Technology Acceptance of Complex Products and Systems: the Case of Terrestrial Trunked Radio (Tetra)

Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA), a complexcommunication system is mainly used by public safetyorganisations. As the TETRA technology is included ina category of industrial goods called complexproducts and systems (CoPS), this communicationsystem is the candidate CoPS example. In all businesscontexts, complex information technologies bringproductivity gains for the organisation only when thetarget group uses the system in the way it issupposed to be used. There are determining factorsthat motivate an end user to accept/use a technology. The underlying study investigates the factorsinfluencing the acceptance of the TETRA technology onthe end-user level. The theoretical model is based onDavis Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Aqualitative pre-study was followed by a broadempirical assessment in quantitative terms. Resultsconfirm the original TAM core constructs. Further; the specific extension of the traditional TAM isespecially valuable, as for example this study provesthe high significance of the influence of perceivedsystem interoperability. The overall model provides valuable theoretical inputfor further technology acceptance studies.