DOES INSTANT MESSAGING USAGE IMPACT STUDENTS PERFORMANCE IN KUWAIT?

Transcription

1 DOES INSTANT MESSAGING USAGE IMPACT STUDENTS PERFORMANCE IN KUWAIT? Kamel Rouibah and Hosni Hamdy College of Business Administration Kuwait University, P.O Box 5486 Safat, Kuwait ABSTRACT The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) predicts whether users will use technologies based upon causal relationships among beliefs and attitudinal constructs that influence usage behavior. Instant Messaging (IM) is a collaborative technology available for use to virtually all people around the globe. This study applies TAM to assess the acceptance and voluntary usage of this technology and its impact on 609 students at Kuwait University. Two cultural variables, namely curiosity and compatibility, and a technical variable, prior similar experience, were included in the model besides perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU). The results validate TAM, although it shows some slightly differences compare to what it has been established in the North America. The findings suggest that PU has no effect while PEOU plays the most important role on IM acceptance. Results also indicate that cultural variables (curiosity and compatibility) affect IM acceptance that is more associated with negative impact on students. Paper discusses these issues and point to perspectives of the study. KEY WORDS Instant messaging adoption, compatibility, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, curiosity, usage, prior similar experience, impact of instant messaging 1. Introduction With the increase use of Internet in the Arab world, several Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are available for Arab people, these include: , audio , news groups, mailing lists or listservs, bulletin board, groupware, and Instant Messaging (IM). A previous study (Rouibah and Rouibah 2005) has shown that the number of Arab people using IM is growing fast. User acceptance of IM in the Arab world is considered a serious issue in daily newspapers. IM is considered entertainment software, however, whether it has positive or negative impacts, on Arab people in general, and on students specifically is questioned. IM acceptance is defined as the potential user s predisposition toward personally using a specific system. In order to evaluate acceptance adequately, multiple constructs should be utilized to. The constructs of usage and user satisfaction are commonly studied dimensions (DeLone and McLean 1992). For the purpose of this study, current use and impact, considered as a form of user satisfaction, as perceived by Arab users, are utilized to form the dimensions of IM acceptance. User acceptance of IM in the Arab world appears to be similar to user acceptance of office information systems, and consequently, existing theoretical models for user acceptance (e.g., Technology Application Model -TAM), would seem sufficiently appropriate. The use of IM, however, is distinct from the use of an office information system in several aspects. Among these is: (a) IM is an entertainment software, and motivation behind its usage could be far behind the traditional constructs that dominate TAM in the west (PEOU and PU); (b) the compatibility issue of IM in the Arab culture and its ability to be exposed to shifting social contexts (Lyytinen and Yoo, 2002), ability of IM to counter the social and established norm based on the anonymity feature of IM, and the increased reliance of people in the Arab Word (especially teenagers) as important parts to satisfy their curiosity about the opposite sex (Rouibah and Rouibah 2005). These characteristics question the assumptions underlying the TAM (Davis 1989). These models assume that: (a) efficiency and not entertainment is the prime purpose for using technology; (b) the systems are used in one setting only (the office setting); and (c) users do have much to loose if they do not accept the technology. Therefore, as observed by Heijden et al., (2004) work on new theory that extends these models but somehow incorporates the above characteristics seems desirable and timely. Besides its relevance to research in the area of technology acceptance, this study also contributes to highlight and to shed light the current practices of ICT in the Arab world through IM usage and its impact in the Arab world Instant Messaging and the characteristics of Arab culture We can categorize IM into two groups: Chat programs and closed programs. We define IM as a synchronous technology that allows different people to communicate with each other. IM includes both Chat program (e.g. ICQ and IRC) and closed programs (e.g. Yahoo and MSN). Chat program is a protocol that allows users to join and participate in group chat sessions and does neither require the identification of real personality nor the use of an e- mail address, which encourages using anonymity. Closed programs (e.g. MSN) require the identification of a user by his address, and are considered as a convenient

2 way for knowing when your friends, family and colleagues are online so you can communicate with them in real-time. For the purpose of this paper, we consider chat programs and closed programs as IM tools. Kuwait is an Arab country whose culture is highly social and family-oriented nature (Zakaria and Stanton 2003). Arabs are high context on Hofstede s collectivist dimension (Hofstede 1980). Arab language emphasizes indirectness and ambiguity in communication. It vehicle politeness, and direct criticism is not viewed favorable. Islam significantly impacts the society as whole, and it is one of the greatest influences on Kuwaiti way of live. The Muslim is guided by his Islamic beliefs to maintain high ethical standards during his life. It is forbidden to lie, to see sexual scenes. The Quran and Islamic legal interpretation has generally considered the separation of genders outside marital and blood relations a necessity, given the natural tendency of human beings toward sexual appetite. In addition, individuals in Kuwait and Arab societies are more affected by normative and social values. In their real life, Kuwaiti (and Arab) people show a high commitment to the Islamic work ethic and comply with its principles. Considering the Arab culture as masculine where men dominate in most settings, clear gender roles are the norm, and social interactions with the opposite sex are not tolerated. With the emergence of new ICT, Arab people found new channels to disguise their real identity an effective place to talk free of any social norm as well as to use direct language. People use also IM either to satisfy their curiosity about the opposite sex or to enjoy knowing other people and culture The problem The deployment of new ICT in high context societies presents a variety of new challenges. Particularly, this paper aims to study the role played by two cultural factors and values on IM usage in an Arab country using TAM, since, many scholars assert that culture affect indirectly IT usage (Straub et al., 2001; Loch et al., 2003; Zakaria and Stanton 2003). Many TAM studies focused on different information systems and technologies; see for example the state of the art done by Legris et al., (2003), so far to our attention neither were dedicated to IM nor did integrate cultural variables to study the usage of IM, except two studies (Li et al., 2005; Rouibah and Rouibah 2005). Li et al., (2005) used TAM and include variables that are distinct than those in this study. Rouibah and Rouibah (2005) performed an exploratory study on the factors that lead Arab people to use IM. However, evidence documenting the causal relationship between cultural variables (compatibility and curiosity) and actual usage of IM is lacking. To fill in this gap, this paper seeks to understand the IM usage and its impact in an Arabic country through the following questions: 1. How Arab people from a high context culture use IM in a cyber world? 2. Do PEOU, PU and curiosity mediate the affect of external factors on IM usage and its impact? 3. Which factors are likely to be more associated with IM Usage? 4. Does TAM differ in the Arab world than does in the North America? The article is organized as follows. The next section proposes the theory and the research model. The methodology used in this study is described in section 3, and results are reported in section 4. Section 5 concludes and presents future research direction. 2. Theory and research model Among existing frameworks that focused on the adoption of new technologies, TAM is the well known and the most widely used model in term of validation, replication and extension (Legris et al., 2003). TAM suggests that one s predisposition to adopt a new technology is a function of PU and PEOU of the system. Over the last two decades past studies have included many external factors. Without indulging into a debate over these factors, we content to focus on the model presented in Figure 1. This figure depicts the research model and hypotheses. Some of the hypotheses are, however, investigated for the first time Compatibility Prior Similar Experience H1c H2a H1b H2b H1a H2c Perceived Usefulness H3a Perceived Ease Of Use H3b Curiosity Usage Figure 1. Research model and hypotheses IM impact 2.1. External Factors In this paper we consider two antecedents of beliefs towards using IM: compatibility prior and similar experience. Compatibility: When a technology is used it is important that it fits and consistent with the task it will be used to accomplish and with the culture where it will be used in order to have a positive affect on adoption and implementation. Such fit calls for the compatibility of the culture and the technology. The concept of compatibility stems from the theory of Perceived Characteristics of Innovation (Moore and Benbasat 1991), defined as the degree to which an innovation is perceived as consistent with the existing values, past experiences, and needs of potential adopters. Most previous studies did investigate the compatibility of a technology with regard to its adequacy and fit with individual s task or style of work (Moore and Benbasat 1991; Taylor and Todd 1995; Al- Gahtani and King 1999). Compatibility was found to be positively correlated with usage, PEOU, PU and enjoyment (Al-Gahtani and King 1999). The same study H4e H3c H3d H4a H4b H5f H5e H5c H5d H5a H5b 163

3 has also shown that Compatibility contributed most to usage, and was the most important antecedent of the belief variables. We define compatibility rather loosely in this paper as the adequacy with the social setting in which a user is able to use a technology. We use the term in a similar fashion as Lyytinen and Yoo (2002) who speak about sample contexts such as the office (e.g. study), a meeting (e.g. friend and relationships), and the home (e.g. family) [italic and bold are added by the authors]. In a high context culture, we expect that compatibility of IM will affect PU, PEOU, curiosity, Usage and impact of IM. Prior similar experience: We define PSE as a combination of users experience with computer, web and . We argue that the degree to which a user adopts a previous similar system will influence their acceptance process on another system. A user who has past experience with technologies such as , the web and has accumulated many skills in using these technologies has an excellent opportunity to approach IM. Several past studies did investigate this factor. If the experience is high, users will perceive the system as easy to use. Since TAM posits that PEOU affects directly PU, then we assume that PSE will also affect PU. Past studies have found that PSE affect both PEOU and PU (Webster and Martocchio 1992; Igbaria et al., 1995), and system usage (Igbaria et al., 1995; Al-Gahtani and King 1999). In addition while Taylor and Todd (1995) found that only PU has affect on usage for experienced people, both PU and PEOU have affect on usage for inexperienced users Beliefs Perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (PU and PEOU): TAM posits that beliefs mediate the effect of external factors on usage. According to TAM, when a need arises to adopt a new technology, many external factors act as stimuli which lead an individual to go through a cognitive process. Such a process involves PU and PEOU, which lead users to adopt an attitude toward using the technology. PU refers to the extent to which a person believes that using a system would enhance his or her job performance, productivity and effectiveness (Davis 1989). PEOU refers to the degree to which the technology is perceived as relatively easy to understand and to use (Davis 1989). TAM posits that PEOU and PU have positive affect on intention to use (Davis 1989). Four studies among eight, reported in Legris et al., (2003), which focused on current usage found a positive correlation between PEOU and Usage and eight among thirteen found also a positive correlation between PU and Usage. Furthermore, most past studies dedicated to TAM (15 studies among 22) reported a positive correlation between PEOU and PU (Legris et al., 2003). Curiosity: There are two types of motivations: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation (e.g. perceived enjoyment) refers to the pleasure and inherent satisfaction derived from a specific activity. Extrinsic motivation (e.g. PU) emphasizes performing a behavior to achieve a specific goal, such as rewards. Malone (1981) suggests challenge, fantasy, and curiosity as the components of intrinsically motivating computer-based instruction. In the Arab culture, we consider curiosity as a form of perceived enjoyment because several authors consider curiosity, enjoyment, pleasure and playfulness as different forms of intrinsic motivation (Vallerand 1997).. Perceived enjoyment is generally regarded important only if the information system serves hedonic (enjoyment) purposes (Heijden 2004). Research indicated that individuals who experience immediate pleasure and joy from using the IT and perceive any activity involving use of a computer as inherently enjoyable, apart from any anticipated performance, are likely to use it more extensively than other (Malone 1981). As stated earlier, we consider curiosity as a form of enjoyment, and we included in the research model as a cultural variable. We define curiosity as the extent the experience arouses an individual's sensory and cognitive curiosity (Malone 1981)With respect to understanding the conceptual role of culture, values, theorists suggest that values do not directly influence people s behavior (Schwartz 1999). However, values do have an indirect influence on behavior through attitudes and goals. Also for the first time, we consider that PU, PEOU and curiosity affect Impact of IM. 3. Method 3.1. Data Gathering and participants Data was collected during spring semester were distributed in five colleges, but only 609 were completed and returned. 77.1% of the respondents were female students. This is little higher than the percentage at the Kuwait university, which accounts for 70%. The majority of respondents (96.2%) are young and their age range from 18 to 25 years. 82% of the respondents are single, while 17.7% are married. 26.1% are from the College of Business Administration, 21.2% from the College of Social Sciences, 33.1% from the College of Education, 35% from the College of Law, and 13.7% are from the College of Literature. 28.7% have spent 1-to-2 years at their college and 23.4% from 3-to-4 years. 55.2% of the respondents have a GPA comprised between 2 and 3. In addition, MSN software was found to be the most frequently used IM program (78.5%). 92% of the respondents use typing, 18.7% report talking instead of typing, 11 % send their pictures, while a small percentage (9.8%) report using video camera. Furthermore, the majority of respondents (79.3%) use a nickname to disguise their real identity. With regard to the location where students do often use IM, the majority reported they use IM from their home (83.2%), and (25.6%) from their college Constructs Measurement Most of the constructs in the research model were taken from well known past studies, with the exception of prior similar experience. The reuse of well established 164

4 constructs guarantees the content validity of the current study. Prior similar experience was measured according to the three following items: I am familiar with using computers (PSE1); I am familiar with using the web (PSE2); I am a familiar with using (PSE3). Compatibility was measured according to the three items proposed by Moore and Benbasat (1991) and adapted to fit the IM: Using IM would be compatible with all aspect of my life with friends (CP1); Using IM would be compatible with all aspect of my life with my family (CP1); Using IM would be compatible with all aspect of my study (CP3). Curiosity was measured by four scales. Two are of Webster et al. (1993) and two others introduced to fit the technology context: Using IM excites my curiosity to get to know new friends (CU1); Using IM programs excite my curiosity to get to know new people (from both sex) (CU2); IM programs help me to know new subjects and gain new knowledge (CU3); IM programs help me to know new habits and cultures of other countries (CU4). Perceived usefulness was measured with three of Davis s original scales (Davis 1989): Using IM improves my performance (PU1); Using IM increases my productivity (PU2); Using IM would enhance my effectiveness (PU3). Perceived Ease of Use was measured with four of Davis s original scales (Davis 1989): Interacting with IM does not require a lot of my mental effort (PEOU1); I find IM flexible to interact with (PEOU2); My interaction with IM is clear (PEOU3); I find IM easy to use (PEOU4). Each item in the above variables was evaluated on fivepoint semantic differential scales, ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Individuals were asked to rate each item according to how they feel about using IM Current Usage: We used five different ways to measure IM usage: Usage volume, frequency of use, variety of use, type of use; and social presence. Usage Volume (UV) refers to the time spent on the use of IM per day. Respondents were asked to indicate the amount of time using a six point scale ranging from (1) almost never to (6) more than three hours per day. Frequency of Use (FU) refers to how many times per week the respondent reports using the IM. It was measured using six scale ranging from (1) don t use at all to (6) use several times each day. With regard to Variety of Use (VU), respondents were given a list of topics they may use during IM, and were asked to select those they often fit their interest. Type of Use (TU) refers to whom the user frequently communicate with. Respondents were given a list of six choices and they were asked to select from: Family members; Friends with the same sex; Friends with the opposite sex; Unknown person with the same sex; and Unknown person with the opposite sex. Social Presence (SP) refers to the preference of respondents to existing communication channels including: Typing, talking, visualizing mages, or watching each other using digital camera. Impact of Instant Messaging use (IIM) refers to the extent to which the usage of IM impacts the performance of students either positively or negatively. It was measured by seven items. My GPA has decreased since I started to use IM (IIM1); IM usage has positive impact on my study performance (IIM2); IM usage makes me miss my classes (IIM3); IM usage makes me overdue my homework's and assignments (IIM4); IM usage distracts my attention during class time (IIM5); Use of IM helps me to finish my assignment in due date (IIM6); IM usage has enabled me to gain knowledge useful to my study (IIM7). 4. Results and discussion The research model depicted in Figure 1 represents a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Therefore we have chosen to test the model using SPSS (version 13.0) and LISREL (version 8.43) tools. We used SPSS to achieve data reduction (factors of the model), and LISREL to build the path model as well as to simultaneously examine the potential relationships (direct, indirect ands total effects of factors) in one model. Before applying the LISREL, the researcher first has to assess the measurement model (achieved through factor analysis), and then to test for significant relationships in the structural model. The measurement model consists of the relationships between the constructs and the indicators, and implies the examination of convergent validity and discriminant validity of the model Factors structure Factor analysis was used to separately validate the measurement of these constructs. Factors were extracted using covariance matrices and the method of principal components. Factor loadings are the correlation of each variable; with higher loading making the variable representative of the factor. The larger the absolute size of the factor loading, the more important the loading is in interpreting the factor matrix. The acceptance of factor loadings of 0.50 and above this level is considered practically significant (Hair et al., 1998). The lower variables are excluded. The factor loadings show eight distinct constructs instead of seven. Usage was separated into two distinct constructs: Usage related to time (labeled Usage 1) and usage related to socialization or social interaction (labeled Usage 2). The factor loadings also provide evidence for the factorial validity of the eight scales. The variance extracted by the 8 factors of the model accounts for 73.7%, which depicts a good model. Four measurements items loaded very low. One is related to curiosity (CU4) and three are related to impact of IM use (IIM2, IIM6, IIM7) which refers to positive impact of IM. Those which loaded very well (IIM1, IIM3, IIM4 and IIM5) refer to negative impact on student performance. The four indicators that do not loaded were excluded since their factor loadings are less than the cutoff value (0.50) recommended by Hair et al., (1998).. Accordingly, the measurement model was re-estimated and used to generate the LISREL model. 165

5 4.2. Convergent validity Convergent validity can be assessed by two measures: construct reliability and Average Variance Extracted (Hair et al., 1998). Construct reliability, called also composite reliability, is the extent to which a variable or a set of variables is consistent in what it is intended to measure (Hair et al., 1998) and recommend 0.80 as the minimum acceptance level..average Variance Extracted (AVE) measures the amount of variance captured by the construct in relation to the amount of variance due to measurement error (Hair et al., 1998). Consistent with the recommendations of Hair et al., (1998) all composite reliabilities are greater than They were found successively as follow: 0.82 (CP), (PSE), (CU), (PU), (PEOU), 0.80 (usage 1), (usage 2), and (impact of IM). Consistent with the recommendations of Hair et al., (1998) AVE for all constructs exceeds They were found successively as follow: 0.62 (CP), (PSE), (CU), (PU), (PEOU), (Usage 1), (usage 2), and (impact of IM). These two indicators (composite reliability and AVE) reflect high levels of convergent validity Discriminant validity Discriminant validity is measured based upon the correlations between the measures of each pair of constructs. The variance shared between measures of two different constructs (r 2 ) was found to be lower than the AVE by the items measuring each construct. This result suggests that the model constructs are distinct and unidirectional, and ensure discriminant validity Test of the Structural Model We the structural model and we compute direct, indirect and total effects, path coefficients, and t-value (these values are not presented in the paper.) The direct effect can be identified as the magnitude of the path coefficient along the path connecting the cause and the effect variables. The path coefficients were examined to see if they were significantly different from 0. Parameters whose t-values are greater than or equal to +-2 are considered to be significantly different from 0 (Joreskog and Sorbom 1986). Predicting beliefs: Both compatibility and PSE have direct effect on PEOU. Hypotheses (H1b and H2b) are supported. Among these two external variables, PSE plays the strongest effect. Compatibility and PEOU affect directly curiosity and PU. Hypotheses (H1a, H1c, H3a, and H3b) are therefore supported. However, PSE only have effect on PEOU and curiosity, but has no effect on PU; therefore hypotheses (H2b and H2c) are supported but not 2a. The strongest direct effect on curiosity and PU come from PEOU. In addition, PEOU mediates indirectly the effect of compatibility and PSE on curiosity and PU. PSE exerts the strongest direct effect on curiosity and PU. However, the indirect effect of PSE on curiosity and PU is lower than the direct effect of PEOU, since the total effect of PSE is less than that of PEOU. Such result reveals the importance of PEOU on IM acceptance in the Arab World. Furthermore, results indicate that PEOU is the strongest determinant of PU followed by PSE. This implies that external variables play less affect on PU than does PEOU. Predicting IM usage: compatibility exerts only an indirect effect on usage 1 and usage 2; hypothesis (H4a) is partially supported. Similar to compatibility, PSE exerts an indirect effect on usage 1, however, it exerts a direct and indirect effect on Usage 2. Hypothesis (H4b) is therefore supported. The strongest direct effect on Usage 1 comes first from PEOU, and second from curiosity and compatibility. The strongest indirect effect on usage 1 comes from CP; however, the indirect effect of compatibility is less than the direct effect of PEOU, since its total effect is less than that of PEOU. PEOU also exerts a direct and indirect effect on Usage 2, leading to accept hypothesis (H5e). The strongest indirect effect on Usage 2 comes from PSE. Similar to the total effect on usage1, PEOU exerts the strongest total effect on Usage 2. Curiosity has a direct effect on Usage1, but it has no effect on Usage 2. Thus hypothesis (H5d) is supported. Results also indicate that curiosity, compatibility and prior similar experience play the second largest affect on IM acceptance since they exert the same direct or indirect effect (18% with P<0.05). Surprisingly, PU has no effect on current usage (neither on usage 1 nor on usage 2) leading to reject hypothesis (H3c). Predicting of impact of IM: Compatibility and PSE exert a direct and indirect effect on Impact, leading to accept hypotheses (H5a) and (H5b). While PEOU exerts an indirect effect, PU exerts a direct effect. Therefore, hypothesis (H5c) is accepted and (H5e) is rejected. Curiosity, usage 1 and usage 2 exert a direct effect on Impact; leading to accept hypotheses (H5d) and (H5f). Results also indicate that compatibility exerts the strongest direct effect on Impact of IM, followed by PU. However, as PEOU exerts the strongest direct effects on beliefs (PU and curiosity), its indirect effect and total effect on the Impact of IM is the largest. Thus the above results confirm a second time the major role played by PEOU either as a direct effect or as a mediator of external factors on IM usage and student s satisfaction. To test the goodness of fit of the structural model, several criteria were computed (Sharma 1998): First chi-square (χ 2 ) divided by the number of degrees of freedom (DF); A value of the ratio of a χ 2 /DF which is less than 5 can be considered adequate for large models. Second Goodness of fit index (GFI) and the adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI), approach unity the better the model fits the data. Third, the Root Mean Square Residual (RMSR) is a measure of the average of the residual variances and covariance. Values close to zero indicate a good model fit. The model parameters show the following: RMSR = 0.056; GFI = 0.90; AGFI = 0.86; X 2 =785; DF= 226; 166

6 X 2 /DF=3.47. The above results provide evidence of the relatively strong model fit to the observed data. These measured indices reflect a reasonable accepted model (see Sharma 1998) 5. Conclusion This study contributes to the field of information system and information technology by applying TAM to the instant messaging usage in an Arabic country. Major findings show that PEOU plays the major role on IM acceptance. Results also indicate that curiosity, compatibility and prior similar experience play the second larger affect on IM acceptance after PEOU since they exert the same direct or indirect effect. Contrary to what it has been established in the west, PU has no effect on current usage. In addition, while results indicate that compatibility has the strongest direct effect on IM Impact PU exerts the second largest direct effect on IM impact. The main contributions of the paper stem: (a) in the application of a rigorous statistical technique- the application of structural equation modeling using LISREL, (b) the extension of TAM to include curiosity as a mediating factor and belief that has equal power as PEOU and PU, since, to our knowledge, none past study did investigate curiosity as a mediating effect; (c) prove that cultural factors (compatibility and curiosity) affect directly and indirectly IM acceptance in the Arab world. This finding confirms previous studies on the impact of culture on IT acceptance in the Arab world (Straub et al., 2001; Loch et al., 2003; Zakaria and Stanton 2003). In addition, this paper confirms also that culture and values have indirect effect on IT adoption as theorized by Schwartz (1992). This study confirms also the existence of direct link between PEOU on PU for entertainment software usage (the case of IM) which is in line with what was established in the west over the last two decades (see Legris et al., 2003). Finally, results depicted in Figure 2 show that the squared multiple correlations (R 2 ) for the structural equations modeling were found respectively: R 2 (CU) =40%; R 2 (PU) =46%; R 2 (PEOU) =40%; R 2 (Usage 1) =17%; R 2 (Usage 2) =25%; R 2 (Impact) =14%. These values are acceptable and are quite similar to previous studies. To limit the comparison to one study that focused on the effect of PSE on IS usage, Taylor and Todd (1995) found: R 2 = 43% (intention to use) and R 2 = 21% (usage) for experienced users; and R 2 = 60% (intention to use); R 2 = 17% (usage) for inexperienced users. However, the low variance explained by the impact of IM usage (14%) indicates that 86 % remains unknown. Such a result call for substantial efforts to integrate additional constructs, and to further investigate other motivational factors that lead Arab people to embrace new ICT. Authors also encourage to undertaking a cross cultural study in several Arab countries to test and retest the adequacy of the model as well as to focus on one specific instant messaging software (e.g. MSN) as did Li et al., (2005).. Acknowledgements This research is funded by Kuwait University, Research Grant IQ 01/05. The author acknowledges the Research Administration Project for its support. References 1. S.S. Al-Gahtani, and M. King (1999), Attitudes, satisfaction and usage: factors contributing to each in the acceptance of information technology. Behaviour & Information Technology 18(4), 1999, F.D. Davis, Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology. MIS Quarterly 13(3), 1989, W.H. Delone, and E.R. Mclean, Information systems success: the quest for dependent variable, Information Systems Research 3 (1), 1992, J.F. Hair, R.E. Anderson, R.L. Tatham and W.C. Black, Multivariate data analysis, (Prentice Hall 5 th Edition 1998) 5. Van der, H Heijden, User acceptance of hedonic information systems. MIS Quarterly, December 2004, K.G. Joreskog and D. Sorbom, LISREL-Analysis of Linear Structural Relationships by the Method of Maximum Likelihood. (Mooresville, Indiana: Scienti c Software, Inc. 1986). 7. P. Legris, J. Ingham, and P. Collerette, Why do people use information technology? A critical review of the technology acceptance model. Information & Management 40, 2003, D. Li, P.Y.K. Chau, and H. Lou, Understanding individual adoption of Instant Messaging: An empirical investigation, Journal of Association for Information Systems 6(4), April 2005, K.D. Loch, D.W. Straub and S. Kamel, Diffusing the Internet in the Arab World: The Role of Social Norms and Technological Culturation. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management 50(1), February 2003, K., Lyytinen and Y. Yoo, Research commentary: the next wave of nomadic computing. Information Systems Research, 13(4), 2002, T.W Malone, Toward a theory of intrinsically motivating instructions Cognitive Science 4, 1981, G.C., Moore and I. Benbasat, Development of an instrument to measure the perception of Adopting an information technology innovation. Information Systems Research 2(3), 1991, K. Rouibah K., and S. Rouibah, nvestigation of certain factors associated with the chat Technology acceptance and its impact on CBA students. Arab Journal of Administrative Sciences 12(2), May 2005, pp S.H. Schwartz, A theory of cultural values and some implications for work, Applied Psychology: An International Review 48(1), 1999,