A multi-group structural equation modeling for assessing behavioral intention of using mobile cloud computing-the case of jordanian universities during the covid19 pandemic

Abstract

The adoption of new technologies in Jordanian Universities related to cloud services, shows differences in practices between faculty and staff members. Resistance to adoption may accrue by faculty and staff members who are accustomed and favoring old practices. A questionnaire was developed based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to identify factors that affect behavioral intentions that lead to the use of mobile cloud computing during the covid-19 pandemic, taking into consideration Work-type as the mediating factor. Five Jordanian Universities participated in this study, with a total response of 153 faculty and staff members. The conceptual proposed model was tested to ensure the fitness of the structural model for providing correct estimations. The collected sample was subjected to confirmatory factor analysis to ensure construct, convergent and discriminant validity. The results came positive in terms of composite reliability as they were above 0.70, for Average Variance Extracted (AVE) it came more than 0.05and Cronbach alpha exceeded 0.70. The results revealed the fitness of the proposed model to measure differences in behavioral intentions towards adopting mobile cloud services between faculty members and employees. Moreover, the results showed that work type had some interesting moderating impact on the tested relationships. Moreover, the results showed that there is a high Behavioral Intention (BI) between faculty and staff to use mobile cloud services and solutions within their workplace. In addition, the results showed some inequalities of the behavioral intention toward the adoption of mobile cloud services in Jordanian Universities between the two groups. These results call the university administration to clarify these factors for user groups to obtain a better judgment on investment and future practices for using new technologies.