Abstract:

The purpose of this work is to investigate the effects of relationship antecedents; perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU) and service quality, on technology adoption in the accounting software industry via trust and switching cost. The paper uses a causal modeling approach and proposes a conceptual model after an extensive review of literature. A large quantitative survey was conducted with 709 professional accountants in Turkey, who are accounting software program users and the model was tested using structural equation modeling. We found that service quality, PEOU and PU had positive effects on trust, whereas only perceived usefulness was positively correlated with switching cost. Trust showed positive influence on switching cost. Trust was found positively correlated with long-term affective commitment, whereas switching cost had positive and significant effect on calculative commitment in the short-term. The paper discusses different criteria that lead to accounting software usage and works as a strategic guideline for software firms in order to keep professional accountants in the relationship.

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