1.1. Research Background
The emergence of Electronic Books (e-books) has caused a change in the access of information; information now transcends beyond boundaries and is available and accessible at any time. Higher education institutions worldwide are transitioning to e-books, which have become a standard platform in providing reading materials (Aharony, 2014). Majority of undergraduate students are considered as digital natives who show familiarity with and have great potential to adopt electronic books. However, academic libraries are advised to change how these services are offered to undergraduate students (Ashcroft, 2011).
E-books are digital versions of traditional print books that are readable across a variety of computing platforms including personal computers, tablets, smartphones and purpose-designed agents, known as e-book readers (Reitz, 2014). Also, the proliferation of mobile technologies and e-book readers has led to increased access of e-books. Renner predicts that e-books, like e-journals, will be the norm in academia by the year 2020. The benefits of e-books are enormous ranging from its portability, storage size, cost, ease of access, convenience, hyperlink features amongst others.
However, despite the enormous benefits allotted to e-books, students still consider e-books difficult to use and do not find e-book features beneficial or engaging (Huang et al., 2012). The inclusion of e-textbook features, such as increased mobility and accessibility, has not changed students’ resistance to this technology. (Gu, Wu, & Xu, 2015; Van Horne, Russell, & Schuh, 2015). Many students still resist e-books and will only switch to e-books when rewards are attached (Abutaleb, 2012). Terpend et al. (2014) in examining the factors that influence students’ adoption of e-books attributed ease of use and price of e-books as the major factors influencing the adoption of e-books. However, these findings differed from Gerhart et al. (2015) who stated the adoption of e-books is low due to functional differences from the traditional model. This study seeks to understand the variables that influence the adoption of electronic books.