2.1. Technology acceptance model (TAM)
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was conceived
to explain and predict the individual's acceptance
of IT. TAM is based on the Fishbein and Ajzen's
[17] Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), which suggests
that social behavior is motivated by an individual's
attitude toward carrying out that behavior, a
function of one's beliefs about the outcome of performing
that behavior and an evaluation of the value of
each of those outcomes. According to TRA, behavior
is determined directly by the intention to perform,
because people, in general, behave as they intend to
do, within the available context and time.
TAM adopts TRA's causal links to explain the
individual's IT acceptance behaviors. It suggests that
perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of IT
are major determinants of its usage. Davis [11] de®ned
perceived usefulness as ``the degree of which a person
believes that using a particular system would enhance
his or her job performance'' and perceived ease of use
as ``the degree of which a person believes that using a
particular system would be free of effort.'' Consistent
with TRA, user's beliefs determine the attitudes
toward using the system. Behavioral intentions to
use, in turn, are determined by these attitudes toward
using the system. Finally, behavioral intentions to use
lead to actual system use. Previous research has
demonstrated the validity of this model across a wide
variety of corporate ITs.
One obstacle to using TAM has been problems in
applying it beyond the workplace. This is because
TAM's fundamental constructs do not fully re¯ect the
variety of user task environments. Recently, Dishaw
and Strong [16] pointed out that a weakness of TAM is
its lack of task focus. Therefore, to increase external
validity of TAM, it is necessary to further explore
the nature and speci®c in¯uences of technological
and usage-context factors that may alter the user's
acceptance.
2.2. Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and IT
acceptance
Recently, motivation theories have been used to
understand individuals' IT acceptance behaviors
[13,21,22,37]. Motivation theorists have often distinguished
the effects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation
on individuals' behaviors [6,14,15,31,34]. In
Deci's work, extrinsic motivation refers to the performance
of an activity: it is perceived to help achieve
valued outcomes that are distinct from the activity
itself, such as improving job performance, pay, etc.
Intrinsic motivation refers to the performance of an
activity for no apparent reason other than the process
of performing it.
In technology acceptance research, most of the
work has been conducted from an extrinsic motivation
perspective. Davis et al. [13] investigated the relative
effects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation source on
intention to use, and usage of, the computer in the
workplace and, they de®ned perceived usefulness as
an extrinsic source of motivation and perceived enjoyment
as an intrinsic source of motivation. They found
that perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness
mediated the in¯uence of perceived ease of use on
intention. They also argued that ``while usefulness will
once again emerge as a major determinant of intentions
to use a computer in the workplace, enjoyment
will explain signi®cant variance in usage intentions
beyond that accounted for by usefulness alone.''
Igbaria et al. [21,22] found that system usage is
affected by both extrinsic motivation (perceived usefulness)
and intrinsic motivation (perceived fun).
However, adoption of individual's intrinsic motivation
factor, such as perceived enjoyment or perceived fun,
as a research construct needs further theoretical validation.
For example, Davis et al.'s measurements of
perceived enjoyment do not re¯ect a comprehensive
set of intrinsic motivation states such as activity
absorption, exploratory behaviors, curiosity, and arousal.
We propose the `playfulness' concept as an individual's
intrinsic salient belief to explain the
individual's intrinsically motivated behaviors.
218 J.-W. Moon, Y.-G. Kim / Information & Management 38 (2001) 217±230
2.3. Research on playfulness in human±computer
interaction
Playfulness, which is based on Lieberman's pioneering
works [25] and Barnett's studies [4,5], provides
a strong theoretical base for our work.
There are two possible approaches: the ®rst, focusing
on the trait of playfulness, treats it as a motivational
characteristic of individuals; the second,
emphasizing the state of playfulness, de®nes it as a
situational characteristic of the interaction between an
individual and the situation. General traits refer to
comparatively stable characteristics of individuals;
these are relatively invariant to situational stimuli.
States, however, refer to affective or cognitive episodes
that are experienced in the short run and ¯uctuate
over time. Unlike traits, states can be in¯uenced
by situational factors and the interactions between the
individual and the situation. Playfulness represents a
relatively enduring tendency, while being playful
represents a temporary state at some speci®c time.
In the trait-based approach, Webster and Martocchio's
Microcomputer Playfulness Scale is a speci®c
adaptation of Barnett's work to the study of computer
usage [41]. They conceived playfulness as the characteristic
of an individual. Martocchio and Webster
[29], however, found that individuals considered to be
high on the playfulness trait demonstrated higher
performance and showed higher affective responses
to computer training tasks. Also, Atkins and Kydd [2]
examined the in¯uence of individual characteristics of
playfulness on the use of the WWW. They found that
both playfulness and usefulness affect its use in different
ways, depending on its use for entertaining or
for course work. While the trait-based approach
focused on playfulness as the individual's characteristic,
state-based research emphasized playfulness as
the individual's subjective experience of human±computer
interaction. The majority of the research on
playfulness as the individual's interaction state are
based on the Csikszentimihalyi's `¯ow theory' [9]. It
emphasizes the role of a context rather than individual
differences in explaining human motivated behaviors.
He de®ned the ¯ow as ``the holistic sensation that
people feel when they act with total involvement.''
When in the ¯ow state, a person may have more
voluntary interaction with his or her environment.
Based on the ¯ow theory, several IS researchers felt
that it is useful in understanding playfulness and the
individuals' evaluation of IT usage. Trevino and Webster
[38] investigated the effects of ¯ow on the computer-mediated
communication environment. They
found that it is in¯uenced by the technology type,
ease of use, and computer skill. Also, Webster et al.
[42] examined the state of ¯ow in a speci®c human±
computer interaction. They found that the ¯ow experience
is associated with perceived characteristics of the
computer software as well as with relevant workrelated
outcomes. But, from the point of technology
acceptance research, their studies cannot explain the
effects of playfulness on the individual's attitude and
actual behaviors. To overcome this problem, we consider
playfulness as an intrinsic belief or motive,
which is shaped from the individual's experiences
with the environment. More speci®cally, we examine
it as an intrinsic salient belief that is formed from the
individual's subjective experience with the WWW.
Therefore, individuals who have more positive playfulness
belief in the WWW should view its interactions
more positively than those who interact less
playfully.
On the basis of the Csikszentimihalyi's and Deci's
works, we de®ne three dimensions of perceived playfulness:
the extent to which the individual
(a) perceives that his or her attention is focused on
the interaction with the WWW;
(b) is curious during the interaction; and
(c) finds the interaction intrinsically enjoyable or
interesting.
Concentration: In the playfulness state, an individual's
attention will be focused on the activity. The
focus is narrowed to a limited stimulus ®eld, so that
irrelevant thoughts and perceptions are ®ltered out. In
this way, the person loses self-consciousness, becomes
absorbed in the activity, and be more intensely aware
of mental processes. When people fall into a playful
state during their interaction with the WWW, their
attention will be focused on the interactions.
Curiosity: Malone [27,28] suggested that, during
playfulness, an individual's sensory or cognitive curiosity
is aroused. For example, theWWW can encourage
sensory curiosity through technological characteristics
such as hyper-links and multimedia effects. It can also
stimulate cognitive curiosity and the desire to attain
competence with the technology by providing options
J.-W. Moon, Y.-G. Kim / Information & Management 38 (2001) 217±230 219
such as bookmarks and hyper-links that encourage
exploration and competence attainment.
Enjoyment: When individuals are in the playfulness
state, they will ®nd the interaction intrinsically interesting:
they are involved in the activity for pleasure
and enjoyment rather than for extrinsic rewards.
While these three dimensions are linked and interdependent,
they do not always occur together in
practice. For example, involvement often accompanies
feelings of control and enjoyment, but it may also
occur during highly stressful activities [19,33]. Thus
one playfulness dimension by itself may not re¯ect the
total experience.