Investigating students’ intentions to use ICT: A comparison of theoretical models

In the technology acceptance studies, both the theory of reasoned action and the technology acceptance model have been widely adopted to study the factors that influence users’ technology usage intentions. While these frameworks have been mostly tested in Western nations, there has been a little effort to apply these frameworks in non-Western nations. With the globalization of education and technology, there is an urgent demand to know whether TRA and TAM apply in another culture. This study compared TRA, TAM and integrated frameworks that best explained or predicted students’ technology usage intention. Structural equation model was employed to perform the data analysis collected from 487 university students. The results showed that there were no differences in predictive strength of behavioral intention among the three models. Thus, the predictive strength of the three models was similar. This study contributed to the ongoing discourses in employing theoretical models to understand undergraduate students’ behavioral intention in educational contexts in developing countries. Implications, limitations and future studies were discussed.