The Influence of Social Isolation, Technostress, and Personality on the Acceptance of Online Meeting Platforms during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The effectiveness of online meeting platforms is highly associated with users’ acceptance. Nevertheless, few studies have been committed to the roles of social isolation, technostress, and personality in online meeting platform acceptance. This study aimed to investigate the influence of social isolation, technostress, and personality on users’ acceptance of online meeting platforms within the technology acceptance model (TAM) including perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude towards technology use, and behavioral intention. A total of 975 responses were collected via an online survey. The results revealed that there were positive relationships among four core constructs. But more importantly, social isolation negatively influenced users’ favorable attitudes towards online meeting platforms, and technostress negatively influenced the perception of the usefulness of online meeting platforms. Users with different personalities had different degrees of acceptance of online meeting platforms. The study provides a deep insight into influencing factors in users’ acceptance of online meeting platforms during the rampant COVID-19 pandemic. This study is, therefore, useful for designers and practitioners to optimize the online meeting platforms. In addition, this study adopted TAM to investigate users’ acceptance of online meeting platforms, supporting TAM’s reliability and validity in the online meeting platform-based learning context. Future studies could extend TAM by including specific sociocultural and psychological constructs stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Acknowledgments

We would like to extend our gratitude to anonymous reviewers and funding. This work is supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and the Research Funds of Beijing Language and Culture University (22YCX0382019); MOOC of Beijing Language and Culture University (MOOC201902) (Important) “Introduction to Linguistics”; “Introduction to Linguistics” of online and offline mixed coursesin Beijing Language and Culture University in 2020; Special fund of Beijing Co-construction Project-Research and reform of the “Undergraduate Teaching Reform and Innovation Project” of Beijing higher education in 2020-innovative “multilingual +“excellent talent training system (202010032003); The research project of Graduate Students of Beijing Language and Culture University “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China” (SJTS202108).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rong Wu

Rong Wu is presently a doctoral student majoring in Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, in Faculty of Foreign Studies, at Beijing Language and Culture University. She has already participated in three scientific research projects and published around 10 academic papers in distinguished journals.

Zhonggen Yu

Zhonggen Yu, Professor (Distinguished) and Ph.D. Supervisor in Department of English Studies, Faculty of Foreign Studies, Beijing Language and Culture University, has already published over 100 academic papers in distinguished journals based on rich teaching and research experiences.