A Study of Influencing Factors Upon Using C4I Systems: The Perspective of Mediating Variables in a Structured Model

C4I 시스템 사용의 영향 요인에 관한 연구: 구조모형의 매개변수의 관점에서

The general aspects for the future warfare shows that the concept of firepower and maneuver centric warfare has been replacing with that of information and knowledge centric warfare. Thus, some developed countries are now trying to establish the information systems to perform intelligent warfare and innovate defense operations. The C4I(Command, Control, Communication, Computers and Intelligence for the Warrior) systems make it possible to do modern and systematic war operations. The basic idea of this study is to investigate how TAM(Technology Acceptance Model) can explain the acceptance behavior in military organizations. Because TAM is inadequate in explaining the acceptance processes forcomplex technologies and strict organizations, a revised research model based upon TAM was developed in order to assess the usage of the C4I system. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors affecting the usage of C4I in the Korean Army. The research model, based upon TAM, was extended through a belief construct such as self-efficacy as one of mediating variables. The self-efficacy has been used as a mediating variable for technology acceptance, and the variable was included in the research model. The external variables were selected on the basis of previous research. The external variables can be classified into following: 1) technological, 2) organizational, and 3) environmental factors on the basis of TOE(Technology-Organization-Environment) framework. The technological factor includes the information quality and the task-technology fitness. The organizational factor includes the influence of senior colleagues. The environmental factor includes the education/train data. The external variables are considered very important for explaining the behavior patterns of information technology or systems. A structured questionnaire was developed and administrated to those who were using the C4I system. Total 329 data were used for statistical data analyses. A confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation model were used as main statistical methods. Model fitness Indexes for measurement and structured models were verified before all 18 hypotheses were tested. This study shows that the perceived usefulness and the self-efficacy played their roles more than the perceived ease of use did in TAM. In military organizations, the perceived usefulness showed its mediating effects between external variables and dependent variable, but the perceived ease of use did not. These results imply that the perceived usefulness can explain the acceptance processes better than the perceived ease of use in the army. The self-efficacy was also used as one of the three mediating variables, and showed its mediating effects in explaining the acceptance processes. Such results also show that the self-efficacy can be selected as one possible belief construct in TAM. The perceived usefulness was influenced by such factors as senior colleagues, the information quality, and the task-technology fitness. The self-efficacy was affected by education/train and task-technology fitness. The actual usage of C4I was influenced not by the perceived ease of use but by the perceived usefulness and selfefficacy. This study suggests the followings: (1) An extended TAM can be applied to such strict organizations as the army; (2) Three mediation variables are included in the research model and tested at real situations; and (3) Several other implications are discussed.