AN ANALYSIS OF ELECTRONIC-MAIL USAGE

Advances in information technology have set the pace for tremendous gr owth in the development of new computer-mediated channels of communica tion services and technologies. That these recent developments are fue led by technology might misleadingly suggest that the selection of a c ommunication channel is largely based an technological criteria. Commu nication technologies require multiple users and cannot be used succes sfully by one person acting alone. Therefore, problems may arise when users fail to consider their self-efficacy and/or fail to consider soc ial factors related to communication channel use. The main purpose of this study was to establish a better measure and model for use in pred icting and explaining electronic-mail systems as an example of compute r-mediated communication technologies (CMCT) usage and choice. The res ults indicated that all of the eight hypotheses showed significant cor relation between criterion and predictor variates, supported by differ ent canonical functions. The objective of the study was achieved by sh owing that the proposed research model can explain and predict the ind ividual and combined effects of user self-efficacy, technological char acteristics, and social-influence perspectives on CMCT usage and choic e, (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.