USING UTAUT TO INVESTIGATE CORPORATE ACCEPTANCE OF OPTIONAL ONLINE TRAINING PROGRAMS IN SAUDI ARABIA

Abstract

The pandemic and post pandemic job market showed the importance of online professional training for employees to improve professional skills necessary to acquire skills to adapt to the new environment and get promoted in their current professions, while contributing to organizations’ success. The present dissertation study utilized the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTUAT) as the theoretical lens to examine the effect of performance expectation (PE), effort expectancy (EE), and social influence (SI) on the behavioral intention (BI) of Saudi Arabian corporate employees working at organizations and companies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to use optional online training programs. This study also investigated whether gender moderated the relationship between Saudi corporate employees’ BI to utilize optional online professional development training programs and PE, EE, and SI. The results of the study indicated that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence significantly predicted the employees’ behavioral intention to use online training. The findings also indicated that gender had no moderating effect on the relationships between the predictive relationship of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence with behavioral intention to use optional online training.