Title: Institutional effects on the intention to adopt e-learning for business studies

Authors: Eric K.W. Lau

Addresses: College of Business, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Abstract: The present study investigates the factors that influence the adoption of e-learning among adult postgraduate university students in Hong Kong. In particular, the study addresses the question of whether institutional factors affect students| decision to adopt e-learning in their studies. A composite model of four constructs (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived convenience and institutional effects) is proposed and tested in this quantitative survey of 125 part-time MBA students. The study finds that institutional effects and perceived convenience were the most important factors in a decision to adopt e-learning. The factors perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use did not have a significant relationship with the intention to adopt e-learning. The paper illustrates the theoretical and practical issues of social effects in the adoption of e-learning.

Keywords: electronic learning; e-learning adoption; institutional effects; IT adoption; learning technology; information technology; online learning; postgraduate students; Hong Kong; higher education; universities; student perceptions; perceived usefulness; perceived ease of use; perceived convenience.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLT.2009.024718

International Journal of Learning Technology, 2009 Vol.4 No.1/2, pp.100 - 109

Published online: 16 Apr 2009 *

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