Ramifications of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) among developing countries' higher education staffs

A considerable amount of research using Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) has been conducted worldwide to investigate the intention and actual usage of Learning Management Systems (LMS) by tertiary staff during COVID-19. However, there seems to be a lack of such research in developing countries like South Africa. Equally important is the examination of how UTAUT, in the context of developing countries, either supports or contradicts existing findings. Our motivation, therefore, was to determine whether the behavioural intention (BI) of tertiary staff within the context of a developing country aligns with or contradicts existing findings. Simultaneously, we aimed to explore the areas identified by UTAUT that should be addressed or considered based on these factors. We also incorporated additional context specific to developing countries. Guided by ten (10) hypotheses, we employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyse the measurement and structural models using a survey of two hundred and sixty-four (264) respondents from one university in the Province of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. According to the UTAUT model, several factors such as performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), attitude toward using technology (ATT), social influence (SF), self-efficacy (SE), anxiety (ANX), and facilitating conditions (FC) influence BI. However, the results obtained through path coefficient bootstrapping, using 10,000 subsamples, revealed that the intention to use LMS was explained by only three latent constructs: facilitating conditions (FC & RARR; BI), performance expectancy (PE & RARR; BI), and social-influence (SI & RARR; BI). These three factors collectively accounted for approximately 44% of the variance (R-squared) in BI. We argue that instead of solely critiquing UTAUT, it is essential to consider its limitations and explore future research opportunities, particularly in connecting BI with actual usage. Overall, the theoretical implications of these results underscore the importance of acknowledging the influence of context and the limitations of existing theories in understanding technology acceptance in developing countries.