This research aims to offer new insights and fills a gap in previous studies by including a passion for mediating the influence of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on intention. Data were collected from 43 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Bali, one of the provinces of Indonesia. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse and test hypotheses. The results of this study prove that the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), especially perceived usefulness, has constructed the concept of passion. There is a need to measure the influence of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of digital media on passion to stimulatethe intention to use digital media during economic stagnation affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, no such analysis has been conducted in previous studies. This research is quantitative, using a pre-existing measurement scale. The results indicate no significant effect of passion on SME intention to use digital media. Another finding of this study is that the usefulness of digital media can drive SMEs’ passion, but this is not the case with perceived ease of use, which is not proven to drive SMEs’ passion for using digital media. Passion has proven to be unable to mediate TAM on interest. The practical implication of this research is that awareness of the usefulness of digital media is sufficient to stimulate the enthusiasm of SMEs for using digital media.
Kusuma et al. (Thu,) studied this question.