The effects of knowledge on security technology adoption: results from a quasi-experiment

Abstract

We conducted a quasi-experiment through an onlinesurvey to investigate the effects of information securityknowledge on users’ adoption of security technologies. We foundthat knowledge can affect adoption decision in multiple ways. Onthe one hand, knowledge tends to increase a user’s self-efficacy inusing the technology, which in turn increases the perceivedusefulness of the technology, consistent with the TechnologyAcceptance Model (TAM). On the other hand, users who areknowledgeable about information security are less likely to comeup with a poor adoption decision. These findings suggest thatfirms may need to use different strategies when trying to marketsecurity technologies to users with different knowledge levels.Furthermore, a firm that produces useful security technologiesmay wish to spend resources to educate users in order to increasetheir self-efficacy and their perceived usefulness of thetechnologies.