Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2009 Factors influencing the perceived usefulness of an information delivery website among the United States resident viewership Frederick Joseph Piazza Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Human Resources Management Commons Recommended Citation Piazza, Frederick Joseph, "Factors influencing the perceived usefulness of an information delivery website among the United States resident viewership" (2009). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 739. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/739 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. FACTORS INFLUENCING THE PERCEIVED USEFULNESS OF AN INFORMATION DELIVERY WEBSITE AMONG THE UNITED STATES RESIDENT VIEWERSHIP A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The School of Human Resource Education And Workforce Development by Frederick J. Piazza B.A., Southeastern Louisiana University, 1993 M.B.A., Southeastern Louisiana University, 1997 May, 2009 ©Copyright 2009 Frederick J. Piazza All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my family, especially to my wife, Dorothy, and daughter, Mia. Without their boundless support this work would not have been possible. I also dedicate this work to my parents, Mary Frances and Fred Piazza, who provided me the best foundation from which to embark upon this journey. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation could not have been accomplished without the contribution of many talented and caring individuals. Among these, there are several individuals I wish to single out for special recognition. I extend my heart‐felt thanks to the faculty of Louisiana State University, especially the School of Human Resource Education and Workforce Development. I feel honored to have been instructed by those who are so knowledgeable, attentive and caring. First and foremost, I must acknowledge my debt of gratitude to Dr. Michael F. Burnett, my major professor. Dr. Burnett’s constant support, guidance, and intelligent insight throughout the doctoral process made me a better person and a better scholar. I thank him for allowing me the benefit of his mentorship. I would also like to express my appreciation to my committee members: Dr. Satish Verma for challenging me to examine my thoughts and beliefs and for his attention to detail, Dr. Krisanna Machtmes for her kind words of encouragement and for lending an analytical eye, Dr. Janet Fox for offering a practical viewpoint in helping me relate my research to those that would benefit most, Dr. Ronald Garay for being a wonderful Graduate School representative by his active involvement on my committee and for offering constructive viewpoints, and Dr. Earl Johnson for helping get this work off to a good start. Along with Dr. Burnett, these outstanding and inspiring scholars shepherded me through the doctoral process. I thank each of you for challenging me to think in new ways and being my learned guides throughout this journey. In addition to LSU’s faculty, I was fortunate to have the support and encouragement of my colleagues at the LSU AgCenter. It was my great good fortune to have such a iv supportive administration, especially Chancellor Bill Richardson who has allowed me the opportunity to pursue my education and conduct this study. There are also several members of the LSU AgCenter Information Technology team I wish to acknowledge for their contribution to this work: Sam Razi for helping create input and storage mechanisms for the research data, and Page Langlois and Lisa West for coding data and lending an analytical eye. I would also like to acknowledge my friends, colleagues and fellow classmates, who have shared this journey with me. The support and friendship of Cleve Brooks, Mary Burke, Sandy Fiser, Jeanie Harper, and Joan Southern helped me through this rigorous process and to them I owe a debt of gratitude. In closing, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my family. I would like to thank my parents for providing me with an outstanding educational foundation and for fueling my curiosity and desire to learn. I am forever grateful to my late grandparents for imparting to me an appreciation of the value of hard work and the importance of education. The greatest debt of gratitude is reserved for my wife, Dorothy, and our daughter, Mia. I thank them both for supporting me, motivating me, and believing in me, even though the process required countless hours of solitary work. The patience, love and understanding of my family are what made the attainment of this goal possible, and it is to my family that I dedicate this work. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION .............................................................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................................ iv ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................................. ix CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION AND RATIONALE ........................................................................................ 1 Purpose of the Study ........................................................................................................................... 8 Research Objectives ............................................................................................................................. 8 CHAPTER 2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ................................................................................... 12 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 12 History of Modern Computing, the Internet and the World Wide Web ...................... 13 Demographics of Internet Users and Their Behavior ......................................................... 18 Gender Differences ....................................................................................................................... 20 Age Differences .............................................................................................................................. 21 Geographic Differences: Rural versus Urban .................................................................... 22 Adoption of Information Technology Tools ............................................................................ 23 Cognitive / Internal Perception Attributes ........................................................................ 23 Individual Attributes ................................................................................................................... 31 Review of Related Literature Summary .................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................ 38 Purpose of the Study ......................................................................................................................... 38 Research Objectives ........................................................................................................................... 38 Population and Sample ..................................................................................................................... 41 Instrumentation and Data Collection ......................................................................................... 41 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................................................ 43 CHAPTER 4. RESULTS .......................................................................................................................................... 49 Objective One ........................................................................................................................................ 52 Age ....................................................................................................................................................... 52 Gender ................................................................................................................................................ 53 Louisiana Residency .................................................................................................................... 53 Objective Two ....................................................................................................................................... 54 Age ....................................................................................................................................................... 55 Gender ...............................................................................................................................................