IMPACT OF PRIVACY CONCERNS ON FACULTY ADOPTION OF WEB CONFERENCING TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

This study considers the impact of privacy concerns and demographic factors on faculty members’ behavioral intention to adopt web conferencing tools at Najran University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as a theoretical framework, the research examines how attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control along with privacy domains such as unauthorized access, data extraction, recording misuse, and intellectual property protection influence technology adoption. The study employs a quantitative case study design, collecting survey data from 123 faculty members across various academic fields. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression to test the predictive power of TPB constructs and the influence of demographic moderators like age, gender, and academic rank. The findings indicated that the core TPB constructs such attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control were not significant predictors of faculty members' intention to adopt web conferencing tools. Similarly, the six dimensions of privacy concerns and all examined demographic characteristics were found to have no statistically significant effect on adoption intentions. These results suggest the presence of a privacy paradox within the Saudi higher education context, where institutional requirements, technological safeguards, and cultural norms of conformity likely override individual privacy beliefs and personal autonomy. The study concludes that in hierarchical and policy-driven environments, technology adoption is driven more by organizational mandates and institutional trust than by individual perceptions. These findings highlight the necessity for context-sensitive extensions of adoption models that account for institutional and cultural moderators in non-Western academic systems.