Background to the Research

As we live in the information age, an immense amount of information is readily available through powerful computers, which are connected through high speed data communication networks such as the Internet, Wide Area Networks (WANs), and Local Area Networks (LANs). The rapid rate of change in the business environment has continuously pushed the need for technologies and acceptance of these technologies at an accelerating rate. The new technologies are enabling organisations to be flatter, networked, and more flexible. Organisations in the 21st century inevitably make substantial investments in Information Technology (IT) in order to achieve competitive advantage, by spending enormous sums of money on computer hardware, software, communication networks, databases and specialised personnel. Consequently, Information Technology is not only commonly found in the workplace, but has also become pervasive in the home and in public areas (Martin, Brown, DeHayes, Hoffer & Perkins 2002).

In addition, according to Turban, Rainer, and Potter (2001), Information Technology is a facilitator of organisational activities and processes. So it is very important for every manager and professional staff member to learn about IT from the standpoint of his or her specialised field, and also from the standpoint of IT across the entire organisation. Significantly, Fary (1984) claims that most jobs in the 21st century will require some use of computers together with communication networks, so members of the workforce unable to use them will be at a disadvantage. Palvia, Palvia, and Zigli (1992) report that many organisations including higher educational institutions are aware of these rapidly changing environments and see Information Technology as not just a set of tools for computing, but rather as a strategic tool to bring organisations growth and prosperity. It is further suggested by Petrides (2000) that Information Technology is already seen to be playing an integral role in organizations, more specifically in universities, as higher education institutions strive to maintain goals of quality, efficiency and effectiveness.

The Internet, an important aspect of Information Technology, at present and in the future, seems to be the most useful technology for communication and obtaining information for individuals, organizations and countries. The Internet is an interconnected network of networks (Tatnall, Paull, Burgess & Davey 2003) and can help connect millions of computers and millions of users around the world by providing many interesting services at low expense (Davison, Burgess & Tatnall 2004). We therefore cannot help think that the world is getting smaller via the Internet. In spite of the fact that the growth in importance of the Internet is quite recent (Hyperdictionary 2006), the Internet is now very popular in many countries worldwide including in the U.S and Australia. Despite the popularity of the Internet, the Internet penetration rate (% of populations use the Internet) is still very low, accounting for only 16.8% of the population - 1,091.7 million from a total population of 6,499.7 million (Internet World Stats 2006c). There are many people in many countries, especially in developing countries that still have no chance to access the Internet. More particularly, in Thailand, the penetration rate is only 12.7 % (Internet World Stats 2006b) which is lower than the penetration rate of the world. Since the total population of Thailand is 66.5 million, Internet users make up only 8.4 million people. This rate has not changed considerably during the last few years. It also cannot be compared with the Internet penetration rate of the U.S.(70%) (Internet World Stats 2006d), Australia (70.7%) (Internet World Stats 2006a) and other countries in South East Asia such as Singapore (67.2%) and Malaysia (40.2%) (Internet World Stats 2006b).

There are questions in respect of the gap between the popularity along with usefulness of the Internet and the low penetration rates in many countries especially in Thailand. The critical issues of how to increase usage of Internet Technology are of national concern. Although the Thai government has various national plans and policies such as IT 2010 (NECTEC 2001) to support and increase Internet usage within schools, and in higher education, the Internet usage rate is still rather low when compared to other countries. The very low Internet penetration rate may represent problems. If Internet Technologies are available via infrastructures, further questions that should be addressed are (1) how to motivate more people to use the Internet, (2) how to motivate experienced users to use the Internet more frequently and (3) how to motivate experienced users to make full use of the Internet, especially in their work.

In higher education, it is important for all academics to use the Internet more in their work as students will all have experience in using the Internet at the basic educational level of study according to the National ICT for Education Master Plan (2004-2006) (Office of the Education Council 2004). An understanding of how to promote academics to use the Internet more will be achieved by utilising the theories/models of technology acceptance as a theoretical base for investigating the key determinants that influence both experienced and inexperienced individuals to use the Internet. The model of technology acceptance is expected to have power in explaining and predicting usage of the technology and to provide a useful tool for top management of the universities to understand the determinants of usage behaviours in order to proactively design interventions (including training) targeted at user populations that may be less inclined to use the Internet in their work. It is hoped to help academics to gain more knowledge and experiences of using the Internet which will certainly help to prepare them to cope with any changes in the teaching and learning process. This in turn will affect students who will graduate from the universities. They will have more experience about using the Internet at the university level and it is hoped that these students will utilise their Internet experience in the work place. Consequently, it is also hoped to improve the Internet penetration rate of the country and thus help the country to cope with the rapidly changing environment in this information age.