Including Subjective Norm and Technology Trust in the Technology Acceptance Model: A Case of E-Ticketing in China

Chang Boon Patrick Lee Faculty of Business Administration University of Macau Guohua Wan School of Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Abstract This paper is concerned with a modified Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) that includes subjective norm and technology trust as antecedents of adoption intention. Although much of previous research has included subjective norm as an adoption factor, the results obtained are not consistent. This study suggests that subjective norm is salient when adoption involves people living in collectivist societies. Trust in the ability of the technology is also important, particularly for people who are unfamiliar with new technologies. The proposed model was tested in the context of electronic ticketing for air travelers in China. Implications of the results in terms of both theory and practice are discussed. Keywords: Technology acceptance; Technology trust; Subjective norm; E-ticketing ACM Categories: K.4.4: Electronic Commerce; K.6: Management of Computing and Information Systems. Introduction The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which posits that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are the key determinants of technology adoption (Davis, 1989), is one of the most parsimonious and widely accepted technology adoption models. Many studies have extended the TAM to include subjective norm as an antecedent of technology adoption. Subjective norm refers to a person's perception that most people who are important to him/her think he/she should or should not perform the behavior in question (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). Empirical results related to subjective norm were mixed. Mathieson (1991) and Davis et al. (1989) found no significant effect of subjective norm on adoption intention, whereas Taylor and Todd (1995b) found significant effects. Hartwick and Barki (1994) found that subjective norm had an effect on adoption intention in mandatory settings but not in voluntary settings while Venkatesh and Davis (2000) showed that experience and voluntariness moderated the effect of subjective norm on usage intention. Given the inconsistent findings, it may be possible that the effect of subjective norm is contingent on the sample whether the sample comes from a collectivist or individualist culture. Individualismcollectivism (IC) refers to the relationship one perceives between oneself and the group in which one is a member (Hofstede, 2001). Members in individualistic societies tend to act autonomously with less attention to group opinion, while those in

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collectivist societies believe they owe their loyalty to the group. As members in the collectivist group feel the group is very important, they are more likely to adopt new technology when others in the group decide to do so. Since we examine individuals in a collectivist culture, subjective norm should have a significant impact on the technology adoption of our sample. Researchers have also made other revisions to the TAM. For example, Venkatesh et al. (2003) developed the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model by integrating previously studied TAMs. The UTAUT posits that the intention to accept and use a technology is related to performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions. Although UTAUT is a relatively comprehensive model, it does not include trust. Previous e-commerce research using TAM has included trust, but the focus of trust was based mostly on the online sellers and rarely on the technology. In this research, we include technology trust as a factor of adoption. Technology trust is important because using technology involves a number of risks (Neumann, 1993). Technology may not work or it may work incorrectly. While many people take it for granted that technology will function properly and efficiently, there are others who view technology with suspicion. They do not trust technology and so they may not use it. This research will examine the importance of technology trust in such a context. To summarize, the objective of this study is two-fold. The first is to shed some light on the controversy regarding the use of subjective norm in TAM research. The second is to examine the importance of technology trust in technology adoption. To fulfill the objective, we conducted research based in the context of electronic-ticketing (e-ticketing) adoption for air travelers in China. It is appropriate to base the study in China because China is a collectivist society: China has an IC score1 of 20 as compared to 91 for the U.S. (Hofstede, 2001). Subjective norm, therefore, should be an important adoption factor. Chinas technology development has also lagged those of advanced countries, due to lack of know how, experience, and technology infrastructure (Guo and Chen, 2005). People in China typically do not have much experience with technology and so they might have doubts about the capabilities of technological

innovations. Thus they need to trust e-ticketing before they can adopt it. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. The next section provides a literature review related to both e-ticketing and TAM. The subsequent sections deal with the research model and the empirical study to validate the model. The study then presents the results and concludes with a discussion.

Literature review
E-ticketing is a form of e-commerce whereby customers reserve a seat in an airline's database system and payment is made through the Internet (Hoosain et al., 2000). China Southern Airline (SCA) was the first airline in China to start using e-ticketing in the year 2000. Air China and China Eastern Airline implemented e-ticketing in the late 2003. In 2004, only 6.7 percent of the air passengers in China had used e-ticketing (9588.com, 2005). SCA also reported in 2007 that approximately 30 percent of the overall sales volume sold as e-tickets (CSA.com, 2007). The usage figures indicate that e-ticketing in China is still in its early adoption stages as compared to the U.S., where 87 percent of airline tickets issued in 2004 were electronic (Chen, 2007). While initially the low usage rate in China could have been due to slower implementation by the airlines, this is no longer the case as many airlines have already gone online (Business Times, 2006, 2007a; 2007b). E-ticketing is a technological innovation. Whether travelers will adopt e-ticketing, therefore, depends to a certain extent on their assessment of the technology. TAM has been validated across a wide range of information technology (Gefen et al., 2003a). It has also been used by Gefen and Straub (2003) to study e-ticketing adoption in the U.S. The results of their study showed that constructs in TAM accounted for a significant variance in the intention to purchase e-tickets. There are few studies of TAM outside the U.S. Results of these studies show that TAM is less predictive in places such as Japan, Switzerland, and the Arab countries (Straub et al., 1997; Rose and Straub, 1998). As mentioned in the introduction, there have been inconsistent results pertaining to the use of subjective norm in TAM research. Nevertheless, several crosscultural studies have reported that people in cultures exhibiting strong collectivism tend to emphasize the importance of subjective norm when making decisions (Lee and Green, 1991). China is a country that has a collectivist culture (Hofstede and Bond, 1984) and so subjective norm is likely to influence adoption intention. Furthermore, subjective norm

IC scores range from zero to 100; a low IC score typifies societies of a more collectivist nature with close ties between individuals whereas a high IC score indicates the importance of individuality within the society.

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tends to be more important during the introductory stages of adoption when people who intend to use a new technology have limited direct experience with it. When potential users do not have many sources where they can obtain advice, they are likely to look at their social environment for evaluative information and cues (Gefen et al., 2003a). Subjective norm, therefore, may be important in the context of our research. Few TAM studies have paid attention to technology trust (Lippert, 2001). Technology trust is important because technologies are not infallible. Sometimes, they malfunction due to software bugs or hardware failures (De Lollis, 2007). Even though companies try to debug their systems before releasing them to the marketplace, fixing all errors could prevent the systems from ever being released (De George, 2003). People become vulnerable when they depend on technologies (Martin, 1996). Should the technology not work as expected, they are placed in a situation of potential negative consequences. Trust is an effective way to reduce perceived uncertainties (Mayer et al., 1995; McKnight and Chervany, 2001/02; Ba and Pavlou, 2002), thereby generating a sense of safety. Such perceptions of safety can increase individuals intentions to adopt technologies (Schepers et al., 2008) There are many definitions of trust in the literature. Gefen (2003a) reviewed prior studies and found four different conceptualizations of trust. These conceptualizations view trust as (1) a set of specific beliefs dealing primarily with the ability, benevolence, and integrity of another party, (2) a general belief that another party can be trusted, (3) an affect that reflects feelings, or (4) a combination of these views. In this study, we are concerned with trust in the ability of the technology to work effectively. Trust in ability refers to the abilities of the trustee. Although prior studies used this notion to study individuals, trust in ability can also be applied to technology (Nass et al., 1996; Taddeo, 2009). We study trust in ability because of its focus on the process and procedures associated with eticketing. Implications regarding other aspects of trust such as integrity and benevolence are addressed in the Discussion section. Though not our major focus, we include familiarity as a construct in our model because of its potential to affect the level of trust as well as the impact that social norm has on intentions.

to subjective norm, technology trust, and familiarity. The constructs and their relationships are discussed below.

Figure 1: Proposed Model Intention to use e-ticketing Intention is defined as the strength of conscious plan to perform the targeted behavior (Keil et al., 1995). To study air travelers' acceptance of e-ticketing, their intention to use rather than actual behavior is chosen as the dependent variable for both theoretical and practical reasons. Theoretically, acceptance of eticketing is an individual's psychological state with regard to his or her voluntary intention to use a particular system (Gattiker, 1990). Numerous studies have reported a strong and significant causal link between behavioral intention and targeted behavior (Sheppard et al., 1988; Venkatesh and Davis, 2000). Using behavioral intention as a dependent variable to study individual acceptance of a new technology, therefore, is theoretically valid. Furthermore, this research was conducted in the early stages of eticketing development in China when it had not been widely adopted by travelers. It was practical, therefore, to use intention as a proxy for actual usage. TAM and e-ticketing TAM posits that there is a positive relationship between perceived usefulness and usage intention. This relationship is well established in the literature (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000; Taylor and Todd, 1995a). Perceived usefulness refers to an individual's subjective assessment of the utility offered by the new technology for specific tasks. In the context of eticketing, perceived usefulness is defined as the existence of advantages perceived by travelers when using e-ticketing. These advantages include allowing users the convenience and speed in making their

Research model and hypotheses

Figure 1 shows the research model. Besides TAM variables, the model also includes constructs related

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purchase. E-ticketing is available at all times when travelers have Internet access. Since users do not have to call or visit their travel agents, the time spent on purchasing air tickets could be considerably reduced. Furthermore, e-ticketing helps to reduce errors that could otherwise be caused by agents when they transcribe travelers' requirements onto paper tickets. Indeed, in a study among Internet users in the U.S., Gefen and Straub (2003) found that when users perceived e-ticketing as useful, they have high intention to use it. TAM also posits that a technology that is easier to use is perceived as more useful (Davis, 1989). Perceived ease of use refers to the cognitive effort required to learn and utilize a new technology. Rather than having a direct effect on intention, perceived ease of use influences intention to use primarily through its effect on perceived usefulness (Davis et al., 1989). A study by Gefen and Straub (2000) proposed that the relative importance of perceived ease of use depends on the nature of tasks. They found that perceived ease of use did not directly affect intention to use a website to purchase a product or service. They suggested that ease of use is more important to tasks that are intrinsic to information technology (IT)2. They also showed the relationship between ease of use and intention was mediated by perceived usefulness. Empirical studies related to online shopping (a task extrinsic to IT) have also shown that ease of use is only indirectly related to intention (e.g., Gefen and Straub, 2003; Chen et al., 2002). In this research, we refer to perceived ease of use as how easy it is to use e-ticketing. If the computer interface to purchase e-tickets is simple, easy to use, and does not require many skills, then it should be perceived as more useful (Gefen and Straub, 2003). Conversely, if the interface is difficult to understand and use, and requires many skills, then it should be perceived as less useful. Based on the above discussion, this study tests the following hypotheses to reaffirm their relationships in the Chinese eticketing context: Hypothesis 1: Perceived positively related to intention. usefulness is

When using e-ticketing, travelers may look for cues to have a sense of whether they can trust e-ticketing, just like people subconsciously look for cues (such as appearance) if they need to decide whether they can trust another party (Blau, 1964). Such cues may include ease of use. For example, if e-ticketing is wellexplained and has an easy to understand process, this will lessen the cognitive load on the travelers (Chalmer, 2003) and act as a cue that the system is well tested and has the ability to work effectively. Conversely, if e-ticketing is not easy to use, the complexity may cause travelers to cast doubts on its ability. In this instance, travelers may think that the technology is not yet ready for use. Perceived ease of use, therefore, contributes to trust in the ability of eticketing. Prior research has supported such a relationship between perceived ease of use and trust (Pavlou, 2003; Gefen et al., 2003a). However, here we propose a more precise relationship. We specifically address trust in the ability aspect of e-ticketing. The following hypothesis is therefore tested: Hypothesis 3: Perceived ease of use is positively related to trust in ability. TAM is derived from the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). One of the propositions of the TRA is that subjective norm is positively related to intention. Even though previous studies have obtained mixed results regarding the effect of subjective norm on intention, the reason subjective norm is included in this research is that, as explained earlier, it is a salient concept in a collectivist culture. Previous research has shown that people exhibiting higher levels of collectivism are more concerned with others' opinions than are people exhibiting higher levels of individualism (Peace et al., 2003; Choi and Feistfeld, 2004). Therefore the effect of subjective norm is likely to be significant in a collectivist country like China. That is, when travelers' referents think that they should use e-ticketing, the travelers are likely to be influenced to use e-ticketing. Hence the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 4: Subjective norm is positively related to intention. Trust As discussed earlier, trust is an important factor in technology adoption but prior studies have paid it little attention. Trust in ability helps to reduce perceptions that the technologies may not work. Technologies are fallible and using them can create vulnerability for the users. Trust in ability means that travelers believe the electronic process in e-ticketing has the ability to work

Hypothesis 2: Perceived ease of use is positively related to perceived usefulness.

2

Tasks that are extrinsic to IT are those in which the IT is only the means to achieving the primary product or service, such as when the IT is the interface through which one accomplishes a goal. Tasks that are intrinsic to IT are tasks where the IT itself provides the primary ends (Gefen and Straub, 2000)

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effectively, and with such trust, travelers will perceive that e-ticketing is useful. People who do not trust the capabilities of e-ticketing are less willing to depend on e-ticketing and they will perceive it as less useful. Trust in ability also relates to the mechanics of eticketing. Traditionally, travelers need to have official paper tickets from their travel agents or airline office. With e-ticketing, however, passengers can print their e-ticketing transaction recorded in the computer database and use it to replace traditional paper tickets. Trust based on the simplified procedures in eticketing would suggest that such trust affects usefulness. If travelers trust that e-ticketing produces a valid ticket, they will perceive that it is useful. On the other hand, if travelers do not trust that e-ticketing produces a valid ticket, they will not perceive that it is useful. Hence the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 5: Trust in ability is positively related to perceived usefulness. Familiarity Familiarity is widely recognized as a predictor of trust in the literature (Bhattacherjee, 2002). Familiarity refers to understanding anothers behavior based on prior interactions or experiences. Assuming that prior experiences are favorable, familiarity helps to develop trust. Without familiarity, trust cannot be adequately anchored to specific behaviors. The difference between familiarity and trust is that familiarity deals with past behaviors, while trust is about expectations of future behaviors (Gefen, 2000). Empirical studies on e-commerce have shown that familiarity with an ecommerce vendor builds trust in the vendor concerned (Gefen et al., 2003b; Gefen, 2000). In the current study, familiarity is based on an awareness of the e-ticketing process and its procedures. It relates to travelers' understandings of what e-ticketing does and how to do it. There are many news articles that enumerate the benefits and trustworthiness of e-ticketing (e.g., CNN, 2004; Shen, 2005; IATA, 2006). Given these consistently positive reports, it is reasonable to believe that Chinese travelers will generally have favorable past experiences with e-ticketing, which should provide for a positive relationship between familiarity with eticketing and trust. For example, as travelers are more familiar with e-ticketing, they will have more trust that e-ticketing will work even though they do not have official paper tickets. Conversely, travelers who are less familiar are likely to have less trust in the ability of e-ticketing to work, (and will be less inclined to travel without official paper tickets). Hence, the following hypothesis is tested:

Hypothesis 6: Familiarity is positively related to trust in ability. Previous research has shown that with experience, users find that a technology is easier to use (Karahanna et al., 1999). Similarly, when travelers are familiar with e-ticketing and its procedures, they gain the knowledge and understanding about how eticketing works and will find it easier to use. Simon and Gilmartin (1973) use cognitive maps to explain that with familiarity, a person has acquired the cognitive map needed to perform the procedures involved, and so they would find it easier to solve a problem with greater ease and fewer errors. Accordingly, familiarity with e-ticketing helps to increase user skill, reduce errors, and expedite the eticketing process. It enables travelers to use eticketing with greater ease, leading to the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 7: Familiarity is positively related to perceived ease of use. Familiarity and subjective norms Prior studies have suggested that subjective norm tends to be important during the introductory stages of adoption when people who intend to use a new technology have limited direct experience with it (Gefen et al., 2003a). In the absence of experience with a new technology, potential adopters are more likely to look to the opinions of those whom they trust to help them in their adoption intentions. When people have experience with the technology, however, the effect of subjective norm on intention may lose its significance. For example, Karahanna et al. (1999) found that that the relationship between behavioral intention and subjective norm was stronger for potential adopters than for users of IT. Familiarity is about personal knowledge and/or experience with a product, object, or activity in question (Dejoy, 1999). Familiarity, therefore, is a broader concept than experience. When travelers are not familiar with e-ticketing, they are more likely to rely on others to inform their adoption intention. When they become more familiar, the effect of subjective norm on intention is likely to decline. We hypothesize, therefore, that familiarity moderates the effect of subjective norm on intention: Hypothesis 8: Familiarity interacts with subjective norm such that familiarity decreases the impact of subjective norm on intention.

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Research Method
A questionnaire survey was used to collect data to test the research model. The data were collected in May 2004 at Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport, one of the largest airports in Mainland China. The target participants for the survey were Chinese air passengers who used the airport for departure. They included both domestic and international travelers. Measures The items used to operationalize the model constructs were adapted from the relevant literature. Changes were made to reflect the context for eticketing. The items for the dependent variable, intention to use e-ticketing, were adapted from Davis (1989). The items for perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were based on existing studies on TAM (Davis, 1989; Davis et al., 1989). The items for subjective norm were based on the scales developed in Taylor and Todd (1995b). As for trust and familiarity, the study referenced the items used in the literature (Gefen, 2000; Bhattacherjee, 2002) and adapted them for this research. Trust items focus on e-ticketing rather than the e-commerce vendors. They were based on respondents willingness to depend on e-ticketing. The items for measuring familiarity were based on familiarity with e-ticketing and its procedures, and not familiarity with the e-vendors. All items used in this research were assessed using a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). To ensure respondents understood the items, Chinese translations were provided. The accuracy of the Chinese translation was verified using back translation. The initial questionnaire items were examined by five academics familiar with the use of research instruments. Their comments were used to refine the contents and wordings of the items. The revised questionnaire was then pilot-tested with a group of 31 Chinese MBA students who had experience traveling by air. The purpose of the pilot was to determine if there were ambiguities in the questionnaire items. No adverse feedback was received from the participants. Appendix A provides the list of items used in the questionnaire. Data collection Two research assistants distributed the questionnaires by requesting participation from travelers at the airport. They informed the travelers that the survey was about e-ticketing and that the data collected were confidential. The respondents did not have to provide their names. Out of the 215

travelers approached to participate in the survey, 13 declined and 8 did not complete their questionnaires. The response rate, therefore, was about 91 percent. One hundred and ninety four of the valid returns were used for analysis in this study.

Results and Analysis

Demographics Table 1 shows the demographics of the respondents. The table shows that most respondents were young and tertiary educated. Only 14 percent of the respondents had bought e-tickets, confirming that eticketing was not widely used. Table 1. Demographics of respondents

Data analysis We used the Partial Least Square (PLS) software (PLS-Graph Version 3.0) to analyze the data. PLS does not require multivariate normality for analysis. It is suitable for use with smaller samples (Barclay et al., 1995). The PLS product-indicator approach (Chin et al., 2003) was used to test for interaction effect. To use the PLS product-indicator approach, we multiplied the standardized measures for indicators of subjective norm (predictor) with indicators for familiarity (moderator) to create six product indicators that reflect the latent interaction variables.

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Table 2. Results of principal component analysis

As for the construct reliability, the Cronbachs values were above 0.80, which supports the constructs reliabilities (Nunnally, 1967). For further reference, Appendix B presents the covariance matrix of the constructs at the item level. A CFA was run to further verify the discriminant validity of the constructs. We compared the square root of each constructs Average Variance Extracted (AVE) and its correlations with other constructs. Table 3 shows the results of the analysis. The table shows that the square root of the AVE is larger than its correlations with the other constructs, thus providing further evidence of discriminant validity in the constructs. Table 3 also shows that the composite reliabilities of the constructs are above the recommended threshold of 0.70. Figure 2 shows the results of the PLS analysis. The figure shows that the interaction effect is not significant. As such, H8 which states that familiarity interacts with subjective norm such that familiarity decreases the impact of subjective norm on intention, is not supported. All other paths in Figure 2 are in the expected direction and they are significant at p<0.01. Perceived usefulness and subjective norm are positively related to intention, supporting H1 and H4 respectively. Perceived ease of use and trust in ability are positively related to perceived usefulness, supporting H2 and H5 respectively. Perceived ease of use and familiarity are both positively related to trust in ability, supporting H3 and H6 respectively. Familiarity is also positively related to perceived ease of use, supporting H7. Thus, among the eight hypotheses tested in this study, seven are supported.

A principal component factor analysis was first performed. All items used in the study were entered into the factor analysis and seven factors were forced. Table 2 shows the results of the factor analysis, descriptive statistics, and construct reliability. The table shows that none of the individual items loaded more highly on another construct than they did on the constructs they were designed to measure. Thus, the results indicate convergent and discriminant validity.

Table 3. Descriptive Statistics Composite Reliability 0.941 0.948 0.972 0.922 0.955 0.973 0.983

Intention (1) Trust ability (2) Familiarity (3) Perceived usefulness (4) Perceived ease of use (5) Subjective norm (6) Familiarity x Subjective Norm (7)

(1) 0.943 0.474 0.291 0.517 0.394 0.458 0.056*

(2) 0.950 0.383 0.513 0.471 0.407 0.108*

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

0.972 0.245 0.203 0.223 0.215

0.894 0.618 0.388 0.104*

0.936 0.411 0.082*

0.961 -0.012*

0.952

Note: Correlations marked with *are not significant. All others are significant at p<0.001. Values at the diagonals of the correlation matrix are the square root of the average variance extracted.

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results are consistent with those of earlier research, where perceived usefulness emerged as the more influential factor compared to other adoption factors (Gefen et al., 2003a; Davis et al., 1989). The third implication of this research relates to the finding that familiarity did not interact with subjective norm in their impact on intention. This is surprising, but on hindsight this could be because our study comprised respondents from a strongly collectivist culture and so the effect of subjective norm could be independent of familiarity. Further research can be conducted to determine whether familiarity affects the relationship between subjective norm and intention in individualist culture. In terms of practical implications, the results of this study indicate that there may be a number of measures agencies in China can use to promote the use of technological innovations, such as e-ticketing. While it is important to emphasize usefulness and ease of use when promoting technology, efforts should also be directed at engaging opinion leaders to influence potential users. The results of this study have shown that subjective norm can be significant in influencing adoption intention, at least among people who share a collectivist culture. So it would be useful to set up channels where people can have social exchanges related to positive experiences in using the technology concerned. This can help to increase adoption intention. Another practical implication relates to perceived usefulness. The results of this study show that perceived usefulness can be increased through perceived ease of use and trust in ability of the technology. Both perceived ease of use and trust in ability can be increased through familiarity. To increase familiarity, organizations that seek to promote the technology can advertise messages about technologys ease of use, usefulness, and benefits. A final practical implication is that the model in this study may be used for e-ticketing in areas such as purchasing admission tickets to concerts or places of attraction. E-ticketing helps to avoid over-crowding at the ticket booths. It also helps to save customers time. Given these benefits, organizations should make use of adoption factors established in this research to help customers adopt e-ticketing. It is important to note that the results obtained in this study have some limitations. One is that the study used a convenience sample. Table 1 showed that the demographics of the respondents were mostly young and well educated. It is possible the demographics of

Figure 2: Results of PLS analysis

Discussion and Conclusion

The objectives of this study were to shed light on the controversy surrounding the use of subjective norm in TAM research and to determine the importance of technology trust as an adoption factor. The results of this study reaffirmed the importance of TAM constructs and showed that subjective norm was significant in the context of a collectivist society. Furthermore, the effect of subjective norm on intention was consistent, irrespective whether travelers were familiar with e-ticketing. The results of this study also showed that trust in the ability of eticketing was related to adoption intention through perceived usefulness. Trust is important because people may have doubts about the capabilities of new technologies. The results of this study showed that when subjective norm and technology trust were used in the appropriate contexts, they can be used to augment TAM constructs to provide richer explanations for technology adoption. There are three theoretical implications with regard to the results of this research. First, even though the efficacy of subjective norm is mixed in previous research, this study showed that subjective norm can play an important role in technology adoption in a collectivist culture. Future adoption studies should therefore include subjective norm where it is culturally appropriate. Results from these future studies can also help to confirm that subjective norm has a consistent effect on technology adoption when it is used in the right context. Second, the strength of various adoption factors indicate that perceived usefulness has more influence on intention than subjective norm. As shown in Figure 2, the coefficient for perceived usefulness to intention is higher than the coefficient for subjective norm to intention. These

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air travelers in other parts of China may be different. If the study had included travelers from rural airports in China, factors such as age, gender, education, and accessibility of Internet may also help to explain adoption intention. Another example in regard to this limitation is the application of our findings to eticketing for Chinese train passengers, especially those traveling around the Lunar New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival. This is because many train passengers during these time periods are migrant workers and their families, who are typically not highly educated. Another limitation is related to the measurements for some of the constructs used in this study. We used two items to measure constructs such as trust in ability, familiarity, and intention. More items would have made the measurements more rigorous. We also employed only one conceptualization of technology trust, which was based at a particular point in time. Future research might use longitudinal data to model trust over time (Zahedi and Song, 2008). Future research might also model the multidimensional aspects of trust and determine their differential roles in TAM. Other dimensions of trust include trust in integrity and benevolence. Integrity refers to trustees adherence to a set of principles or rules of exchange while benevolence refers to the intention not take advantage of the trustor. E-ticketing may violate integrity and benevolence by deliberately misleading travelers about the prices or it may sell information collected from the travelers to third parties without the travelers' consent. If travelers do not have trust in the integrity or benevolence of e-ticketing, they will have less intention to use it. Therefore, both trust in integrity and benevolence should be positively related to intention, but these relationships will probably not be mediated by perceived usefulness. We hypothesize this lack of mediation because even though travelers may perceive e-ticketing is useful (i.e., they trust it will result in valid tickets), they still may have low intentions to use e-ticketing if they suspect that it is not benevolent or does not possess integrity (e.g., they will be misled in terms of the price charged). Including such an expanded conceptualization of trust will help provide a better understanding of the relationship between trust and TAM constructs. To conclude, the results of this research affirmed key relationships in TAM and showed that factors such as subjective norm and technology trust influenced adoption intention, given the contexts of the case. Furthermore, the results showed that subjective norm had a significant effect on intention, irrespective whether the travelers are familiar with e-ticketing.

There are two key contributions in this research. One is that it sheds light on the controversy of subjective norm by supporting the notion that it may be more significant in more collectivist cultures. Another is that it highlights the importance of including trust within the TAM model.

Acknowledgement
The authors thank Professor Randy Cooper, the Senior Editor and the referees for their constructive comments and suggestions on the early version of the paper. They have helped to improve the quality of the paper substantially. All correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Guohua Wan (email: ghwan@sjtu.edu.cn)

References
9588.com, (2005). Media Room. ChinaDotMan to share in 300m e-ticket feast. [Online] Available at http://www.9588.com/en/Medias050202.htm Ba, S., and Pavlou, P.A. (2002). Evidence of the effect of trust building technology in electronic markets: price premiums and buyer behavior, MIS Quarterly, 26(3), 243-268. Barclay, D., Higgins., and Thompson, R. (1995). The Partial Least Squares Approach to causal modeling: personal computer adoption and use as an illustration, Technology Studies, 2(2), 285309. Bhattacherjee, A. (2002). Individual trust in online firms: Scale development and initial test, Journal of Management Information Systems, 19(1), 211241. Blau, P.M. Exchange and Power in Social Life, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1964. Business Times, (2006). China poised to be first in using only e-tickets. Singapore Press Holdings, 14 December 2006. Business Times, (2007a). China Southern Airlines looks toward 100% e-ticketing. Singapore Press Holdings, 2 August, 2007. Business Times, (2007b). Five China carriers branch into e-ticketing services, Singapore Press Holdings, 2 Oct 2007. Chalmer, A.P. (2003). The role of cognitive theory in human-computer interface, Computers in Human Behavior, 19(5), 593-607. Chen, F.C. (2007). Passengers use intentions for electronic tickets, Journal of Air Transport Management 13(2), 110-115. Chen, L., Gillenson, M.L., and Sherrell, D.L. (2002). Enticing online consumers: an extended technology acceptance perspective, Information and Management, 39(8), 705-719.

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Chin, W., Marcolin, B. and Newsted, P.R. (2003). A partial least squares latent variable modeling approach for measuring interaction effects: Results from a Monte Carlo Simulation study and an electronic-mail emotion/adoption study, Information Systems Research, 14(2), 189-217. Choi, J. and Geistfeld, L.V. (2004). A cross-cultural investigation of consumer e-shopping adoption, Journal of Economic Psychology 25(6), 821-838. CNN.com (2004). The rise of self-service travel, [Online] Available at http://edition.cnn.com/2004/ TRAVEL/06/10/bt.self.service/index.html CSA.com (2007). China Southern Airlines celebrates 7 years of e-ticketing, [Online] Available at http://www.csair.com/en/NEWS/2007/03/2007033 01040.asp Davis, F.D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly 13(3), 319-340. Davis, F.D. Bagozzi, R.P., and Warshaw, P.R. (1989). User acceptance of computer technology: A comparison of two theoretical models. Management Science 35(8), 982-1003. Dejoy, D.M. (1999). Attitudes and beliefs. In Warnings and Risk Communication, (Wogalter, M., Dejoy, D. and Laughery, K., Eds) p. 199, CRC Press, London. De George, R.T. (2003). The Ethics of Information Technology Business, Blackwell, London. De Lollis, B. (2007). US Airways ticketing system problems persist, USA Today, [Online] Available at http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/200703-05-us-airways-monday-update_N.htm Fishbein, M. and Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. Gattiker, U.E. (1990). Technology Management in Organizations. Sage, Newbury Park, CA. Gefen, D. (2000). E-commerce: The role of familiarity and trust. Omega: International Journal of Management Science 28(6), 725-737. Gefen, D., Karahanna, E., and Straub, D.W. (2003a). Trust and TAM in online shopping: an integrated model, MIS Quarterly 27(1), 51-90. Gefen, D., Karahanna, E., and Straub, D.W. (2003b). Inexperience and experience with online stores: The importance of TAM and trust, IEEE Transactions on Engineering and Management, 50(3), 307-321. Gefen, D. and Straub, D.W. (2000). The relative importance of perceived ease-of-use in IS adoption: A study of e-commerce adoption, JAIS, 1(8), 1-30. Gefen, D. and Straub, D. (2003). Managing user trust in B2C e-services, e-Service Journal 2(2), 7-24.

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About the Authors

Chang Boon Patrick Lee is an Associate Professor of Business Information Systems at the Faculty of Business Administration, University of Macau. Patrick has a broad range of research interests that include E-commerce, E-government, E-gaming, and management of computer professionals. His research has been published in international journals, such as Information & Management and Accounting, Management and Information Technologies, as well as in international conference proceedings. Guohua Wan is a Professor of Management Science and Associate Dean of School of Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China. He had taught in the University of Macau before moving to SJTU. He holds a PhD from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research interests include supply chain management and information systems. He has published around 40 articles in such journals as Operations Research, Naval Research Logistics, European Journal of Operational Research, Computers and Operations Research.

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Appendix A - Items used in the study

Measurement Items Intention 1 Intention 2 Trust ability 1 Trust ability 2 Familiarity 1 Familiarity 2 Perceived usefulness 1 Perceived usefulness 2 Perceived usefulness 3 Perceived ease of use 1 Perceived ease of use 2 Perceived ease of use 3 Subjective Norm 1 Subjective Norm 2 Subjective Norm 3 Assuming E-ticket is available, I predict that I will use E-ticket. Assuming E-ticket is available, I will use E-ticket frequently. I trust that E-ticketing works. I trust the validity of E-ticket. I am familiar with the procedures for buying E-ticket. I am familiar with E-ticket. Using E-ticket enables me to shorten my time spent on ticketing issues. Using E-ticket makes it easier to buy air ticket. I find E-ticket useful in my journey. Learning to use E-ticket is easy for me. It is easy for me to become skillful at using E-ticket. I find E-ticket easy to use. My peers think that I should use E-ticket. My superiors think that I should use E-ticket. Other people who influence my behavior think that I should use E-ticket.

Appendix B: Covariance Matrix at the Item Level

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Items INT1 INT2 PU1 PU2 PU3 PEOU1 PEOU2 PEOU3 TRUSTA1 TRUSTA2 FAM1 FAM2 SN1 SN2 SN3 1 1.86 1.45 1.03 0.99 0.96 0.77 0.73 0.77 0.84 0.94 0.65 0.70 0.85 0.87 0.77 2 1.87 0.95 0.89 0.91 0.67 0.62 0.70 0.79 0.89 0.70 0.73 0.88 0.89 0.85 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

2.70 2.05 1.58 1.21 1.23 1.19 0.89 1.18 0.69 0.76 0.81 0.81 0.73

2.61 1.77 1.34 1.31 1.26 1.04 1.21 0.64 0.62 0.77 0.79 0.68

2.42 1.30 1.17 1.14 0.90 1.06 0.60 0.59 0.88 0.90 0.84

2.46 1.95 1.76 0.77 0.95 0.58 0.58 0.74 0.83 0.72

2.18 1.73 0.87 1.08 0.56 0.62 0.77 0.87 0.79

2.07 0.87 1.07 0.36 0.45 0.88 0.97 0.89

2.18 1.79 1.04 1.19 0.77 0.84 0.76

2.29 0.80 1.00 0.90 0.93 0.80

3.60 3.22 0.62 0.70 0.49

3.68 0.61 0.69 0.46

2.27 2.15 1.89

2.35 1.99

2.01

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