Determinants of behavioral intention to use big data analytics (BDA) on the information and communication technologies (ICT) SMEs in Jordan

Abstract

Big Data Analytics (BDA) provides an important resource for businesses seeking to enhance their performance and gain a competitive advantage, although not all organizations are adopting BDA techniques, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Jordan have been slow in this regard, despite being key players in any healthy economy, and the fact that BDA adoption can be facilitated by using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The purpose of this study is to investigate the drivers of behavioral intention among managerial-level employees in Jordanian ICT SMEs to adopt BDA through a quantitative correlational research approach. The TAM questionnaire was used to gather data from 271 online survey participants in Jordan using Google Forms. The target group included management level staff working in small and medium-sized ICT firms (SMEs). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to evaluate the research instrument's reliability and validity, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to test the study's hypotheses. The findings revealed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived “privacy and security” significantly influenced managerial-level employees' behavioral intention to use BDA in their organizations. The research findings also supported the application of TAM, and the results of the investigation indicated that managerial-level employees would be willing to use BDA techniques providing they were perceived to be useful, user-effortless, and posed little concern about privacy and security. Overall, the current study's results demonstrate that the suggested model had good predictive power, 51% of the variance in behavioral intention, and was therefore capable of predicting managers' intentions to use BDA.