Using TAM model to explore factors affecting the intention of using the E-stock Virtual Exchange of Duy Tan University’s students

LUU THI THU HUONG (International School - Duy Tan University, Da Nang City (Postcode 550000), Vietnam)

ABSTRACT:

The growth of Vietnam’s stock exchange requires students to be equipped with necessary and practical knowledge in trading securities. Therefore, this study focuses on determining the factors affecting the intention of Duy Tan University’s students of using the E-stock Virtual Exchange that simulates major features of real stock exchanges in Vietnam. The studied model is based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This study finds that Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Attitude Towards and Website Design are four major factors that mainly affect the intention of students. This study also proposes some feasible solutions to improve the students’ intention of using the E-stock Virtual Exchange.

Keywords: E-stock Virtual Exchange, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Duy Tan University.

I. Introduction

The Vietnam Stock Exchange officially formed in 2000 plays an important role in mobilizing intermediate and long-term capital. Vietnamese stock market has grown strongly and contributed gratefully to the development of the economy. For this reason, the demand for finance jobs has witnessed a considerable upward trend in recent years. However, there is a growing concern that a large number of new university graduates fail to meet to corporations’ requirements, especially securities companies. Due to the lack of capital combined with practical knowledge, they have encountered many challenges to trade on the real Stock exchanges. Therefore, training students how to trade and understand the rules of investment is very crucial. For the purpose of addressing this issue, Duy Tan University has invested and deployed an online virtual stock exchange called “E-stock” which targets at providing a useful playground for students to enhance their financial knowledge as well as practice some soft skills like real investors. However, how to get students’ interest in this educational platform appears to be a difficult task. Thus, this research is conducted to figure out the major factors which influence students’ intentions.

II. Literature review

1. Previous researches related to Intention to use

According to the research of David (1986, 1989, 1993), TAM model was simulated from Theory of Reasoned Action - TRA (Fishbein and Ajzen (1975)). This model was accepted to in analyzing effectively the technology acceptance of users. TAM recommended two important factors that influence an individual's intention to use the technology: Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of use.

On the basis of original model of TAM, Venkatesh & Davis (1996) continued to expand the model to explain the intention to use of users. Besides two main factors, the new model also included social influence, cognitive processes and experience. The test results were extremely supported and explained by about 60% of people accepting this new version of TAM.

The TAM model continued to be proposed by Wiedenbeck (2001), considering the relationship between The users’ intention and Perceived Interaction. In empirical research, they identified several types of interactions and demonstrated that the Perceived Interaction did affect The users’ intention.

Liu, Chen, Sun, Wible & Kuo (2010) also attempted to add new variables, namely Course Design, User-interface Design and Learning Experience in exploring factors affecting the intention of students.

Furthermore, there were many other studies doing research on users' intention such as McGiven (1994), Sung Youl Park (2009), Reed & Geissler (1995), etc.

2. Proposed research model

Based on the previous researches, the author proposes the research model including seven independent factors: (1) Perceived Usefulness and (2) Perceived Ease of Use both explored in the model of David (1986); (3) Percieved of Interaction is expanded in the model of Wiedenbeck (2001), Boczkowsk (1999) and Liu, Chen, Sun, Wible & Kuo (2010); (4) Attitude Towards used in the model of Lee, Cheung & Chen (2005), (5) Website Design used in the model of McGiven (1994) and Rovai (2004), (6) Interface Design derived in the model of Liu, Chen, Sun, Wible & Kuo (2010), (7) Learning Experience used in the model of Reed & Geissler (1995), Singleton, Hill & Koh (2004), Adams et al (1992) and Straub, Keil, & Brenner (1997).

All above independent variables were all discussed and accepted by experts. This study attempts to investigate the possible relationship among those variables.

Figure 1: The study’s Proposed Theoretical Framework

The study’s Proposed Theoretical Framework

Sources: Developed for the research

III. Research methodology

1. Qualitative research

Based all listing researches above, the model was finally conducted with seven independent variables (Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived of Interaction, Attitude Towards, Website Design, Interface Design, Learning Experience) and one dependent variable (Intention to Use E-stock) with total 23 items.

Questionnaires were completely done after interviewing 20 experts: 10 managers working at securities company in Danang City such as VNdirect, FPT Securities, Vietcombank Securities, ACB Securities company,…; 5 managers working at 3 different banks, namely Agribank, Vietcombank and Mbbank; 5 Doctors who major in Finance, Banking, Accounting, Administration and Information technology and are working at Duy Tan University. Then, the questionnaires were tested once again with a sample of 100 students before delivering to 900 students.

2. Quantitative research

The population of the study is students at Duy Tan University. To make sure that all students did experience E-stock, the author decide to choose 83% of questionnaires delivered to third-year and senior students in Finance, Banking, Accounting, Administratrion and Tourism, only 17% of them from other majors. This figure is based on the percentage of students learning at these majors in Duy Tan university.

IV. Results

After collecting and eliminating the invalid questionnaires, all data from 836 valid ones were coded and then recorded in Microsoft excel before being transferred to SPSS version 20.0.

1. Cronbach's Alpha reliability test

Table 1. Interpretation of Cronbach’s Alpha

Interpretation of Cronbach’s Alpha

Source: Field Survey, June, 2019

Table 1 shows that the Cronbach’s Alpha of all independent and dependent variables are higher than 0.7. It proves that all variables are reliable and able to be used in the next step of statistical analysis.

2. Testing the factor loading coefficient of the independent variables

Table 2. Rotated component matrixa of the independent variables

 Rotated component matrixa of the independent variables

Source: Field Survey, June, 2019

Table 2 shows the final result of Exploratory Factor Analysis. The scale of the seven independent variables were rotation converged in 3 iterations. As a result, item 1 and item 3 of Interface Design; item 1 and item 2 in the construct of Learning experience were deleted because their factor loading coefficients were lower than 0.5. Besides, there were 2 items which experienced cross loading. Item 2 of Interface Design moved to Perceived Ease of Use and item 3 of Learning Experience moved to Attitude Towards. The author decided not to rename these two factors since the added items did not change the meaning of the factors. The number of factors generated after the analysis is only five (Interface design and Learning experience were removed) with a total of 19 items.

3. Adjusted models

Through testing scale by EFA and Cronbach's’ Alpha reliability, the author will adjust the original theoretical research model into following model including 5 factors that affect the Intention to Use E-stock with 19 observation variables.

Figure 2: The adjusted research model

The adjusted research model

Sources: Developed for the research

And the study gives out following new research hypotheses:

H1: Perceived Usefulness positively affects the students’ Intention to Use E-stock in Duy Tan University.

H2: Perceived Ease of Use positively affects the students’ Intention to Use E-stock in Duy Tan University.

H3: Perceived of Interaction positively affects the students’ Intention to Use E-stock in Duy Tan University.

H4: Attitude Towards positively affects the students’ Intention to Use E-stock in Duy Tan University.

H5: Website Design positively affects the students’ Intention to Use E-stock in Duy Tan University.

4. Testing the correlation coefficient (R value)

The Multiple Regression Analysis is used to determine the significant relationships between independent and dependent variable.

Table 3. Model Summary

Model Summary

Source: Field Survey, June, 2019

In the Model Summary Table 3, the Adjusted R Square for this model is 0.567. It means that the variation of the students’ Intention to Use E-stock can be explained 56.7% by the independent variables.

5. Testing the Anova

Table 4. Anova

http://tapchicongthuong.vn/images/yen-koi/nckh/thu_huong_9_4.jpg

Source: Field Survey, June, 2019

Table 4 shows that F value of the model is 42.110, higher than 5. and the p-value is 0.00 which is less than 0.05 (p< 0.05) so significant at the 0.05 level. The significance value is less than 0.05, an indication that the model is significant. In overall, the regression model with those five independent variables (Website Design, perceived of Interaction, perceived Usefulness, Attitude Towards, perceived Ease of Use) is suitable for explaining the variation in intention of students.

6. Develop regression equation with standardized coefficients

Table 5. Coefficients

http://tapchicongthuong.vn/images/yen-koi/nckh/thu_huong_9_4.jpg

Source: Field Survey, June, 2019

Perceived of Interaction is rejected since its Sig. (0.225) is higher than 0.05 while other independent variables are accepted. Besides, there is no multi-collinear phenomena because all VIF value is lower than 2. The relation between those independent and dependent variables are determined as the equation below:

Intention to Use E-stock = 0.277*Perceived Ease of Use + 0.234*Attitude Towards + 0.208*Perceived Usefulness + 0.122*Website Design

V. Conclusion

From the above empirical study, the author has identified the research model and the hypotheses that appear to be well-suited the research objectives. Two independent variables removed from the original research model are Interface Design and Learning Experience because their factor loading values were less than 0.5. Furthermore, Perceived of Interaction which had Sig. value greater than 0.05 was taken away as well. As a result, the Intention to Use E-stock of students is really affected by 4 independent variables, including Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Website Design, Attitude Towards.

The result also indicates that Perceived Ease of Use was the most important factor affecting students' Intention to Use E-stock. It includes not only the ease of operating and troubleshooting but also the ease of use in E-stock’s interface design. Attitude Towards was the second most important factor affecting students' Intention to Use E-stock. When students have a positive attitude towards using E-stock, they will be eager to trade more and more. The factor ranked third was Perceived Usefulness. This shows that E-stock really plays an important role in helping students improve academic results and train students financial thinking.

VI. Recommendations

In order to improve the intention of students at Duy Tan University to use E-stock, variety of solutions should be taken. Firstly, Perceived Ease of Use can be improved by creating a forum for students to discuss and share their own experiences whenever their accounts and transactions encounter problems. Besides, it is necessary to regularly recruit or appoint new and dedicated administrators of E-stock.

Secondly, through media channels, lecturers and students should be encouraged to express and share their own opinions in order to be aware of the necessity of applying their theoretical knowledge into practice by trading on E-stock and putting their financial domain knowledge into virtual exchange. Moreover, stock competitions should be organized on a regular basis such as the smart investor contest. At the end of the competition, the winners are encouraged to share publicly their experiences, knowledge together with real life lessons drawn from their risky investment strategies and failures.

In teaching some specialized subjects of Accounting and Finance, lecturers should diversify and apply the theory of the subject into practice under the Project-Based-Learning method to create excitement for students. In addition, apart from applying E-stock to specialized programs of Finance, E-stock should be introduced to the first and second year students so that they are able to know, explore and discover E-stock n

REFERENCES:

  1. Davis, F. D. (1986). Technology acceptance model for empirically testing new end-user information systems: Theory and results. Massachusetts USA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  2. Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13, pp.319-339.
  3. Davis, F. D. (1993). User acceptance of information technology: System characteristics, user perceptions and behavioral impacts. International Journal of Man - Machine Studies, 38, pp.475- 487.
  4. Fan Liu, Meng Chang Chen, Yeali S. Sun, David Wible & Chin-Hwa Kuo (2010). Extending the TAM model to explore the factors that affect Intention to Use an Online Learning Community. Computers & Education, 54, pp.600-610.
  5. McGiven, J. (1994). Designing the learning environment to meet the needs of distant students. Journal of Technology and Learning, 27(2), pp.52-57.
  6. Park, S. Y. (2009). An Analysis of the Technology Acceptance Model in Understanding University Students' Behavioral Intention to Use e-Learning. Educational Technology & Society, 12(3), pp.150-162.
  7. Reed, W. M., & Geissler (1995). Prior computer-related experience and hypermedia metacognition. Computers in Human Behavior, 11(314), pp.581-600.
  8. Venkatesh, V., & Davis, F. D. (1996). A model of the antecedents of perceived ease of use: Development and test. Decision Sciences, 27, pp.451-481.

SỬ DỤNG MÔ HÌNH TAM ĐỂ XÁC ĐỊNH

CÁC YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN Ý ĐỊNH THAM GIA

 SÀN GIAO DỊCH ẢO E-STOCK CỦA SINH VIÊN

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DUY TÂN

• LƯU THỊ THU HƯƠNG

Trường Đại học Duy Tân

TÓM TẮT:

Sự phát triển của thị trường chứng khoán Việt Nam đã khiến sinh viên cần phải có kiến thức cần thiết và thực tiễn về giao dịch chứng khoán. Do đó, nghiên cứu này tập trung vào việc xác định các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến ý định tham gia Sàn giao dịch ảo E-stock (Sàn giao dịch) của sinh viên thuộc Trường Đại học Duy Tân. Sàn giao dịch ảo E-stock mô phỏng các chức năng chính của các sàn giao dịch tại Việt Nam. Mô hình nghiên cứu được xây dựng dựa trên mô hình chấp nhận công nghệ (TAM). Nghiên cứu chỉ ra: Nhận thức về tính hữu dụng, Nhận thức về tính dễ sử dụng, Thái độ và Thiết kế website - là những nhân tố chính ảnh hưởng đến ý định tham gia Sàn giao dịch của sinh viên thuộc Đại học Duy Tân. Nghiên cứu cũng đưa ra một số giải pháp thực tiễn nhằm nâng cao ý định tham gia Sàn giao dịch của sinh viên.

Từ khóa: Sàn giao dịch ảo E-stock, mô hình chấp nhận công nghệ (TAM), Trường Đại học Duy Tân.

[Tạp chí Công Thương - Các kết quả nghiên cứu khoa học và ứng dụng công nghệ, Số 9, tháng 5 năm 2020]