Two Types of Attitudes in ICT Acceptance and Use

Information and communication technology (ICT) acceptance and use is a prolific research stream in the information systems field. Yet studies on attitude have gone through ups and downs yielding inconsistent and inconclusive findings on attitude's role and impact. This article provides clear definitions of two different types of attitudes and details their relationships to each other and to technology use intention. Empirical data confirm the following: (a) At a theoretical level, attitude toward using ITC as a behavior (ATB) is a better predictor of behavioral intention (BI) than attitude toward ICT as an object (ATO) or ICT; ATO has a positive influence on ATB; and ATO's effect on BI is fully mediated by ATB. (b) Attitudes toward a previous version of the ICT and its use have significant impacts on the current attitudes. (c) At the operational level, considering only one aspect of the attitude constructs will lead to different results of the roles of attitudes on intention.