An empirical investigation of the factors affecting the adoption of Instant Messaging in organizations

Abstract

Instant Messaging (IM) has become one of the most popular applications for many Internet users. As a means of communication, it has not only been influential at the personal level, but has also affected interaction between members of business organizations. Previous studies mainly focus on IM usage at the personal level, and do not investigate IM usage within organizations. This study proposes a model to conform to a scenario of IM usage within organizations based on the decomposed theory of planned behavior. The study presents an empirical investigation of the factors influencing workers within organizations to adopt IM usage. A total of 313 valid questionnaires were returned. A structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to test the research hypothesis. The results indicate that perceived presence awareness has the greatest positive impact on the attitude of organization workers towards IM, while critical mass causes a negative effect. Perceived usefulness on the other hand had no significant effect. As for subjective norm, peers have the greatest influence while the superior's influence is not significant. In terms of perceived behavioral control, facilitating conditions are more influential than self-efficacy. The study provides implications from both a theoretical and managerial point of view.