The role of hand-held computers in restaurants.

ABSTRACT

This study deals with how hand-held computer technology which is used in restaurants for taking customer order is perceived by employees and employers of restaurants. An empirical survey was conducted with restaurant employees and employers of restaurants where hand-held computer technology is installed. A statistical analysis shows that employees find hand-held computers useful and easy to use. This result confirms what the technology acceptance model suggests in explaining the process of acceptance of new technology by users. However the result of employers' attitude toward hand-held computers indicates that the new IT technology such as hand-held computers is considered as a strategic necessity or a simple cost rather than a strategic weapon. The hand-held computer technology is viewed as a part of IT infrastructure that is required for staying in business. This confirms the IT productivity paradox theory in which the benefit of having a new IT is shown to have no direct impact on the company's financial performance and is transferred to the customers who might enjoy newly-introduced convenience and accuracy in dining at restaurants with the new IT called hand-held computers.

Keywords: Restaurant Hand-Held Computers, Technology Acceptance Model, IT Productivity Paradox

1. INTRODUCTION

As in most businesses around the world, restaurant industry started to rely on information technology for their business practices. Even though restaurant industry was slow in adoption of information technology and systems due to its work nature which is largely labor-intensive, current trend is to utilize information technology such as Point-of-Sales systems [1]. PoS systems are mainly used for processing customer payment processing in restaurants. With this system, restaurants are able to process credit card payments and manage transaction records. However nowadays utilization of information technology has included more advanced systems such as hand-held computers, customer relationship management systems, and supply chain management systems. Among these advanced systems, hand-held computers are widely implemented in upscale restaurants and large restaurant chains [2]. In this study we look into the use of hand-held computers in restaurants in Korea in order to find the role of these machines in restaurants. We conducted an empirical survey with 125 restaurants in Korea where hand-held computers are used for order processing in a period of 5 months from January, 2005 to May, 2005. 314 employees who utilized hand-held computers and 108 employers who installed hand-held computers in their restaurants responded to the survey. There are two theoretical models to prove in this study and they are illustrated as following.

2. RESEARCH METHOD

The questionnaire is composed of 26 questions. Questions for employees includes 5 questions on demographics, 5 questions on features of hand-held computers such as fastness and accuracy, 6 questions on attitude of users such as difficulty in learning and pioneering life style, 4 questions on perceived ease of use of hand-held computers, 3 questions on perceived usefulness of hand-held computers, finally, 1 question on intention to utilize hand-held computers.

Followings are statistical models to test in this survey.

1. Independent variables representing features of hand-held computers are taken from fastness questions and accuracy questions for a dependent variable which is taken from perceived usefulness questions.

2. Independent variables representing attitude of users are taken from difficulty in learning questions for a dependent variable which is taken from perceived ease of use questions.

3. Independent variables representing attitude of users are taken from pioneering life style questions for a dependent variable which is taken from intention to utilize hand-held computers question.

4. Independent variables representing perceived ease of use are for a dependent variable representing perceived usefulness of hand-held computers.

5. Independent variables representing perceived ease of use are for a dependent variable representing intention to utilize hand-held computers

6. Independent variables representing perceived usefulness are for a dependent variable representing intention to utilize hand-held computers

Questions for employers include 2 questions on cost of hand-held computers, 3 questions on prestige of hand-held computers.

For employers, following statistical models are tested.

1. Independent variables representing perceived view on cost of hand-held computers are for a dependent variable representing intention to utilize hand-held computers.

2. Independent variables representing perceived environmental influence are for a dependent variable representing intention to utilize hand-held computers

Thus following hypotheses are tested.

Hypothesis 1: Fastness of hand-held computers will influence positively on employee's perceived usefulness.

Hypothesis 2: Accuracy of hand-held computers will influence positively on employee's perceived usefulness.

Hypothesis 3: More pioneering life style of the employee will influence positively on intention to utilize hand-held computers.

Hypothesis 4: The cost of hand-held computers will influence negatively on employer's intention to utilize hand-held computers.

Hypothesis 5: Difficulty in learning how to use hand-held computers will influence negatively on employee's perceived ease of use.

Hypothesis 6: Prestige of using hand-held computers will influence positively on intention to utilize hand-held computers.

Hypothesis 7: Employee's perceived ease of use will influence positively on employee's perceived usefulness of hand-held computers.

Hypothesis 8: Employee's perceived ease of use will influence positively on employee's intention to utilize hand-held computers.

Hypothesis 9: Employee's perceived usefulness will influence positively on employee's intention to utilize hand-held computers.

All questions in the survey use Likert-style 5 item scale (1=highly unlikely, 2=unlikely, 3=average, 4=likely, 5=very likely) except for demographic questions.

Analysis of the survey was done using SAS 8.02 and the technique of statistical analysis is regression analysis. Variables which are measured through multi-item questions are in need of proving that these multi-items reflect properly the target variable. In order to check this reliability of the survey instrument, we used Cronbach a for reliability test and the result is shown in the following table 1.

Following are regression results.

For employer's survey, following are the results.

Hypothesis testing shows that all hypotheses are accepted. Thus previously proposed research models of figure 1 and 2 are all confirmed to be valid through empirical statistical testing of surveyed data.

[FIGURES 1-2 OMITTED]

3. TECHNOLOGY ACCEPTANCE MODEL FOR EMPLOYEES

Employee's attitude on the new technology which is hand-held computers confirms the technology acceptance model which shows how a new technology is accepted through perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Igbaria et al.'s model [3] for technology acceptance is shown in figure 3.

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

According to this model, people's decision to use the new technology depends on two factors such as ease of use and usefulness that are perceived by them. In restaurants employees perceived that handheld computers are easy to use and useful in helping them to process customer orders. According to our empirical data, it is proven that employees are wiling to use the hand-held computers because the features of hand-held computer technology fit the technology acceptance model. Thus we now have explained why employees liked to use hand-held computers.

4. EMPLOYERS' PERCEPTION ON HAND-HELD COMPUTERS

Weil et al. [4] have found that companies perceive investment on IT infrastructure in three different ways. They perceive investment on IT infrastructure as one of these: cost, strategic necessity and strategic weapon. According to Broadbent and Weil's definition on IT infrastructure [5], corporate IT infrastructure includes software, hardware, networks, and human knowledge to operate IT. Employers are concerned with the cost of building IT infrastructure which can be burdensome for many companies. In restaurant business, investing in information technology can take up a large portion of its operating budget. Thus it is important to understand how employers view information technology investment such as installing handheld computers in restaurants. According to our survey, we found out that majority of employers saw hand-held computers as cost or strategic necessity and only a few employers saw hand-held computers as strategic weapon. Table 11 represents the result of the survey on the perceived view on cost by employers.

However our survey also confirms that employers who view hand-held computers as less burdensome are likely to have stronger intention to utilize hand-held computers. In other words, employers who tend to have a progressive view such as less as a cost or strategic necessity will be likely to buy and install and operate hand-held computers in their restaurants.

5. CONCLUSION

In this study, we find out that employees like to use hand-held computers because hand-held computers provide fast and accurate transmission of customer order data among many reasons. Employees' life style also affects their preference to use hand-held computers, i.e., employees who are first-adopters of technology tend to adopt hand-held computer technology eagerly. Any difficulty in learning new technology such as hand-held computers makes a negative effect on employees' view on how easy the hand-held computers to operate is, which in consequence, affects the intention to utilize hand-held computers. As proven in Technology Acceptance Model, perceived ease of use of hand-held computers affects positively perceived usefulness of hand-held computers. Similarly perceived ease of use and usefulness of hand-held computers affect positively intention to utilize hand-held computers. Thus TAM fits hand-held computer technology well in explaining factors that affect employees' adoption of hand-held computers in restaurants. Another finding is about data on employers' perspective on new technology. Since TAM only works for users who manipulate new technology devices, the model is not appropriate for employers who don't manipulate hand-held computers themselves. However creating a new model of Information Technology Infrastructure Model for employers allows us to explain employers' views on hand-held computers. Thus intention to utilize hand-held computers in the survey is interpreted as intention to purchase, install and operate in their restraints if already not so; if so, the will to continue to maintain hand-held computer systems; this aspect was explained while conducting the survey with employers. Most employers view investment on hand-held computers as burdensome; they treat investment on hand-held computers as cost. A lot of employers also adopted hand-held computers due to environmental influence such as gaining prestige of having advanced technology such as hand-held computers in their restaurants; they treat investment on hand-held computers as strategic necessity. And only a few had a vision of viewing hand-held computers as strategic weapon. We believe that as in the case of ATMs in banks [6][7], majority of restaurants will adopt hand-held computers which are either considered to be cost or strategic necessity. But they do not produce any direct benefit to restaurant owners such as higher revenue and more profit. As in the case of ATMs in banks [8][9], the benefit has been passed to customers who find it more convenient and secure when their orders are taken through hand-held computers compared to hand-writing orders. Thus this study demonstrates successfully how employees adopt hand-held computers in restaurants using TAM and how employers adopt hand-held computers in restaurants using Information Technology Infrastructure Model. This study has a particular value by combining research on employees and employers in an integrated context.

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Ook Lee, College of Information and Communications, Hanyang University, Seoul, KOREA

Ji-Eun Oh, College of Hospitality and Tourism, Sejong University, Seoul, KOREA

Dr. OOK LEE is a professor of Information Systems at the college of Information and Communications of Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea. He received a PHD in MIS from the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, USA. He held faculty positions at North Carolina A&T State University, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, and University of Queensland. He published more than 50 articles in journals such as Information & Management, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communications, CyberPsychology and Behavior, and Journal of Software Maintenance. He is a conference co-chair of CODE2006.

JI-EUN OH is a PHD candidate at the College of Hospitality and Tourism of Sejong University in Seoul, Korea. She received a Master's degree in Information and Library Science from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA. She worked as a senior information researcher at Korea Research Information Center. Her main research interest is socio-technical aspects of information technology in hospitality and tourism industry.

TABLE 1 <RELIABILITY ANALYSIS>

Variable                                   Cronbach a

Fastness of hand-held computers             0.797942
Accuracy of hand-held computers             0.805574
Pioneering life style                       0.796122
Cost of hand-held computers                 0.806231
Difficult in learning                       0.932937
Prestige of using hand-held
  computers (environmental influence)       0.933302
Perceived ease of use                       0.882112
Perceived usefulness                        0.880584
Intention to utilize hand-held computers    0.924563

TABLE 2 <REGRESSION RESULT BETWEEN
FASTNESS OF HAND-HELD COMPUTERS
AND PERCEIVED USEFULNESS>

Explanatory Factors           t-value     Significance

constant                      4.77        <0.0001
fastness of hand-             5.16        <0.0001
held computers

Dependent variable: Perceived usefulness
Model's explanatory ability: R-Square=0.2038
F-value=26.61
P-value: <0.0001

TABLE 3 <REGRESSION RESULT BETWEEN
ACCURACY OF HAND-HELD COMPUTERS
AND PERCEIVED USEFULNESS>

Explanatory Factors           t-value     Significance

constant                      5.24        <0.0001
accuracy of hand-             4.66        <0.0001
held computers

Dependent variable: Perceived usefulness
Model's explanatory ability: R-Square=0.1728
F-value=21.73
P-value: <0.0001

TABLE 4 <REGRESSION RESULT BETWEEN
DIFFICULTY IN LEARNING AND PERCEIVED
EASE OF USE>

Explanatory Factors           t-value     Significance

constant                      3.07        <0.0027
fastness of hand-             17.21       <0.0001
held computers

Dependent variable: Perceived ease of use
Model's explanatory ability: R-Square=0.7401
F-value=296.23
P-value: <0.0001

TABLE 5 <REGRESSION RESULT BETWEEN
PIONEERING LIFE STYLE AND INTENTION
TO UTILIZE HAND-HELD COMPUTERS>

Explanatory Factors           t-value     Significance

constant                         3.45     <0.0001
pioneering life style            6.46     <0.0001

Dependent variable: Intention to utilize hand-held
computers
Model's explanatory ability: R-Square=0.4538
F-value=18.61
P-value: <0.0001

TABLE 6 <REGRESSION RESULT BETWEEN
PERCEIVED EASE OF USE AND PERCEIVED
USEFULNESS>

Explanatory Factors           t-value     Significance

constant                      1.23        <0.0001
Perceived ease of use         56.16       <0.0001

Dependent variable: perceived usefulness
Model's explanatory ability: R-Square=02038
F-value=26.61
P-value: <0.0001

TABLE 7 <REGRESSION RESULT BETWEEN
PERCEIVED EASE OF USE AND INTENTION
TO UTILIZE HAND-HELD COMPUTERS>

Explanatory Factors           t-value     Significance

constant                      5.25        <0.0023
Perceived ease of use         16.67       <0.0001

Dependent variable: Intention to utilize hand-held
computers
Model's explanatory ability: R-Square=0.3623
F-value=37.61
P-value: <0.0001

TABLE 8 <REGRESSION RESULT BETWEEN
PERCEIVED USEFULNESS AND INTENTION
TO UTILIZE HAND-HELD COMPUTERS>

Explanatory Factors           t-value     Significance

constant                      -0.78       <0.0025
Perceived                     48.35       <0.0001
usefulness

Dependent variable: Intention to utilize hand-held
computers
Model's explanatory ability: R-Square=0.4538
F-value=51.61
P-value: <0.0001

TABLE 9 <REGRESSION RESULT BETWEEN
PERCEIVED VIEW ON COST OF HAND-HELD
COMPUTERS AND INTENTION TO UTILIZE
HAND-HELD COMPUTERS>

Explanatory Factors           t-value     Significance

constant                      5.34        <0.0001
Perceived view on             14.32       <0.0001
cost of hand-held
computers

Dependent variable: Intention to utilize hand-held
computers
Model's explanatory ability: R-Square=0.2736
F-value=8.51
P-value: <0.0001

TABLE 10 <REGRESSION RESULT BETWEEN
PERCEIVED ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE
AND INTENTION TO UTILIZE HAND-HELD
COMPUTERS>

Explanatory Factors           t-value     Significance

constant                      -2.35       <0.0017
Perceived environmental       8.98        <0.0001
influence(prestige of
having hand-held
computers)

Dependent variable: Intention to utilize hand-held
computers
Model's explanatory ability: R-Square=0.5329
F-value=14.14
P-value: <0.0001

TABLE 11 <PERCEIVED VIEW ON HAND-
HELD COMPUTERS BY EMPLOYERS>

Employers' view on        Percentage of
 cost of hand-held    employers in different
     computers                views

Cost                  65%
Strategic necessity   32%
Strategic weapon      3%