User acceptance of WAP services: test of competing theories Shin-Yuan Hung * , Chia-Ming Chang Department of Information Management, National Chung Cheng University, 160 San-Hsin Village, Ming Hsiung, Chia-Yi, Taiwan, ROC Available online 4 November 2004 Abstract Although wireless application protocol (WAP) service acceptance has long attracted considerable interest, the problem of identifying the best theoretical model among the various prevalent models has been relatively neglected. Recently, a few studies have attempted to examine this issue using the decomposed TPB model. It is rare for one model to be superior to all of the other models in all criteria. WAP service acceptance involves competition among three well-established theoretical models, as follows: the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and the decomposed TPB model. This study compares the effectiveness of these three models in understanding WAP services acceptance. Empirical data were obtained from a field survey in Taiwan. Notable findings were reported for the three competing models, as follows: (1) TPB and decomposed TPB are superior to TAM in terms of their ability to explain user acceptance of WAP services and (2) while the decomposed TPB model provided more easily understood and managerially relevant factors, the TPB model was more parsimonious and had very similar explanatory power to the decomposed TPB model. Finally, the implications of this study are discussed. D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Wireless application protocol; Technology Acceptance Model; Theory of Planned Behavior; Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior; Information technology acceptance 1. Introduction Wireless application protocol (WAP) service accept- ance is crucial for WAP survival in the highly competitive mobile commerce market. WAP is partic- ularly one of widespread technical standards to extend Internet technologies to wireless networks. Since 1997, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Unwired Planet have taken the initiative to found the WAP Forum [25,26]. WAP has become an open, global specification, enabling mobile users with wireless devices to easily and instantly access and interact with information and services [27]. Among the general public, WAP should be held in very high esteem, owing to support from numerous key industry players. However, problems for low usage of WAP services do exist [17,21,24]. Clearly, user acceptance is required for ensuring productivity payoffs from any investments in IT services [10,19,23]. Thus, from a pragmatic perspective, WAP service acceptance needs to be explored. 0920-5489/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.csi.2004.10.004 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 5 2720411x34601; fax: +886 5 2721501. E-mail address: syhung@mis.ccu.edu.tw (S.-Y. Hung). Computer Standards & Interfaces 27 (2005) 359 – 370 www.elsevier.com/locate/csi