Understanding User Behavioral Intention to Adopt a Search Engine that Promotes Sustainable Water Management

Ana Reyes-Menendez,Jose Alvarez-Garcia,Pedro Palos-Sanchez,Jose Saura

doi:10.3390/sym10110584

Abstract

An increase in users’ online searches, the social concern for an efficient management of resources such as water, and the appearance of more and more digital platforms for sustainable purposes to conduct online searches lead us to reflect more on the users’ behavioral intention with respect to search engines that support sustainable projects like water management projects. Another issue to consider is the factors that determine the adoption of such search engines. In the present study, we aim to identify the factors that determine the intention to adopt a search engine, such as Lilo, that favors sustainable water management. To this end, a model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is proposed. The methodology used is the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis with the Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS). The results demonstrate that individuals who intend to use a search engine are influenced by hedonic motivations, which drive their feeling of contentment with the search. Similarly, the success of search engines is found to be closely related to the ability a search engine grants to its users to generate a social or environmental impact, rather than users’ trust in what they do or in their results. However, according to our results, habit is also an important factor that has both a direct and an indirect impact on users’ behavioral intention to adopt different search engines.

Highlights

IntroductionThe number of people who have access to the Internet has grown, reaching 3.8 billion active users worldwide
In recent years, the amount of information available on the Internet has dramatically increased [1].The number of people who have access to the Internet has grown, reaching 3.8 billion active users worldwide
The results demonstrate that individuals who intend to use a search engine are influenced by hedonic motivations, which drive their feeling of contentment with the search

Summary

Introduction

The number of people who have access to the Internet has grown, reaching 3.8 billion active users worldwide. Considering that online multimedia information is available in the form of images, text, video or audio [2], a classification system is necessary to be able to show this information to users according to the searches they perform. To this end, search engines have been created that show a series of Internet results that are indexed and that contain relevant information related to a search [3]. Several studies have studied the criteria followed by search engines to show the information and its optimization (e.g., [4]). Of all search engines that exist today, the one with the highest number

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Conclusion