Meta-Analysis of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT): Challenging its Validity and Charting A Research Agenda in the Red Ocean

There are both formal and informal cries that UTAUT and by association the stream of on technology adoption has reached its limit, with little or no opportunities for new creation. Such a conclusion is ironic because the theory has not been sufficiently suitably replicated. It is possible that the misspecifications in the various replications, , and extensions led to the incorrect conclusion that UTAUT was more robust it really was and opportunities for future work were limited. Although work on UTAUT included important variables, predictors and moderators, absent a faithful use of the specification, it is impossible to assess the true nature of the effects of the original additional variables. The present meta-analysis uses 25,619 effect sizes reported by 737,112 users in 1,935 independent samples to address this issue. Consequently, we develop a current state-of-the-art and revised UTAUT that extends the original theory with new mechanisms from different, other theories (i.e., technology compatibility, user , personal innovativeness, and costs of technology) and new moderating to examine the generalizability of UTAUT in different contexts (e.g., technology and national culture). Based on this revised UTAUT, we present a research agenda that guide future research on the topic of technology adoption in general and UTAUT in particular.