Effects of personal innovativeness on mobile device adoption by older adults in South Korea: the moderation effect of mobile device use experience

Abstract

This paper examines mobile device adoption by older adults in South Korea, one of the fastest ageing countries in Asia. It is important to understand how older adults perceive the use of mobile devices and the extent of their intention to continuously (or newly) use them. This paper includes personal innovativeness in the technology acceptance model (TAM) to better investigate mobile device use among older adults. The research model was empirically analysed using structural equations modelling (SEM). The results show that: 1) perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) partially mediate the relationship between personal innovativeness (PI) and behaviour intention (BI); 2) perceived ease of use (PEOU) has a stronger effect on behaviour intention (BI) than perceived usefulness (PU) does; 3) the use experience of mobile devices plays a moderating role in several paths of the proposed model; 4) invariance analysis reveals interesting and unexpected results.