Use and uptake of e-books in the lens of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology

As digital penetration is accelerated, consumers have been exposed to a variety of digital content. As such, a projection is suggested that printed books will lose the battle and be rendered obsolete with ebooks' cost-effectiveness and ubiquity. By contrast, there is a prediction that consumers will still prefer printed books for intensive reading and rather use e-books just for fun and pleasure. To respond to the research call, this study examines why and how individuals adopt and use e-books in the digital innovation era by utilizing the theory of UTAUT together with cognitive judgmental processes. The survey methodology with 1,419 consumers was used to test the research model by employing structural equation modeling. The results of the study show that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and facilitating conditions are critical to the adoption and use of e-books. Gender, age, and experience have no moderating impacts in this study. Job relevance, result demonstrability, and effort expectancy have a positive impact on performance expectancy. Output quality shows a moderating influence between job relevance and performance expectancy. This study also discusses theoretical and practical implications by bridging every-changing consumer technology use and users' cognitive impact with the case of ebooks.