User Acceptance of Usable Blockchain-Based Research Data Sharing System:\n An Extended TAM Based Study

Abstract

Blockchain technology has evolved as a promising means to transform data\nmanagement models in many domains including healthcare, agricultural research,\ntourism domains etc. In the research community, a usable blockchain-based\nsystem can allow users to create a proof of ownership and provenance of the\nresearch work, share research data without losing control and ownership of it,\nprovide incentives for sharing and give users full transparency and control\nover who access their data, when and for what purpose. The initial adoption of\nsuch blockchain-based systems is necessary for continued use of the services,\nbut their user acceptance behavioral model has not been well investigated in\nthe literature. In this paper, we take the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as\na foundation and extend the external constructs to uncover how the perceived\nease of use, perceived usability, quality of the system and perceived enjoyment\ninfluence the intention to use the blockchain-based system. We based our study\non user evaluation of a prototype of a blockchain-based research data sharing\nframework using a TAM validated questionnaire. Our results show that, overall,\nall the individual constructs of the behavior model significantly influence the\nintention to use the system while their collective effect is found to be\ninsignificant. The quality of the system and the perceived enjoyment have\nstronger influence on the perceived usefulness. However, the effect of\nperceived ease of use on the perceived usefulness is not supported. Finally, we\ndiscuss the implications of our findings.\n