E-Tam : a revision of the Technology Acceptance Model to explain website revisits

Retaining visitors at a corporate website is arguably one of the most important objectives for e-commerce practitioners today. Unfortunately, it is also a notoriously difficult challenge. Little theory has been developed to understand why people return - or fail to return - to websites. In this paper we address this issue by developing a theoretical framework that models the factors influencing a visitor’s return to a website. The framework is adapted from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), originally developed by Davis et al. [6,7, 8]. A major revision involves the concept of perceived relative usefulness and perceived relative enjoyment as opposed to usefulness and enjoyment per se. This extension takes into account the notion that websites operate in a competitive environment, and that visitors judge the usefulness and enjoyment of a website relative to the competing websites to which they have access. The paper discusses five propositions that are derived from the revised framework. Implications for further research and practical guidelines for electronic commerce website designers are also addressed.