Toward a model of mindfulness in technology acceptance

Abstract

When making the decision to whether or not to accept a technology, a person may be mindful of the technology being considered and of his/her own needs and may actively search for information about the technology and his/her acceptance decision. Alternatively, he or she may instead mindlessly accept the technology without knowing much about it and without really knowing how it serves his/her own needs. This research investigates how mindfulness influences one's decision to accept technology. A research model of mindfulness in technology acceptance was developed. The model delineates how mindfulness influences one's beliefs about and intention to use a technology. Specifically, mindfulness should help to reduce the uncertainty about the acceptance of a technology (either directly or via reduced complexity), enhance one's perceived usefulness about that technology, and directly promote one's intention to use it. An empirical study on 160 adopters of PBwiki, an online wiki system, was conducted to examine the research model. The results largely supported the research model. Mindfulness is confirmed to be able to allay uncertainty about the acceptance of a technology and to significantly influence the formation of user beliefs about a technology and intention to use it. These findings have significant research and practical implications.