Implementation Intentions Explain How a Behavior Becomes Habitual: The Use of Online Newspapers

The use of information technology (IT) has received much attention in the information systems (IS) literature. The large number of studies on IT adoption and technology acceptance has focused on intentional behavior, applying theories such as the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). In recent years, technology acceptance models have been extended to cover habitual behavior. To our understanding, the current IS research on habits, despite its other merits, does not explain how a behavior becomes a habitual behavior. To this end, it is suggested in the psychological literature that the Theory of Implementation Intention explains this. That is, the psychological literature suggests that implementation intention leads to habitual behavior. In this study, we explored whether this applies to the use of online newspapers. Empirical results (N = 57) obtained through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) suggest that implementation intention has a significant impact on self-report habits. Hence, our results show that intention leads to habit. This is a new contribution in IS, given that previous research in IS does not explain how behavior becomes habitual. Furthermore, our results show that prior behavior has a strongly significant effect on self-report habits and an insignificant effect on actual behavior (reading online newspapers). In addition, self-report habits were found to have a strong and significant effect on actual behavior.