Consumer Acceptance of Online Auctions: An Extension and Revision of the TAM

The study extends and revises the original Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by applying it in the context of online auctions and introducing three new consumer-oriented variables: affinity with the computer, impulsiveness, and risk tolerance. It begins with an examination of eBay, the first and most successful online auction site, to show that its business is the technology that fuels growth and increased profits. The paper then addresses the original cognitive TAM variables, used mostly in business contexts, and then the revision designed to add emotional antecedents suitable to the consumer context. Hypotheses that incorporate all of the variables and the relationships among them are tested in a study of online auction consumer behavior, and support is found for the extended TAM. Findings thus reveal that the TAM is stable across contexts and that additional user variables help explain the acceptance of consumer technology use in personal scenarios.