Searching for New Answers: The Application of Task-Technology Fit to E-Textbook Usage

Students have been slow to adopt e‐textbooks even though they are often less expensive than traditional textbooks. Prior e‐textbook research has focused on adoption behavior, with little research to date on how students perceive e‐textbooks fitting their needs. This work builds upon Task‐Technology Fit (TTF) and Consumer Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) theory to present a student‐perspective model of e‐textbook usage. By contextualizing TTF and UTAUT2 to e‐textbooks, the research fills a gap in the literature and provides guidance to researchers and practitioners. The goal of the research is to understand how students perceive their task of learning to fit with e‐textbook technology, and how that fit influences e‐textbook usage and expected performance in their classes. To achieve this goal, the research develops a model to test the relationship between perceived TTF of e‐textbooks and UTAUT2‐defined user characteristics that encourage adoption behaviors, thus facilitating student learning. The findings show that four factors impact a student's perceived TTF: substitution, habit, hedonic motivation, and facilitating conditions. Furthermore, perceived TTF positively correlates with students’ e‐textbook usage and expected performance in classes when using e‐textbooks. While price value exhibits a measurable effect on e‐textbook utilization, it is a minor factor.