Effects of personal values and perceived values on e-book adoption

Personal values distinguish individuals from others and affect how individuals perceive values of technologies. However, the relationships between personal values and perceived values are unclear to explain individuals' adoption of technologies. E-books changing the publishing industry with a high adoption rate in a global market are used as the area of investigation. The study proposed a new framework to examine the relationships between five personal values (hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, power, and achievement) and three perceived values of e-books (functional value, emotional value, and social value), and their effects on individuals' intentions to use e-books. The results show that people who attach more importance to "power" have a concern about the success in their lives and pay more attention to social and functional values of e-books. People who attach more importance to "achievement" are more concerned with enjoying life, exciting life, and freedom life while people who put a high value on "self-direction" are more concerned with exciting life and enjoying life. People who attach more importance to "hedonism" pay more attention to emotional value of e-books and ones who put a high value on "stimulation" pay more attention to the social value of e-books. In addition, people tend to use e-books when they perceived functional and emotional values of e-books. The study extends knowledge in information technology adoption and provides guidance for creating e-book values to target different customer segmentation.