VOL. 1, NO.

2, Oct 2010 E-ISSN 2218-6301

Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and Information Sciences

©2009-2010 CIS Journal. All rights reserved.

http://www.cisjournal.org

Impact of Gender and Nationality on Acceptance of a Digital Library: An

Empirical Validation of Nationality Based UTAUT Using SEM
Rita Oluchi ORJI
Computer Science Department
University of Saskatchewan, Canada
E-mail: rita.orji@usask.ca

ABSTRACT

Electronic Library Systems (ELS) has become an inevitable part of educational institutions. Though millions of dollars are
spent building and developing these systems, research findings indicates that millions of potential users may still be ignoring
them. Consequently, different Technology Acceptance Models have been applied towards understanding the effect of various
factors on end users acceptance of Information Systems (IS). Gender has been found to be an important factor and, as such, has
attracted a lot of attention from the research community. Our research, however, recognized the existence of a different cohort
group of users of ELS with different usage behavior not just based on gender but also based on nationality and, therefore,
developed a Nationality Based UTAUT (NUTAUT) adapted from UTAUT to account for the effect of gender and nationality
on acceptance, simultaneously. Nationality was introduced based on the assumption that the UTAUT independent constructs
will impact on acceptance and usage differently when moderated by gender and nationality simultaneously. The result obtained
from the analysis of data collected from 116 student participants provides support for NUTAUT by showing that the various
UTAUT constructs exert varying degree of effects when moderated by gender and nationality combined. It not only confirms
the NUTAUT robustness in predicting acceptance of both Male and Female Students (91% and 85% respectively) but also
determines the importance of each independent construct to each group, based on their nationality and gender. Social Influence
was found to be significant for both international males and females while effort expectancy is a more significant factor for
both national males and females. This result indicated that the effect of gender on adoption and use of technology also differ
based on nationality. The results of the study are expected to assist in understanding the use of ELS across different cohort
groups in society, particularly those in different gender and nationality groups, and serve as a mechanism in guiding the
development of ELS, as well as in aiding policy formulation regarding ELS and IS design for schools, research, commercial
and work places. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used as the main technique for data analysis.

Keywords: Digital Library, Technology Acceptance, Information Retrieval, UTAUT Model, Structural Equation Model, Gender,
Nationality.

1. INTRODUCTION referred to as Digital Library). Many Universities have

There has been a continuous increase in investment
by various governmental and non-governmental
organizations in new information technology and tools for
effective operation and management. The U.S. Department
of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis state that as
much as 50% of all new capital investment is made on
information technology (IT) [1]. Consequently, Electronic
Library Systems (ELS) has become an inevitable part of
today’s educational system; a qualitative library system can
directly or indirectly improve the quality of education. ELS
aims to acquire, store, organize and preserve information for
easy access and retrieval. Leedy [2] found out that
information seekers often need the assistance of a Librarian,
especially when the catalogues and guides were not useful.
In recognition of this, many attempts have been made
towards the establishment and improvement of the structure
of the library to achieve high degree of usefulness, easier
access and retrieval of information. This advancement gave
birth to the concept of Electronic Library System (ELS) (also
digitized their library systems. However, while many
resources have been devoted to developing these systems,
library researchers have observed that digital libraries
remain underutilized [3] and if these systems are not widely
utilized, it will be difficult to obtain corresponding return on
investments. Therefore, there is a clear need to identify and
compare factors that can affect ELS acceptance and use by
people from different cohort group especially people of
different nationality and gender so that information system
designers, school managers, library managers and others can
formulate strategies to design systems that can be acceptable
by all (males, females, international, national).
It has been shown that women are significantly less
receptive to IT than men and it is also agreed that
understanding the gender differences on the acceptance of
information technology will help in improving the overall
quality of IS. Therefore, understanding the relationships
between gender related constructs like nationality will be
helpful in explaining why female students have lower
technology acceptance.

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Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and Information Sciences
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The importance of this type of research is further
underscored by United Nations’ recommendations:
“...research institutions should, as appropriate, promote
research on the interrelationship between... gender and age”
[4].
As a result, the adoption and use of ELS in
educational and research institutes has become a topic of
broad interest to researchers and practitioners in
management.
Morris et al [5] found that the effects of gender on
individual adoption and use of technology differ based on
age. Specifically, they found that gender differences in
technology perceptions is more pronounced among older
workers while there is unisex pattern of results among
younger workers and Wang et al [6] found that gender
moderated the effect of performance expectancy, effort
expectancy and self efficacy. In addition, the work by
Venkatesh et al. [7] examined the simultaneous effects of
age and gender. In this paper however, we argue that the
effect exerted by gender on the independent constructs will
vary depending on whether the user is a national or
international student. International males will exhibit
difference usage behavior from national males and likewise
international females from national females. Consequently,
we developed a NUTAUT adapted from UTAUT Model to
account for the simultaneous moderating effect of gender
and Nationality on UTAUT model. This was motivated by
the observation that difference cohort groups of users
(national and international students) exhibit different use
behavior towards ELS based on not only gender but on
nationality. Our research model not only predicts the
varying degrees of acceptance for each user groups but also
shows the degree of importance of each independent
construct in determining acceptance for each group. The
study significantly contributes towards understanding the
acceptance of ELS in Academic environments and can also
be useful to school managers, bank managers and other IS
designers that makes decision about IS that is used by people
of different nationalities.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows: In
Section 2 we discuss the theoretical background of the study
while Section 3 presents our NUTAUT model. Section 4
highlights methods employed in our research and Section 5
presents the analysis of the result. Section 6 discusses our
finding followed by conclusions, limitations and
recommendations for future work.
2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND RELATED
WORK
This section provides the theoretical background
and related work in the area of digital library system,
technology acceptance theories, gender in technology
acceptance and UTAUT model.
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2.1 Digital Library System
There have been significant advances in the
technical development of digital libraries in areas such as
information storage, information retrieval, and system
integration, resulting in dramatic improvements in their
performance. While many resources have been devoted to
developing these systems, library researchers have observed
that digital libraries remain underutilized [3]. Digital
libraries have received a lot of attention from researchers.
Neuman [8] in her naturalistic inquiry detailed some of the
difficulties 92 high school freshmen and sophomore
displayed as they interacted with digital library databases.
Her data revealed “basic difference between structures
inherent in database and the conceptual structure that
students bring to searching-differences so compelling that
they seriously hamper students’ independent use of these
resources” (p.74). The students’ lack of understanding of the
organization of information hampered them from accessing
the appropriate information for their research. The study
demonstrated that information search has not become easier
with the advent of technology.
2.2 Technology Acceptance Theories
It is a common belief that introducing a new
technology automatically results in service acceptance.
However, several research findings dispute this claim,
showing that there are several other factors that affect
technology acceptance [9]. Many IS researchers have
investigated various theories that could explain the
acceptance of information technology. These theories
include; the technology acceptance model (TAM) by Davis
[10]; the theory of reasoned action (TRA) by Fishbein and
Ajzen [11]; the theory of planned behavior (TPB) by Ajzen,
[12]. The TAM model is the most widely used and has
“perceived usefulness” and “perceived ease of use.” as its
main elements. The model suggests that when users are
presented with technology, “perceived usefulness” and
“perceived ease of use” influence their decisions about how
and when they will use the technology. The Perceived
Usefulness is defined as “the degree to which a person
believes that using a particular system would enhance his or
her job performance,” while Perceived Ease of Use is
defined as “the degree to which a person believes that using
a particular system would be free of effort” [10]. We
approached the adoption and discovery of critical factors
that affect adoption of ELS from the perspective of
technology acceptance.
2.3 Gender and Nationality in Acceptance and
Usage of Technology
Gender can be defined as “the way members of the
two sexes are perceived, evaluated, and expected to behave.”
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Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and Information Sciences

©2009-2010 CIS Journal. All rights reserved.

http://www.cisjournal.org
[13]. Gender is a significant variable in explaining
differential outcome in consumer behaviour research [14,
15]. There has been a limited amount of gender-based study
in information technology research [16, 17, 18]. However,
the differences between men and women have been studied
in various contexts such as electronic mail [19], information
retrieval [18], e-learning [20], communication technologies
[21] and online purchasing behaviour [17].
Majority of the studies appear more favorably towards men
than women. Anandarajan et al. [22] stated that men are
more likely to access work pages than women. Nevertheless,
gender was not linked with individual factors such as ease of
use, frequency of use and time usage. Gefen and Straub [16]
found that the perceptions of men and women vary. The
perceived social usefulness of email was found to be lower
with males than females. Conversely, men perceived ease of
Figure 1: UTAUT Model Venkatesh et al., [26]
use higher than women. Nonetheless, the actual use of email
did not vary across gender. Venkatesh et al. [18] proposed s
that gender would moderate the association between Table 1: UTAUT Components
perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and subjective
norm on intention to use the technology. These factors were Determinant Description
more important for men than women [17].
Performance Degree to which an individual believes that using
Moreover, owning to the changes in the makeup expectancy (PE) the system will help attain gains in job
and diversity of the workforce, gender differences are performance.
becoming increasingly important in managing the
Effort The degree of ease associated with the use of the
development and implementation of new technology ([19], expectancy (EE) system.
[23]). As many have noted, gender and age are among the Social influence The degree to which an individual perceives that
most fundamental groups to which individuals can belong (SI) important others believe he or she should use the
and membership of such groups is likely to have a profound new system.
influence on individual perceptions, attitudes, and Facilitating The degree to which an individual believes that
performance [24]. conditions (FC) an organizational and technical infrastructure
exists to support use of the system.
2.4 The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Behavioral The measure of the likelihood of an individual to
Technology (UTAUT) Model Intention (BI) employ the application.
Use Behavior This measures the acceptance of the technology.
Attempts to develop a model with correct and high
(UB)
prediction of technology acceptance gave rise to as many as
eight models, which have received support in recent Table 2: UTAUT Moderators
literature. These models use different determinants in Moderator Description
investigating acceptance of technology. A comparison of the Gender Gender roles have a strong psychological
determinants found in major acceptance and use models is basis and are enduring.
presented in [25, 37, 18, 7]. UTAUT model, as shown in Age Age has an effect on attitudes.
Figure 1, resulted from a study by Venkatesh [7] who Experience Deals with how long the user has used the
systematically compared the eight previous models and their system.
predictive factors. Determinants of acceptance in UTAUT Voluntariness of If usage is voluntary or mandated.
are: performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), use
social influence (SI) and facilitating conditions (FC) and the
model also integrates four moderating factors (gender, age,
Experience, and voluntariness) having varying influences on 3. MODEL FORMULATION
the primary constructs. The definition of the UTAUT This section summarizes the NUTAUT and
constructs and moderators are given in Table 1 and 2 proposed the hypothesis that guides this study.
respectively. The combinations of the constructs and
moderating factors have increased the predictive efficiency
of acceptance to 70% this is a major improvement over the
previous TAM model rates (35%) (Venkatesh et al. [7]).

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3.1 Nationality Based UTAUT (NUTAUT)
Since the development of UTAUT model, it has
attracted attention of many scholars in IS research because
of its predictive efficiency of 70% this is a major
improvement over the widely used TAM model with
predictive capacity of 35% [26, 18]. The scholars [27, 28]
validated the model and others [26, 30, 37, 31] extended it in
different contexts, including multicultural studies [32], and
all found its constructs highly predictive [7]. This, in
addition to the fact that the moderating variables offer
PE
EE
SI
FC
Nationality Voluntariness
Figure 2: Nationality Based UTAUT (NUTAUT)
3.2 Hypotheses
The expectations are that the survey will provide
evidence of varying degree of acceptance by male and
female students and also prove that the independent
variables will affect acceptance at different degrees for
these groups. Four hypotheses have been postulated to
guide this study.
It has been found that gender differences moderate
the effect of independent constructs on technology
acceptance and that it is more important for males [5, 33,
34, 35], we expect that performance expectancy related to
technology usefulness and its influence on acceptance will
be more important for international and national males than
their female counterpart, therefore, resulting in greater
influence on behavior intention in predicting ELS adoption.
Again, Examining social influence from a gender
perspective, the literature on gender differences and gender
roles suggests that women have higher affiliation needs and
are thus more concerned with pleasing others and more
likely to conform to majority opinions ([35], [36]) while
gender role theory suggests that women tend to value and
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flexibility to allow the introduction of new dimensions into
the model, was the major motivation for the use of UTAUT
model in the current investigation.
NUTAUT was adapted from UTAUT by introducing a new
modulating variable nationality as shown in Figure 2.
Nationality was introduced based on the assumption that the
UTAUT independent variables PE, EE, SI will impact on BI
differently and BI with FC will also impact on UB
differently when moderated by nationality. The definition of
these construct are given in Table 1 and Table 2.
BI UB
Experience Gender Age
respond to opinions of their social group. Following from
these we formulated the following hypothesis:
H1: Gender and Nationality will moderate the effect
exerted on behavior intention by social influence in a way
that the importance of social influence will be more
pronounced for males and females of international origin.
.
H2: Gender and Nationality will moderate the relationship
between performance expectancy and behavioral intention
such that the importance of performance expectancy will be
more pronounced within the national group when compared
to their international counterpart
H3: Gender and Nationality will moderate the effect
exerted on behavior intention by effort expectancy such that
the influence of effort expectancy will be more pronounced
for males and females of international origin than their
national counterpart.
H4: Facilitating condition will be a more important
determinant for international males and females than their
national counterpart.
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4. METHODS
4.1 Survey Instrument
The data-gathering instrument used for this study
was a self-administered online questionnaire. The
questionnaire was based on the pre-existing tool developed
by Venkatesh [7] and has been used by Anderson and
Schwager [27], Moran [37] and Tibenderana & Ogao [31].
The research question was divided into three sections.
Section 1 contained 18 close-ended questions which
collected the participant demographic information and their
experience with computers and ELS. Section 2 contained
21 questions about ELS hardware and services provided by
Middle East Technical University (METU) library. These
questions collected the students’ awareness of these
facilities and services. The respondents chose either a
“Yes”, “No” or “Not Sure” answer in response to each ELS
services and facilities indicated. Section 3 contained 25
questions with a 5-point Likert scale where 1 represented
‘strongly agree’ and a 5 represented ‘strongly disagree’.
4.2 Participants
There were a total of 116 participants: 56 Males
(28 international and 28 national) and 60 Females (30
international and 30 national) graduate students. The
participants were distributed across various departments
and the number of international graduates and National
graduate students from each departments and schools were
fairly evenly distributed to ensure valid comparison.
Moreover, the number of male and female participants was
also fairly evenly distributed. A pilot study was carried out
on 10 participants (4 international graduate students and 6
National graduate students) to ensure the clarity of the
questions for the respondents and to eliminate problems
that might arise while recording and analyzing the data.
The results from the respondents were analyzed to ensure
that it could answer the Hypothesis. The survey was
confirmed adequate for the research; although some minor
rephrasing was made on some questions to increase
understandability.
4.3 Electronic Library Services Offered in the
University.
Eleven ELS services were listed in the
questionnaire and respondents were asked questions about
their availability. Again more than 70% of all the
respondents confirmed the availability of all the listed
services with the exception of Electronic Database which
has only 8% of the entire respondent confirming the
availability. This also indicates a high degree of awareness
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of the services apart from Electronic Database which needs
adequate sensitization.
5 RESULT ANALYSIS
5.1 Validation of the survey instrument and NUTAUT
The data analysis was done using SPSS 17 and
Linear Structural Relations (LISREL) structural equation
modeling tool. SPSS 17 was adopted to conduct Principal
Components Analysis (PCA) and to assess the validity of
the scale. The Cronbachs’ Alpha was calculated to examine
the reliability of each factor, the Alpha values of the
questionnaire exceeded 0.8 (Table 3, column 5),
demonstrating the good reliability. Before conducting
PCA, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett sphericity
test was checked to measure for the sampling adequacy
[38]. The KMO were all >0.700 and the result of Bartlett
sphericity test was significant at <0.001 (Table 3, column 3
and 4). Thus data were suitable to conduct factor analysis
[11]. The factor loadings and the corresponding factor
scores (weights) for each variable were generated. The
dimensionalities of the twenty-five statement making up the
six constructs of the instrument were each subjected to
factor analysis resulting in the removal of two questions
and the models re-estimated. Each factor has larger loading
on its corresponding factor (>0.7) than cross-loadings on
other factors (<0.4). Thus these items could effectively
reflect factors since they had good validity including
convergent validity and discriminant validity [40].
Structural Equation Model software LISREL on
the other hand was employed to estimate the path
coefficients and to validate and test models hypotheses. We
used Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to test for the
model fitness on the data. The results show that the
hypothesized model is recursive, uni-directional (Table 3 &
5). The fit indices of the model are listed in Table 4 and
Table 5. The tables list the recommended value and actual
value of each fit index, the actual value was better than the
recommended value. Thus the model was a good fit to the
data. Table 5 summarizes the results of the t-test analysis
which further confirms the validity of the models. Also, as
shown in the Table 6 all the standardized loadings of items
on their corresponding factor were larger than 0.7 further
proving good convergent validity [41].
5.2 Availability of ICT Hardware in the Library
In response to the questions asked about the
availability of eight ICTs’ hardware in the Middle East
Technical University (METU) library, more than 85% of all
the respondents confirmed that computer, printers, internet,
bar code readers, CD-ROM readers/writers, security check
systems and photocopying machine are available in the
library. This indicates that students are aware of the ICT
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hardware. In response to the questions about the availability (Note: x2/df the ratio between Chi-square and degrees of freedom, GFI is Goodness
of Fit Index, AGFI is Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index, CFI is Comparative Fit Index,
of 11 ELS services listed in the questionnaire, more than NFI is Normed Fit Index, RMSEA is Root Mean Square Error of Approximation)
70% of all the respondents confirmed the availability of all
the listed services with the exception of Electronic
Database with only 8% of the entire respondent confirming Table 5: T Test and P Values for Participant Groups
its availability. This also indicates a high degree of Dependent Category T-test P-Value
awareness of the hardware apart from Electronic Database Variable
that needs adequate sensitization. Female Behavioral National 2.41 <0.001
Intention International 3.25 <0.001
5.3 International versus National Students Use National 4.30 <0.001
Behavioral International 4.20 <0.001
The four groups’ result estimation using LISREL are as Male Behavioral National 2.20 <0.001
Intention International 4.21 <0.001
shown in Figures 3, 4, 5 and 6. The comparison of the
Use National 4.37 <0.001
results from the two analyses is summarized in Table 7 and
Behavioral International 5.40 <0.001
8. The contributions of the various independent constructs
PE, EE FC and SI are shown in Table 7 column 3 and 4. It
shows that FC is the most important predictor of acceptance
for the two groups. The international female students model
Table 6: The factor-loading matrix with varimax
shows predictive efficiency of 32% and 56% for the
rotation
dependent construct of behavioral intent and use behavior
Factor Loading Matrix with Varimax rotation for All
(a total predictive capability of 88% for the dependent Students
variables) as shown in Figure 3 and Table 8, the national FC EE
PE
SI BI UB
female students’ model shows predictive efficiency of 20% PE1 .245 .068 .813 .253 .159 -.039

and 62% (a total predictive capability of 82% for the PE2 .219 .180 .779 .033 .084 .217

dependent variable) as shown in Figure 4 and Table 8, PE3. .232 .084 .815 .176 .075 .282
international male students’ model shows predictive PE4 .155 -.055 .641 .325 .167 .300
efficiency of 25% and 61% for the dependent construct of
EE1 .105 .707 .070 .076 .280 .135
behavioral intent and use behavior (a total predictive
EE2 .491 .605 .194 .008 -.019 .244
capability of 86% for the dependent variables) as shown in
Figure 5 and Table 8. The national male students’ model EE3 .230 .787 .293 -.006 .003 .006

shows predictive efficiency of 18% and 78% (a total EE4 .115 .767 .025 .312 .167 .191

predictive capability of 96% for the dependent variables) as EE5 .249 .811 .106 .164 .073 -.015

shown in Figure 6 and Table 8. This means that the four EE6 .171 .810 .102 .035 .190 .047

groups accept and use ELS though at varyingt degrees. SI1 .140 .133 .031 .825 .074 .179

SI2 .157 .271 .160 .801 .098 -.095

Table 3: Construct Validity and Reliability Measure SI3 .214 .152 .132 .792 .072 .045
Bartlett Cronba Chi-
Group P- Squ RAM FC1 .768 -.029 .364 .180 .063 .180
KMO Spheri ch’s
Comparison Value are/ SEA
city Alpha FC2 .673 .329 .112 .035 .354 .038
df
Recommend FC3 .828 .100 .125 .067 -.016 .202
>0.5 <0.05 ≥ 0.7 <0.05 <3 ≤0.08
ed Value FC4 .758 .069 .138 -.019 .144 .200
0.0000
International 0.758 000 0.879 1.51 0.037 FC5 .730 .318 .154 .085 .306 .-129
0
Female BI1 .171 .197 .124 .026 .905 -.002
National 0.0000
0.702 000 0.921 1.56 0.071
Students 4 BI2 .125 .054 .126 .160 .895 .142

0.0000 UB1 .304 .410 .059 .104 .149 .711

International 0.730 000 0.883 1.56 0.071
4
Male Students UB2 .038 .481 .348 .042 .055 .723
National 0.0000
0.740 000 0.962 1.56 0.071 UB3 .366 .176 .160 .126 .067 .763
Students 4

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Table 4: Goodness-of-Fit Results of the LISREL General Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

a. Rotation converged in 6 iterations.

Model
2
GFI AGFI RMSEA χ /df P-value CFI NFI

Recommended >0.90 >0.80 <0.08 <3 <0.05 >0.90 >0.90

Actual Value 0.956 0.860 0.069 1.45 <0.0001 0.974 0.943

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Figure 5: International Male Participants Model

Figure 3: International Female Participants Model

Figure 4: National Female Participants Model

Figure 6: National Male Participants’ Model

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Table 7: Comparison of National and International Model easily and conveniently access the ELS than the students
Contributions living outside the campus. To actually increase acceptance
Groups Constructs International National No.of No.of of ELS, the research suggest that the university and any
(N=58) (N=58) Questions Questions other university that is working towards increasing
Asked Retained acceptance of ELS should make accessibility (facilitating
Female PE 0.20 0.30 4 4 conditions and effort expectancy) of the ELS at both
(N=60) EE 0.48 0.58 6 5 outside and inside the campus easy.
SI 0.28 0.12 3 2
FC 0.78 0.63 6 2
H1: Gender and Nationality will moderate the effect
exerted on behavior intention by social influence in a way
BI 0.32 0.20 3 2
that the importance of social influence will be more
UB 3 2
pronounced for males and females in the international
Male PE 0.41 0.50 4 4
(N=56)
category.
EE 0.35 0.51 6 5
SI 0.20 0.02 3 2 This hypothesis is supported. Though previous works
FC 0.74 0.60 6 2 on gender roles suggested that women have higher
BI 0.25 0.18 3 2 affiliation needs and are thus more concerned with
UB 3 2 pleasing others and more likely to conform to majority
opinions ([35], [36]), the result of our analysis in fact
shows that social influence has a more pronounced effect
on international students (both males and females) than
Table 8: Comparison of International and National Models their national counterpart by showing that social influence
Prediction predicts 28% for international females, 12% for national
females, 20% for international males and 2% for national
Gender Model Behavioral Use Total
Intention Behavior males as shown in Figure 3, 4, 5 and 6 and also
summarized Table 7. This is as expected since international
Female International 32% 56% 88% students are likely to move in group and, therefore, are
National 20% 62% 82% easily influenced to use this system by people that matters
to them in the environment. This can, to an extent, be
Male International 25% 61% 86%
likened to the effect of facilitating condition; through social
National 18% 78% 96% facilitation and social comparison the groups function as a
motivator and can provide necessary assistance especially
for does that are new to the system. . Practically, this study
6. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS results suggest that organizations should use different
strategies in motivating the use of a new technology for
This study reveals a rich set of pattern and results. Due different situations/groups. For some information systems
to space limitations, we will only highlight the most whose usage is mandatory, those factors contributing to
important findings without going into details on specific social influence such as the instructors/supervisor's
results. In general, the results suggest that Nationality and prodding might work. However, when the usage is
Gender considered simultaneously is a significant voluntary just like the case of ELS, the managers might
moderator that affects the acceptance of ELS and the effect want to think of better ways to promote usage probably
exerted by UTAUT constructs on individual groups through social facilitation and social comparison. As a
(International males, International females, National males matter of fact, though social influence is a significant factor
and National female students) vary considerably. for international students, the effect can greatly be reduced
Facilitating condition significantly influences the by training and probably experience and therefore should
acceptance and use of ELS for the four groups. not be used as a strong motivator. This is consistent with
the previous studies (e.g., Venkatesh & Davis [7]); the
In general, the NUTAUT does predict the successful effect of subjective norm to usage intention is significant
acceptance of ELS by graduate though at varying degrees under mandatory and inexperienced use situation.
Table 8. The participants showed higher inclination to use
ELS by showing higher percentage of use behavioral. The H2: Gender and Nationality will moderate the
researcher believes that this is as a result of the role played relationship between performance expectancy and
by readily available access and easy to use library facility behavioral intention to use technology, such that the
in-campus than out-campus since majority of the importance of performance expectancy will be more
participants stays inside the university campus and can

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pronounced within the national group when compared to
their international counterpart.
This Hypothesis is only partially supported. There is a
significant difference in the effect exerted on behavior
intention by performance expectancy between the
international and national group. The model shows that
national male group has performance expectancy of 50% as
opposed to 41% of international male group while national
females have performance expectancy of 30% as opposed
to the 20% of the international female counterpart as shown
in Figure 3, 4, 5 and 6 and also summarized Table 7.
Though the performance expectancy of national male group
is higher at 50%, the performance expectancy of the
national females (30%) is lower than performance
expectancy of international males (41%). This means that
within the gender groups, performance expectancy is a
significant factor for male than female. This shows that
males have higher tendency to use the ELS system as long
as it is useful. In other words, performance expectancy is an
important factor for males despite their nationality while
effort expectancy determines acceptance for females more
than performance expectancy despite nationality. This
finding follows the work of [33, 34, 35].
More importantly, this result reveals that perceived
performance expectancy of a system does vary based on
gender but not necessary based on nationality though the
degree of contribution still differs based on nationality of
the students. The most plausible explanation is that
performance expectancy cannot be interpreted in isolation
without some other factors like effort expectancy and
facilitating condition; the usefulness of any system might
never get to be appreciated /discovered if the system is so
complex that end users hardly use it. Most international
users (males and females) lack the technical knowledge
needed to handle the complexity of the ELS especially at
the early stage of their arrival. This is understandable since
difference policies guide the design and implementation of
ELS in difference countries. Therefore training of new
students especially the international students on the use of
ELS on arrival will surely increase acceptance.
H3: Gender and Nationality will moderate the effect
exerted on behavior intention by effort expectancy such that
the influence will be more pronounced for males and
females of national category than their international
counterpart.
This is supported. Effort expectancy contributes 51%
and 58% for national males and females respectively as
opposed to 35% and 48% for international males and
females respectively as shown in Figure 3, 4, 5 and 6 and
also summarized Table 7. This means that for national
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students (both males and females) acceptance is more
dependent on effort expectancy than international students
(both males and females). This is partially contrarily to
some previous work [33, 34, 35] that shows that males have
higher tendency to use the ELS system even when it is
complex. In other words, Performance expectancy is an
important factor for males more than the effort expectancy
while effort expectancy determines acceptance for the
females more than performance expectancy. Examining
gender and nationality simultaneously shows that both
females and males in the national group attach more
importance to the expected effort required to use the
system. In other words national students are unlikely to use
the system if it is difficult to use even if it is useful. This
can also be explained by the fact that availability of
alternatives or competition generates negative effect
affecting perceived effort expectancy. The national students
have other sources of getting materials for their research
easily than international students and might not afford to
spend a lot of time and energy searching through complex
ELS while international students can afford to spend an
extra effort to use the system. This could also mean that in
the absence of alternative, performance expectancy might
become as important as effort expectancy. This also agrees
with the work of Pontiggia and Virili [42] which shows that
technology acceptance is basically a choice among different
alternative technologies/tools to accomplish user tasks.
H4: Facilitating condition will be a more important
determinant for international males and females than their
national counterpart.
This hypothesis is again supported with 74% and 78%
prediction for international males and females respectively,
as opposed to 60% and 63% for national males and females
respectively as shown in Figure 3, 4, 5 and 6 and also
summarized Table 7. Though international students group
(males and females) shows high contribution from
facilitating condition than their national counterpart, in
general, facilitating condition has the highest contribution
to acceptance than any other variables in all the groups.
This means that irrespective of the group, facilitating
condition is very crucial. Our initial assertion that
facilitating condition will not be as important for national
students owing to the availability of alternatives which
includes resources from friends and families seems to be
wrong. This can possibly be explained by the fact that the
University invests considerable amount of resources to
provide both online, offline and remote access to the ELS,
so international students as well as national students still
exhibits use behavior on the ELS despite availability of
alternatives. This is consistent with the empirical studies of
Thompson et al [43] that found the direct effect of
facilitating condition on usage behavior and some others [
7, 18].
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©2009-2010 CIS Journal. All rights reserved.
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In general, the NUTAUT does predict the successful
acceptance of ELS by international males, national males,
international females, and national females with a total
predictive capacity of 86%, 96%, 88% and 82%
respectively. The groups showed higher inclination to use
ELS by showing higher percentage of use behavioral. The
researcher believes that this is as a result of the role played
by readily available access and easy to use library facility
in-campus than out-campus since majority of the
participants stays inside the university campus and can
easily and conveniently access the ELS than the students
living outside the campus. To actually increase acceptance
of ELS, the research suggest that the university and any
other university that is working towards increasing
acceptance of ELS should make accessibility (facilitating
conditions and effort expectancy) of the ELS at both outside
and inside the campus easy.
This study shows that the variables, facilitating
condition, effort expectancy, performance expectancy and
social influence which are the critical components that
affect acceptance and use of ELS exert varying effects on
acceptance not just depending on gender but also on
nationality of the users. Facilitating condition remains the
most important factors for the four group of user, however,
for international female group effort expectancy, social
influence and performance expectancy listed in decreasing
order of importance are the critical factors, and for the
national female group listed in decreases order of
importance effort expectancy, performance expectancy and
social influence are the critical factors. Likewise for
international males, listed in decreasing order of
importance, performance expectancy, effort expectancy,
social influence are the critical factors that effects
acceptance while for national males effort expectancy,
performance expectancy and social influence listed in
decreasing order of importance are the determinants of
acceptance.
Though this research focused on the acceptance of ELS in
educational institutions, the conclusions derived here could
have significant implications for organizations, business
and future researchers. From the researchers’ point of view,
most studies carried out in recent years have treated
technology users in the same way regardless of their gender
and nationality. Nevertheless, the effect of this factor on
acceptance has being found significant. These variations
found in users perceptions in relation to the use of ELS
illustrate the need for considering the effect of gender and
nationality in the design and improvement of these systems.
It is concluded that the differences discovered in this
research are not all similar to those previously established
by studies investigating only gender or gender and some
other variables like age. Males in general demonstrated a
higher acceptance of ELS than females.
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In conclusion, organizations, managers, designers and
developers can raise intention to use ELS through
facilitating conditions, , effort expectancy and performance
expectancy. Institutions may arrange training programs to
develop knowledge about the benefits and usage of ELS
system compared to some other randomized searches. The
training should be included as part of the event to feature
during the induction of new students especially for
international students. Also paring international students to
pair leaders could also function as a social facilitation to
motivate them to use ELS.
This research was carried out in a university
environment and may not reflect ELS acceptance outside
the university environment, although we plan to validate
NUTAUT elsewhere. In the researchers’ opinion, 116
participants are limited number for this type of study
therefore proposes conducting similar study on larger
number of participants and in another environment.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work reported in this paper was carried out
when the Author was a graduate student of Middle East
Technical University, Turkey. The author appreciates their
provision of enabling environment for which the research
was conducted.
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