Abstract
Technological advances touch multiple aspects of an individual's life. One such example is the use of information technology to provide online books. Online books have been introduced in education in the form of electronic textbooks (e-texts). The research question examined here is among those students who have purchased or used an e-text, what factors motivate their willingness or likelihood to purchase an e-text? A model and hypotheses linking the factors of usefulness, arousal, ease of use, value, and effort to the likelihood to purchase an electronic textbook are presented. The model and hypotheses are tested using a sample of 529 student responses to a questionnaire distributed in a mid-sized university in the western United States. Using these responses, the model and hypotheses are tested using a structural equations approach and maximum likelihood estimation. The results indicate that an e-text's usefulness, its ease of use, and students' arousal regarding the e-text significantly impact students' likelihood to purchase an e-text. However, the student's perceived value of an e-text and how worthwhile their effort to search for low price textbooks did not impact these students' likelihood to purchase an electronic textbook. A discussion and conclusions are also presented. Keywords: electronic textbooks, factors influencing purchase, ease of use, usefulness, technology.