ASSESSING THE ADOPTION OF

SMARTPHONE FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSE

BY BUSINESS STUDENTS IN GOMBE,

NIGERIA; USING TECHNOLOGY

ACCEPTANCE MODEL (TAM)

BYAHMAD ALIYU

PALLADAN

Introduction

Smartphone refers to a mobile device that is more sophisticated than ordinary phones.

The fundamental features of a smartphone is its ability to browse the internet and access digital media such as picture, music and videos (Lee et al. 2013);

Introduction (Cont)Smartphone refers to a mobile device that is more

sophisticated than ordinary phones.

The fundamental features of a Smartphone is its ability to browse the internet and access digital media (Lee et al. 2013);

Its capability to make use of computer programs referred to applications or apps (Naravane, 2015).

Smartphone Users In Nigeria

Nigeria is said to have 23.1 million users of smartphone as at last year 2015 (Ipulse, 2016), and more than 90 million owners of mobile phones (NCC, 2015)

Majority of smartphone owners in Nigeria are youths

Problem Statement

Smartphones empowers our access to information and communication. It also serves to many as a tool for assessing online services in the sphere of education as well as provision of information.

Smartphone can aid academic activities as they possess a lot of applications that lecturers and students can use in their academic activities (Mtega et al. 2012).

Problem Statement (Cont)

Smartphones as aspect of m-learning or e-learning have the potential of enhancing students learning processes, because the devices are cheap compared to other ICTs that can be employed for teaching and learning activities (Mtega et al. 2012).

Smartphones learning applications, opined Huang et al, (2010), can assist students not only on learning contents conveniently but on also interact with others collaboratively in all situations.

Problem Statement (Cont)

Despite to the fact that several studies have studied the relation between mobile phone and students academic activities in Nigerian tertiary institutions, only few were conducted since the emergence of the smartphone. Before the introduction of smartphones ordinary mobile phones may not have been an integral part of students’ lives (White, et al., 2012)

Research Questions

Based on the above discussion on the research problem, the following questions are formulated: Does perceive ease of use of smartphone affects

Business students intention to use the device for academic purpose??

Does perceive usefulness of smartphone influence Business students intention to adopt smartphone for academic purpose?

Research Questions (Cont)

What is the behaviour of business students in relation to their intention to toward using smartphone for academic purpose?

Research Objectives

The main objective of the research is to assess the adoption of Smartphone by Business Education students in Nigeria tertiary institutions for

academic purpose. The specific objectives are: To investigate whether perceive ease of use of

smartphone affect business students intention to use the device for academic purpose.

To examine if perceive usefulness of smartphone influence business students intention to use smartphone for academic purpose.

Research Objectives (Cont)To assess whether perceive behaviour of

smartphone use affect business students intention to adopt smartphone for academic purpose.

Conceptual Framework The Technology Acceptance Model

(TAM) was adopted to guide the study because:

TAM is the most powerful model for testing information system (Yang and Lin, 2010)

TAM helps to answer why a potential user of particular technology accept it and use it (Alrafi , 2005)

TAM was proposed by Davis in 1989

Components of TAM

Perceive Usefulness (PU)

Perceive Ease of Use (PEU)

Behaviour Toward Use (PBU)

Behavioural Intention to Use (PIU)

The Research Model (Modified TAM) IVs DV

PERCEIVE EASE OF

USE

PERCEIVE USEFULNE

SS

PERCEIVE BEHAVIOU

R

INTENTION TO USE

Underpinning TheoryThe research will be underpinned using the factors

postulated by Devies (1989):These are:PU: Refers to the user’s belief that the technology will

enhance their performance (Lee & Lee, 2008; Venkatesh & Davis, 2000)

PEU: Connotes how easy the user perceives the new technology to be (Park, 2009; Venkatesh & Davis, 2000)

PBU: Emanate from the behavioural intention of whether to use or not use the technology (Nov & Ye, 2008).

PIU: This refers to actual use

Underpinning Theory (Cont)

The three aspects in TAM were considered in this study with the belief that they might influence the acceptance of smartphone usage for academic purpose by Business students in the targeted institutions.

Population of the Study and Sample Size

The population of this study comprise of the entire undergraduate Business Education students in Federal College of Education (Tech) Gombe, Federal University Kashere and Gombe Sate University Gombe. The population is estimated at 400 students.

This research adopt Saunders et al. (2009) sampling procure to determine the sample size. The sample of 400 from the table is 196.

Measures for the StudyThe measures for this study were

adapted from Bogart & Wichadee, (2015) .

The four variables (PU,PEU,PBU & PIU) measured using 26 items.

The four variables were assess using a six-point Likert scale ranging from 1=Strongly Disagree to 6=Strongly Agree.

The original measures have instrument cronbach alpha validity of 0.92.

Method of Data Analysis

Combinations of both descriptive and inferential statistics were used.

The PLS SEM approach was employed for the analysis. PLS SEM technique is referred to as the second

generation structural equation modelling (Wold, 1982). The technique works well with structural equation

models that contain latent variables and a series of cause-and-effect relationships (Gustafsson & Johnson, 2004).

Response Rate

Questionnaire Distributed and Decisions

Items Frequency Percentage %Distributed Questionnaires 196 100%

Returned Questionnaires 178 91%

Rejected Questionnaires 6 3%

Retained Questionnaires 172 88%

Questionnaires (Cont)A total of 172 respondents represent the sample for this study which gave an effective response rate of 88%. The rate It deem sufficient because:

1) Sekaran (2003) argued that response rate of 30% is acceptable for surveys.2) A sample size should be between 5 and 10 times the number of study variables (Bartlett, Kotrlik, & Higgins, 2001; Hair et al., 2010) 3) 88% response rate falls above the range of common response rate of 40-50% in social science study in Nigeria (Linus, 2001).

Descriptive StatisticsGender

  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative PercentValid Males 109 63.4 63.4 63.4

Females 63 36.6 36.6 100.0

Total 172 100.0 100.0  

Age of Respondents  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative PercentValid 16-30 32 18.6 18.6 18.6

21-25 38 22.1 22.1 40.7

26-30 43 25.0 25.0 65.7

31- Above 59 34.3 34.3 100.0

Total 172 100.0 100.0  

Smartphone Ownership  Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative PercentValid Yes 151 87.8 87.8 87.8

No 21 12.2 12.2 100.0

Total 172 100.0 100.0  

Factor Analysis (Cross Loadings)

Note: The bold and highlighted items identify the items that belong to the column’s construct

ItemsBehaviour Toward Smartphone use

Ease of Use of Smartphone

Intention to Use Smartphone

Usefulness of Smartphone for Academic purpose

PBU1 .880 .649 .620 .714PBU2 .876 .629 .604 .653PBU3 .865 .562 .575 .614PBU4 .886 .573 .563 .663PEU1 .597 .838 .443 .601PEU2 .482 .766 .428 .503PEU3 .368 .643 .336 .409PEU4 .481 .771 .353 .505PEU5 .381 .670 .393 .509PEU6 .640 .747 .383 .609PEU7 .583 .755 .443 .588PEU8 .630 .850 .454 .601PEU9 .464 .706 .392 .556PIU1 .596 .495 .889 .526PIU2 .600 .470 .885 .552PIU3 .573 .449 .849 .539PUA1 .496 .577 .455 .754PUA2 .688 .576 .517 .791PUA3 .389 .380 .268 .582PUA4 .494 .472 .393 .723PUA5 .508 .527 .421 .667PUA6 .269 .388 .322 .512PUA7 .663 .571 .516 .817PUA8 .653 .575 .524 .784

Items Loadings , AVE and Reliabilities

  Items Loadings AVEComposite Reliability

Cronbachs Alpha

Behaviour Toward Smartphone use PBU1 .880 .768 .930 .900PBU2 .876PBU3 .865PBU4 .886

Ease of Use of Smartphone PEU1 .838 .566 .921 .903PEU2 .766PEU3 .643PEU4 .771PEU5 .670PEU6 .747PEU7 .755PEU8 .850PEU9 .706

Intention to Use Smartphone PIU1 .889 .765 .907 .846PIU2 .885PIU3 .849

Usefulness of Smartphone for Academic purpose PUA1 .754 .506 .889 .857PUA2 .791PUA3 .582PUA4 .723PUA5 .667

PUA6 .512

PUA7 .817  PUA8 .784      

Latent Variable Correlation Latent variable correlation

Variables 1 2 3 4

1. Behaviour Toward Smartphone use .877      

2. Ease of Use of Smartphone .690 .752

3. Intention to Use Smartphone .675 .539 .8754. Usefulness of Smartphone for Academic purpose .755 .725 .616 .711Note: Bold figures are the square roots of AVE

Structural Model

Hypothesis Testing

Perceive Behaviour toward Use(PBU) is positively related to Perceive Intention to Use (PIU) smartphone for academic

purpose.

Perceive Usefulness of Smartphone (PU) is positively related to perceive Intention to Use Smartphones (PIU) for academic

purpose.

Perceive Ease of Use (PEU) is positively related to Perceive Intention to Use Smartphone (PIU) for academic purpose.

Hypothesis Testing (Cont)

Hypothesis Relationshipbeta value

Std Error t value p value Decision

H1

Behaviour Toward Smartphone use -> Intention to Use Smartphone .468 .100 4.705 .000 Supported

H2

Ease of Use of Smartphone -> Intention to Use Smartphone .054 .089 .610 .271

Not supported

H3

Usefulness of Smartphone for Academic purpose -> Intention to Use Smartphone .223 .110 2.027 .022 Supported

Findings PBU of smartphone use is found to have a

positive relationship with PIU. This is consistence with TAM; on e- learning by Huang & Liaw, (2005); on e-portfolio by Ng et al., (2013) and on Line App by Van et al., (2015).

But surprisingly, the research found no significant relationship between PEU and PIU smartphone for academic purpose. This is consistence with Park (2009) and Van et al., (2015).

Findings (Cont) Another discovery is the relationships

between PU of smartphone and PIU smartphone for academic purpose. This is also consistence with TAM; Liu et al., (2005) and Sek et al., (2010) .

Conclusion

The result of the research suggests that some TAM constructs had a direct effect on Business students intention to use smartphone for their academic activities. Hence there is potential practical application in the improvement and management of smartphone in tertiary institutions.

Recommendations Lecturers should make an effort in boosting

Business students’ smartphone usage self-efficacy.

Secondly, PBU and PU of smartphone have been found to be the important constructs that affects PIU of smartphone for academic purpose. Therefore, lecturers should put more emphasis on smartphone usage for academic purpose by introducing to their students variety apps that will assist the students in benefiting from the huge advantage that smartphone possess in aiding learning abilities

Recommendations (cont) Lastly, if there may be other constructs that

could be included in the theoretical framework and extending the study on smartphone adoption for academic purpose that is also strongly recommended.

ALHAMDULILLAH!THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!!!