Adapting the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) For Business Events: The Event Organizer Perspectives

Abstract

Information communication technology plays a vital role in the staging of business events including the promotion and organization of events. However, determining what drives organizers to adopt communication technology in conferences has been largely overlooked. This study seeks to address this gap by proposing a modification to the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to examine adoption behavior at the organization level. Qualitative data were collected from 13 semistructured interviews with professional conference organizers who had experience in using technology for conference participation. Findings demonstrate that external environment and organization technology capability influence professional conference organizers (PCOs) to adopt technology in their conference. In addition, job relevance, output quality, perceived playfulness, and trustworthiness are four technology characteristics that have a direct effect on the perception of usefulness and ease of use. Recommendations to the PCOs to improve strategy in adopting technology in business events are discussed base on the results.