Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and Information Technology

This study investigated Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Enjoyment as correlates of EIRs use among lecturers in private universities in Nigeria. A correlation type of survey research design was adopted in this study. A single stage random sampling technique was used to select 2086 lecturers from the sampled (14) universities out of (21) universities with a population size of 3308 in South-West Nigeria. The survey instruments titled “motivational (Perceived Usefulness, Perceived ease of use and Perceived Enjoyment and use of (EIR) Questionnaire” (SEPFEIRU Q) was administered. Data generated were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Pearson Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression (R2) analysis at 0.05 significance level. The finding revealed that Perceived Usefulness (r=.980** P<.05) Perceived ease of use .982** Perceived enjoyment (r=.986**, P <.05) were significantly related with utilization of electronic information resources. The study also found that the linear combination of Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Enjoyment accounted for 99% variance in use of EIR among respondents. The study therefore recommended that university management should provide more effective use of current internet education systems to increase individual internet knowledge by having a sort of seminars/workshop to intimate and update the lecturers on the help messages always displayed on the screen during search.

  Motivational Factors as Correlates of Electronic Information Resources Use Among Lecturers in Private Universities in South-West, Nigeria (667.3 KiB, 1,779 hits)

The perceived usefulness is a concept that has been used by several authors in different fields of study. The analysis of these studies shows, as suggested by Davis (1989), that when the individual perceives the information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve his performances, he uses them more frequently in his daily activities at work. However, one may think, as does this research, that the external factors can lead to relativize the significance of this hypothesis. Indeed, the mobilization of the research on the sociology of use and the organizational dispersion of the company allowed us to deduct that within the subcontractor enterprises, the use of ICT by the employees, who favourably perceive their usefulness, depends on the degree of the enterprises’ dependency towards their contractors, in the sense that when this dependency grows, the reactive and standard use of these technologies is requested to the detriment of their creative use, and vice versa. The analysis of results, based on a positivist paradigm, a deductive reasoning and a quantitative empirical investigation, enabled us to empirically validate a conceptual model indicating, in fact, that in the subcontractor companies highly depending on their contractors, employees who are convinced that ICT improves their work performance made more reactive use in their administrative activities, while the creative use of these technologies in disseminating the information permanently and in real time has not been promoted within companies which are weakly dependent on their contractors.

  Perceived Usefulness and Use of Information Technology: the Moderating Influences of the Dependence of a Subcontractor towards His Contractor (361.5 KiB, 6,543 hits)