney, 1990). In practice, the IT sector is strongly market oriented along with attention paid to new products and increased functionality (Shneiderman, 1989; Thimbleby, 1992) relatively little attention is paid to psychological issues to the actual performance and effectiveness of the new reserves in IT. There are initiatives that have included a psychological dimension to their endeavors, though there has been a minority in what are regarded as technical programs.

 

            Furthermore, it is too late to consider psychological issues in a 'corrective' sense once a system is operational (Broadbent, 1985; Hacker, 1985). Some have argued that this is the formative period of the 'information age' during which it is critical to incorporate the psychological aspects of new technologies before the engineering and user communities become set in particular ways of managing and coping with change (Cooley, 1987; Littler, 1983) as it is also a critical period for the discipline of psychology. The new information technologies provide the opportunity to address contemporary challenges of integrating social psychological levels of analysis as a critical time and the domain of IT provides a critical opportunity (Clegg, 1984). Furthermore, there has been substantial theoretical advance within the domains helpful in promoting understanding of some psychological aspects of IT but, there is less evidence that the investigation and ideas in the areas have influenced with the context within which information technologies are developed and used. Moreover, in terms of understanding which information systems are accepted and used within the process still continues to be an important issue. Information systems research has examined user acceptance and usage behavior from several different perspectives.

 

 

 

            Henceforth, among the different models that have been proposed, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis 1989; Davis et al. 1989), adapted from the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980; Fishbein and Ajzen 1975) offers a powerful explanation for user acceptance and usage behavior. TAM posits that user acceptance is determined by two key beliefs, namely perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Perceived usefulness (U) is defined as the extent to which a person believes that using a particular technology will enhance her/his job performance, while perceived ease of use (EOU) is defined as the degree to Which a person believes that using a technology will be free from effort (Davis 1989). Thus, the two important constructs that have little attention in the context of TAM research are social influence and gender (Gefen and Straub 1997) which is potentially critical to the understanding of user acceptance since they could both play an important role in determining how users make their decisions about adopting and using new technologies (Davis et al. 1989). Although subjective norm can be expected to be important in determining technology acceptance and usage based on TRA and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (Ajzen 1985, 1991) empirical evidence supporting the role of the construct has been mixed (Adams et al. 1992; Szajna 1994, 1996).

 

 

 

            Nonetheless, given that theoretical perspectives emphasize the importance of social aspects of technology use including critical mass (Markus 1990), social influence (Fulk et al. 1987), adaptive structuration (Poole and DeSanctis 1990), hermeneutic interpretation (Lee 1994) and critical social theory (Ngwenyama and Lee 1997) it is important to investigate whether social influence should be integrated into TAM. Since the development of TAM, within the context of rational perspectives, recent research has successfully operationalized subjective norm (Mathieson 1991; Taylor and Todd 1995). However, research has studied only gender-based perceptual differences and not gender-based differences in decision making processes about technology. Thus, psychology research that studied gender differences in decision making processes indicates that schematic processing by women and men is different (Bem and Allen 1974), from an information processing perspective, there are known differences in determinants between both sexes (Tashakkori 1993).

 

 

 

 

 

 

            Then Bem (1981) argues that women and men encode and process information using different socially-constructed cognitive structures that help determine and direct an individual's perceptions. As a result, individuals tend to make decisions which reflect biases inherent in the individual's perceptions and actions (Nisbett and Ross 1980). This means that gender schemas can be considered to be a normative guide (Kagan 1964; Kohlberg 1966) that causes unconscious or internalized action consistent with the schema. In studying acceptance and use of a technology, it is important to examine the phenomenon over duration of time since users will evolve from being novices to experienced users of the new system (Davis et al. 1989). This is of importance because the early stages of technology introduction, users are making an ‘’acceptance’’ decision, which has been shown to differ from "usage" decisions, as user experience increases (Davis et al. 1989). Therefore, to help gain a thorough understanding of the underlying phenomena, the role of gender involves the initial technology acceptance decisions and continued usage behavior decisions. The moderating role of gender is expected to continue with increasing user experience with one exception as subjective norm is not expected to be a significant determinant of intention with increasing experience for women and men.

 

 

 

Perceived Usefulness

            Perceived usefulness (U) is defined as the extent to which a person believes that using a particular technology will enhance his job performance (Davis 1989). Perceived usefulness, which reflects perceptions of the performance-use contingency, has been closely linked to outcome expectations, instrumentality, and extrinsic motivation (Davis 1989, 1993; Davis et al. 1989,1992). A significant body of TAM research has shown that perceived usefulness is a strong determinant of user acceptance and usage behavior (Davis 1989; Davis et al. 1989; Mathieson 1991; Taylor and Todd 1995; Venkatesh and Davis forthcoming). In understanding gender differences in the role of perceived usefulness as a determinant of technology acceptance, researchers draw from research on gender differences in the salience of outcomes as determinants of behavior. Prior research has indicated that men's work role is typically their most salient, while the family role is often only of secondary importance (Barnett and Marshall 1991). Hoffman (1972) points out that men are motivated by achievement needs to a greater extent than women as the arguments suggest that men, more than women, are directed toward individualistic tasks and goals (Carlson 1971; Gill et al. 1987; Stein and Bailey 1973).

 

 

Perceived Ease of Use

            Perceived ease of use (EOU) is defined as the degree to which a person believes that using the system will be free from effort (Davis 1989). Perceived ease of use has been shown to have an effect on intention via two causal pathways: (a) a direct effect on intention and (b) an indirect effect on intention via perceived usefulness (EOU-U-BI). The direct effect suggests that perceived ease of use could be a potential catalyst to increasing the likelihood of user acceptance. The indirect effect is explained as stemming from a situation where, other things being equal, the easier a technology is to use, the more useful it can be (Davis et al., 1989) with little no prior experience, such research has demonstrated that the direct causal pathway like EQU-BI is most relevant and the indirect effect via perceived usefulness can be less important (Davis et al. 1989; Szajna 1996). There is much evidence in psychology (Chan and Fishbein 1993; Sparks 1994; Fishbein and Stasson 1990) and information systems (Venkatesh forthcoming; Venkatesh and Davis 1996) supporting computer self-efficacy: one's judgment about one's ability to use a computer for a specific task as a determinant of perceptions of ease/ difficulty. In the context of technology acceptance and usage, evidence indicates that providing support is a very important response to help users overcome barriers and hurdles to technology use especially during the early stages of learning and use (Bergeron et al. 1990).

 

 

            Furthermore, there is recent evidence from real world settings that women tend to be more anxious than men about computer use (Bozionelos 1996). A significant body of research in psychology (Hunt and Bohlin 1993) has shown an inverse relationship between computer anxiety and computer self-efficacy, a known determinant of perceived ease of use (Venkatesh and Davis 1996). Thus, given higher levels of computer anxiety among women can be expected to lead to lowering of self-efficacy, which in turn could lead to lowering of ease of use perceptions. Since perceived ease of use has been seen as a hurdle to user acceptance (Venkatesh and Davis 1996) low evaluations of ease of use can cause an increase in the salience of perceptions in determining user acceptance decisions. Thus, Davis et al. (1989) showed that perceived ease of use is a determinant of perceived usefulness. They interpret the relationship by stating that systems are easier to use may ultimately be more useful and systems will facilitate system use and task accomplishment more than systems that are seen as difficult to use. In other words, the system that is easier to use will generate the best benefit ratio for achievement-oriented individuals. For example, users of modern personal computers will consider graphical user interfaces to be productive than older text-based interfaces because they are easier to use although they may not be more useful than the older style interface. It seems that individuals for whom task achievement is most salient would be influenced more by perceived ease of use.

 

Subjective Norm

            Subjective norm (SN) is defined as the degree to which an individual believes that people who are important to him think he should perform the behavior in question (Fishbein and Ajzen 1975). In the technology domain, both peer and superior influences have been shown to be strong determinants of subjective norm (Mathieson 1991; Taylor and Todd 1995). Therefore, in examining gender differences in subjective norm, it is useful to understand the degree to which women/men can be influenced and the extent to which they respond to information provided by other referents (Taylor and Hall 1982).  As Skitka and Maslach (1996) reported that women used constructs related with the harmonious functioning of groups, interrelationships and concern with the overall communion of the group in the process of describing others. Landau and Leventhal (1976) found that women were to retain less productive employees for social reasons compared to men (Miller 1986). For example, research shows that women tend to be compliant while men are likely to rebel against orders from others (Minton et al. 1971). Similarly, due to different socialization patterns of women in today's society, it is possible to argue that women being more susceptible to influence than men may be dated as recent evidence is consistent with a gender schema view that women tend to be much compliant (Crawford et al. 1995).

 

 

            Few evidence suggests that women are more attentive to social cues in the environment while men attend to other stimuli such as objects and visual patterns (Garai and Scheinfeld 1968; Parsons and Bales 1955; Williams and Best 1982) as others suggested that women and men are equally attentive to social cues in the environment (Roberts 1991) but women are more responsive to those cues as they yield more to social pressures. This suggests that women may look at others opinions as opportunities to learn more about their own abilities and reasoning implies that women may weight the opinion of other people in considering new technology into the overall decision-making process about adopting that technology more than men. Although the context of investigation in research was not technology acceptance and use that the importance of social factors and increased deference to others' opinions will generalize to the context of decisions about technology and manifest itself in normative pressures being relevant for women.

 

 

 

 

 

 

            Thus, it is clear that instrumental factors are not simply important initial determinants of intention: they remain important over the long term given that task-oriented factors are more important for men than for women (Minton and Schneider 1980) on an ongoing basis and expect that gender differences in the salience of instrumental factors that were present at the time of the initial acceptance decision will be sustained over time with increasing direct technology experience. Recent research has found that with increasing experience, both pathways remain significant (Venkatesh forthcoming; Venkatesh and Davis 1996). (Bergeron et al. 1990) indicates that providing support is a crucial element in alleviating constraints to technology usage with the short-term impact of perceived ease of use, in the long run it is expected that perceived ease of use, driven by availability of support to alleviate constraints to technology use, will be significant to women compared to men and corroborated the higher levels of computer anxiety (Bozionelos 1996; Morrow et al. 1986) and lower computer aptitude (Felter 1985) among women that may demand tapping into support during the early stages of experience and practice.

 

 

 

 

 

            Research has shown the direct effects of perceived ease of use remain important, the indirect effect of perceived ease of use becomes stronger to understand gender differences in subjective norm over the long term, it is necessary to consider the role of experience and how that experience can influence the importance of others' opinions in determining intentions for any one individual. In the short term, we proposed that women will weight the opinions of others' more highly than men as other opinions can be expected to be critical when one has no prior experience with a specific technology in the stages of acceptance and usage (Warshaw 1980). As direct experience with technology increases, individuals have a better assessment of the benefits and costs associated with using that technology though their original decision was based on others' opinions, individuals begin to internalize others' opinions if they are consistent with the results of their own direct experience. Thus, the direct effect of subjective norm on behavioral intention is reduced (Oliver and Bearden 1985; Warshaw 1980) with increasing experience can be justified from an anchoring and adjustment perspective from behavioral decision theory. (Bettman and Sujan 1987; Mervis and Rosch 1980) that in the absence of direct behavioral experience with the target object, individuals anchor their perceptions to such criteria, which includes complying with the ideas of peers with increasing experience, user judgments reflect specific criteria that result from the interaction with the target object and from normative influences (Reinecke et al. 1996).

 

            In the context of technology acceptance in voluntary usage settings suggests that the influence of peers will diminish to non-significance with increasing experience with the target system. The current important extensions to the Technology Acceptance Model using gender as a potential moderator will deal with gender differences in roles of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use as determinants of technology acceptance and usage. In addition, the current work attempts to integrate subjective norm into TAM by taking a gender-oriented approach. In fact, perceived ease of use was not a salient factor to men at any point in time. Interestingly, men's assessment of ease of use of the system went up with experience and women's assessment went down because men perceive the system to be easier to use with increasing experience and being a non-significant factor in determining their intention to use the system. Subjective norm did not influence men's decisions at any point in time. In contrast, women did consider normative influences at the initial stage of technology introduction and after one month of experience. Women may still have been receiving and considering input from peers/superiors and had not fully internalized others' views. There are several important inferences can be made as one could argue that men are driven by instrumental factors while women are more motivated by process and social factors. However, perhaps a more qualitative interpretation would suggest that men are more focused in their decision making regarding new technologies while women are more balanced in their decision-making process.

 

            Generally, TAM has been replicated and applied in a wide variety of settings but the extensions to the model are limited since, research has not yet investigated the ‘’conditions and mechanisms governing the impact of social influences on usage behavior" by Davis et al. (1989, p. 999) the proposed extensions to TAM, the integration of subjective norm, examination of gender differences in the role of the original TAM constructs and the related role of experience represent important theoretical advances in technology acceptance and usage of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use helps refine, sharpen and better apply TAM to the study of user acceptance and usage as the pattern which is consistent with psychology research (Tashakkori and Thompson 1991). The importance of subjective norm in determining technology adoption decisions among women merits attention by researchers and practitioners as the future research should focus on clarifying the underlying cognitive mechanisms for the greater importance placed by women on normative influences. It is important to understand the circumstances in which different mechanisms are operational in order to facilitate the design of appropriate organizational interventions for technologies being introduced. Generally, it is important to understand the cognitive mechanisms underlying the formation and change of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use in general (Davis et al. 1992; Venkatesh and Davis 1996) and among women and men.

 

 

            Thus, research should measure the awareness of others' feelings and motivation to examine the underlying psychological dimensions captured via gender that would be useful for several reasons. First, men and women are not at bipolar extremes on these dimensions. Thus, they might vary based on degrees of femininity and masculinity (Bem 1981). Furthermore, TAM is a psychological model as the consideration of gender as a biological construct is consistent with previous conceptualizations of the construct, it adds a layer of abstraction to TAM that might be alleviated by a psychological examination of gender or its underlying dimensions by investigating gender as a potential key to understanding the role of social influence in initial technology adoption decisions and sustained usage of new technologies. Therefore, technology acceptance theories and models that overlook gender as an important factor can possibly misjudge the influence of productive oriented factors while miscalculating the importance of ease of use perceptions and social influences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Theory of Planned Behavior

Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (Azjen, 1985, 1991) is an extension of the theory of reasoned action (TRA) (Azjen and Fishbein, 1980), made necessary by the latter model's inability to deal with behaviors over which individuals have incomplete volitional control. For TPB, attitude toward the target behavior and subjective norms about engaging in the behavior are thought to influence intention, and TPB includes perceived behavioral control over engaging in the behavior as a factor influencing intention. TPB has been used in many different studies in the information systems literature (Mathieson, 1991; Taylor and Todd, 1995a, b; Harrison et al., 1997). According to TPB, an individual's performance of a certain behavior is determined by his or her intent to perform that behavior. Intent is itself informed by attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms about engaging in the behavior, and perceptions about whether the individual will be able to successfully engage in the target behavior. According to Azjen (1985), an attitude toward a behavior is a positive or negative evaluation of performing that behavior. Attitudes are informed by beliefs, norms are informed by normative beliefs and motivation to comply, and perceived behavioral control is informed by beliefs about the individual's possession of the opportunities and resources needed to engage in the behavior (Azjen, 1991).

 

 

Azjen compares perceived behavioral control to Bandura's concept of perceived self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997). TPB also includes a direct link between perceived behavioral control and behavioral achievement. Given two individuals with the same level of intention to engage in a behavior, the one with more confidence in his or her abilities is more likely to succeed than the one who has doubts (Azjen, 1991). As a general theory, TPB does not specify the particular beliefs that are associated with any particular behavior, so determining those beliefs is left up to the researcher. An underlying premise of the current study is that beliefs about privacy and trustworthiness of the Internet inform attitudes toward Internet purchasing. TPB provides a robust theoretical basis for testing such a premise, along with a framework for testing whether attitudes are indeed related to intent to engage in a particular behavior, which itself should be related to the actual behavior. Based on the theory, beliefs about how important referent others feel about Internet purchasing, and motivation to comply with the views of important others, should also influence intent to make Internet purchases. Finally, beliefs about having the necessary opportunities and resources to engage in Internet purchasing should influence intent to purchase as well as directly influence purchasing behavior itself.

 

 

In the current study, TPB served as a useful foundation for helping explain Internet purchasing, even though the model used here departed from TPB traditions by not including intentions. The relationship between attitudes towards online purchasing and the actual behavior was strong and positive, even though it was not mediated by intention. The direct relationship in TPB between perceived behavioral control and behavior was supported here, and the relationship between self-efficacy and PBC was strong. Typically in TPB models, the effects of subjective norms on behavior would also be mediated by intention instead of the direct relationship posited here. That hypothesized direct relationship was not supported, even though the expected relationship between normative structure and subjective norms was. In this particular case, it may be that parents, friends, professors and classmates are not the important others that students listen to for determining their Internet behavior. Battacherjee (2000) found a strong relationship between subjective norms and intention, with the strongest antecedent to subjective norms being such external influences as news reports, the popular press, and mass media. It may also be the case here that external influences such as mass media would have been more persuasive than the referent others. As more and more studies of Internet purchasing behavior and its antecedents are done within the TPB framework, people are more able to discover and confirm which antecedents are most important, helping them build a robust theory of purchasing behavior.

 

Theory of planned behavior (TPB) is a theory introduced by Icek Ajzen in 1988, which helps to understand how people can change the behavior of people. TPB predicts deliberate behavior because behavior can be deliberative and planned. According to TPB, human action is guided by three kinds of considerations: 1) Behavioral Beliefs, 2) Normative Beliefs and 3) Control Beliefs. Theory of Planned Behavior is similar of Theory of Reasoned Action of Ajzen and Fishbein in 1975. Theory of planned behavior incorporates a construct of perceived behavioral control and thus enabling predictions to be made of actions that are under incomplete volitional control. In the theory, perceived behavioral control is a function of one's beliefs about how likely it is that one has the resources and opportunities required to perform the behavior. The theory was formulated by the Polish-born US psychologist Icek Ajzen (born 1942) and expounded Attitudes, Personality, and Behavior (1988) and in an article in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (1991). Ajzen's (1988) theory of planned behavior has been used to investigate numerous health behaviors including exercise (Courneya & McAuley, 1995; Michels & Kugler, 1998; Nguyen, Potvin, & Otis, 1997) and condom use (Sutton, McVey, & Glanz, 1999). Nurse researchers have used the theory of planned behavior in areas of study including breast self-examination (Young, Lierman, Powell-Cope, & Benoliel, 1991) infant feeding methods (Duckett et al., 1998; Janke, 1994; Wambach, 1997) intention to obtain a pap smear (Jennings-Dozier, 1999) and adolescents' smoking intentions (Hanson, 1999).

 

Social psychology theorists assert that beliefs and attitudes mediate intention, and intention motivates behavior. Ajzen's (1988) theory of planned behavior was designed to identify the causal antecedents of behavior, and thereby to enable professionals to design appropriate interventions to modify behavior based on the data received from quantitative instruments. The theory of planned behavior is an extension of the theory of reasoned action developed by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) which "views a person's intention to perform (or to not perform) a behavior as the immediate determinant of the action" (p. 41). Intentions are indicators of how hard people are willing to try to achieve behavioral goals. The theory of reasoned action includes two determinants to intention, one personal (attitude) and one social (subjective norm). An attitude is described as a negative or positive evaluation of performing or not performing a behavior. Subjective norm indicates a person's perceptions of the social pressures exerted by others who think that a given behavior should or should not be performed. Complete control over one's behavior is an assumption in the theory of reasoned action. Frequently people do not have complete control over their behavior. Adoption of a given behavior is located on a continuum that extends from total control to complete lack of control.

 

 

 

The theory of planned behavior includes the continuum, with the added construct of perceived behavioral control. Perceived behavioral control has been described as a measure of self-control (Hanson, 1997), and it is closely related to Bandura's (1977) concept of self-efficacy. Attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control can exert independent influences on the intention to perform the behavior in question as depicted in Figure 1 (Ajzen, 1991). People will tend to perform a behavior when they view it as having positive value for themselves, believe that others important to them think they should perform the behavior and perceive that they have some measure of control over the behavior (Courneya & McAuley, 1995). Ajzen asserted that all behaviors can be traced to a person's conscious, "accessible" beliefs about a behavior (Ajzen, 1988). Attitude originates from behavioral beliefs about the advantages and disadvantages of performing a given behavior such as evaluations of the consequences of performing or not performing the behavior. Subjective norm is a function of normative beliefs that are based on the likelihood that identified people or groups would approve or disapprove of performing the behavior, and one's motivation to comply with these others' opinions. Perceived behavioral control indicates beliefs about resources, opportunities, obstacles, and impediments to performing a behavior and how much influence beliefs have on performing the behavior (Ajzen, 1988; Hanson, 1999). Integral to the theory of planned behavior is instrument development.

 

The theory of planned behavior requires that the construction of the belief-based scales of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control be accomplished by sampling respondents representative of the study population. This phase of instrument development is termed the "elicitation study" (Ajzen, 1991; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). Specific questions addressing the belief-based construct of attitude in an elicitation study of postpartum smoking relapse would include, "What are the advantages and disadvantages of smoking after having a baby?" Subjective norm would be determined by asking women, "Who approves and disapproves of your smoking after having a baby?" and "How much does it matter to you what this person thinks?" Perceived behavioral control issues would be measured by the question: "What might keep you or stop you from smoking after having a baby?" Lastly, asking an open-ended question about the unique features of having a new baby and the effects of smoking should be included. The inclusion of the elicitation study is a major strength of the theory of planned behavior.

 

 

 

 

 

The term "external variable" is used to indicate any independent variable not included in the theory of planned behavior. External variables are incorporated into studies using the theory of planned behavior to test the predictability and adequacy of the theory for a given population. The belief-based scale items derived from the accessible beliefs were originally purported to incorporate the influence of external factors such as age or education in the final determination of intention to perform a given behavior. However, Ajzen (1991) has since stated that the theory of planned behavior is open to the inclusion of predictors outside the stated theory, "if it can be shown that they capture a significant proportion of the variance in intention or behavior after the theory's current variables have been taken into account" (p. 199). In addition to demographic variables such as level of education, "context-specific" external variables, such as degree of nicotine addiction and smoking history, have been included in studies using the theory of planned behavior (Hu & Lanese, 1998; Norman, Bell, & Conner, 1999). Having a partner who smokes has also been a variable associated with smoking relapse in numerous descriptive studies (McBride et al., 1998; Mullen et al., 1997; Ratner, Johnson, Bottorff, Dahinten, & Hall, 2000; Severson, Andrews, Lichtenstein, Wall, & Zoref, 1995).

 

 

 

The separate consideration of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors is well established (Petty and Cacioppo, 1981). Fishbein and Ajzen has advanced a theory of reasoned action asserting that individuals’ beliefs and attitudes largely explain most human behaviors (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). Although this theory is similar in some respects to other theories that explain human motivation and behavior, such as the expectancy theory developed by Vroom (1964) and the theory of behavior in organizations developed by Naylor et al. (1980), the theory is particularly useful because of its explicit attention to beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. This theory also gives explicit attention to one’s beliefs about the opinions of relevant other persons and one’s motivation to comply with those opinions, which may be useful in understanding the effect of the other members of the work unit on the polychronic behavior of the individual. A major determinant of the behavioral intention is the attitude toward that behavior, which follows from beliefs that the behavior leads to outcomes that the individual evaluated. The theory also specifies that the behavioral intention is affected by the subjective norm, which is determined by: (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1969; Davidson and Jaccard, 1975; DeVries and Ajzen, 1971; McArdle, 1972; Petty and Cacioppo, 1981).

 

 

 

Ø      beliefs that specific other persons advocate performing or not performing the behavior

Ø      the motivation to comply with their needs

Employing cognitive theories of behavior, which consider behavioral antecedents, is consistent with these suggestions. In this study, we examine the compliance behavior of taxpayers using Ajzen's (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior (hereafter, TPB) which offers a comprehensive theory of the ant ecedents to behavior and a structure for extending prior research. Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB) models behavioral intention as depending on three factors: (1) attitude toward the behavior (2) subjective norms and (3) perceived behavioral control. Each of the determinants of behavioral intention is itself a function of an individual's salient beliefs. Several social psychology studies have validated the TPB in a variety of contexts. (1) Two studies are particularly relevant to the investigation of noncompliance with tax laws. Beck and Ajzen (1991) studied the TPB's ability to predict dishonest actions by college students.

 

 

 

 

In another study, Parker et al. (1995) studied British drivers' intentions to engage in driving violations. In both of these studies, not only did the TPB constructs influence behavior, but a personal norm constructs added explanatory power to the model. Ajzen (1991) describes subjective norms as the influence of referent others. Subjective norms refer to a person's beliefs about whether specific individuals or groups approve or disapprove of the individual performing a specific behavior, and to what extent the individual is motivated to conform with these other individuals or groups. Subjective norms can be assessed directly or by considering the fundamental beliefs that underlie an individual's judgment of subjective norms. Prior research has found some evidence that taxpayers' beliefs about the expectations of important others is related to compliance intentions. In the TPB, perceived behavioral control (PBC) refers to the degree of control an individual perceives he has to engage in a particular behavior. More specifically, control beliefs, the fundamental determinants of perceived behavioral control, refer to an individual's beliefs regarding the presence or absence of resources and opportunities, as well as the obstacles and impediments to perform the specific behavior In question (Robben et al. 1990; Antonides and Robben 1995; Carnes and Englebrecht 1995).

 

 

 

Concern about the behavior has not been previously identified as a belief influencing compliance attitudes or intentions. A surprising result is that this concern appears to influence taxpayers' attitude more than their concern about incurring a penalty. Thus there appears to be a separate, negative "psychic" cost to engaging In a behavior that influences individuals' attitudes toward cheating. These belief measures were combined into an overall attitude score and included with subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and moral obligation as a test of the TPB. The fit of the models suggests that the TPB is an appropriate context to consider variables that influence technology and communication processes within the acquisition of the planned behavior (Bluedorn et al., 1999).