Usability, expectation, confirmation, and continuance intentions to use electronic textbooks

Abstract

A trend in education is the use of electronic textbooks (e-textbook, [Stone, R. W., and L. Baker-Eveleth. 2013. “Students’ Expectation, Confirmation, and Continuance Intention to Use Electronic Textbooks.” Computers in Human Behavior 29 (3): 984–990.]). A variety of research has examined the motivations for e-textbook adoption as well as continuance intentions of e-textbooks after an initial adoption. This research extends the continuance intentions literature using the expectation–confirmation model ([Bhattacherjee, A. 2001. “Understanding Information Systems Continuance: An Expectation–Confirmation Model.” MIS Quarterly 25 (3): 351–370.]) and including the constructs of e-textbook usability and its dimensions. The data were responses to an online questionnaire by students at a medium-sized (USA) university. A total of 1434 responses were received for a 12.52% response rate. These responses were partitioned to include only complete responses from students who had previously used an e-textbook. This produced a sample of 639 questionnaire responses for empirical analysis. The analysis was performed using structural equation modelling (i.e. Procedure Calis in PC SAS version 9.2). The results showed that students' continuance intentions of e-textbooks are driven by students' satisfaction with e-textbooks and perceived usefulness. Additionally, students' expectation–confirmation and e-textbook usability positively influence both students' satisfaction and perceived usefulness and hence the intentions for continued e-textbook adoptions. Finally, the usability dimensions of efficiency and effectiveness significantly influence e-textbook usability.