User attitudes toward dedicated e-book readers for reading The effects of convenience, compatibility and media richness

Purpose - Due to the rapid pace of development and innovation in information technology, the dedicated electronic book (e-book) reader has become a new trend in reading. However, at present there is only a limited understanding of what factors drive user attitudes/willingness to use this new device for reading. Hence, this paper aims to explore what factors drive users to use dedicated e-book readers for reading. Design/methodology/approach - The study proposes a causal model that explores how convenience, compatibility, and media richness affect users' attitudes towards the dedicated e-book readers for reading. Findings - The results of this study suggest that convenience, compatibility, and media richness all significantly contribute to dedicated e-book reader acceptance. Research limitations/implications - The study extends previous theories: the Technology Acceptance Model, Innovation Diffusion Theory, media richness theory and convenience. This helps one to better understand what factors affect usage of the dedicated e-book readers, an important topic for current and future research. Practical implications - The findings outline and describe how the dominant factors affect users' attitudes towards adoption of the dedicated e-book readers for reading. By considering factors such as ease-of-use, usefulness, convenience, compatibility, media richness, etc., in the stage of product development, practitioners can provide dedicated e-book readers that customers will readily accept. Originality/value - These findings will enable development of a more robust understanding of attitudes toward dedicated e-book readers and will be helpful to developers researching e-book hardware and software as well as to researchers interested in testing related theories.