Examination of Hedonism in TAM Research

Davis’ Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) remains a dominant model that is used extensively for addressing issues of user acceptance (Davis, 1989). Recently, hedonic1 nature of information systems was proposed as a boundary condition for TAM (van der Heijden, 2004). This paper attempts to review and evaluate the existing TAM research in light of this new boundary condition. This is accomplished by reviewing 41 articles published in six premier journals. It is argued that two types of mismatches, i.e. ‘errors of inclusion’ and ‘errors of exclusion’ could occur if the nature of system is not considered. The implications of these errors on the cumulative results of TAM research stream and directions for future research are discussed