Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and UTAUT

Overview

TAM posits that Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) determine behavioral intention to use technology. UTAUT synthesizes eight prior models into four core constructs — Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, and Facilitating Conditions — moderated by age, gender, experience, and voluntariness.

When to Use

• Predicting user adoption of a new technology or system
• Diagnosing why a technology rollout has low uptake
• Designing interventions to improve acceptance rates
• Comparing adoption drivers across user segments

When NOT to Use

• Post-adoption continuance (use Expectation-Confirmation Model)
• Organizational-level diffusion (use DOI or TOE framework)
• When adoption is mandatory with no behavioral variance