The extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2): A systematic literature review and theory evaluation

Abstract

The extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) is less than ten years old and has already garnered more than 6,000 citations with extensive usage in information systems and beyond. This research employed cited reference search to systematically review studies that cited UTAUT2 originating article. Based on UTAUT2 usage, the downloaded articles were classified into four categories such as: 1) General citation, 2) UTAUT2 application, 3) UTAUT2 integration, and 4) UTAUT2 extensions. Weber's (2012) theory evaluation framework revealed UTAUT2 as a robust theory on most dimensions except for parsimony arising from the complex model. UTAUT2 extensions emerged as popular UTAUT2 utilization category as researchers extended the model with context specific variables. Finally, UTAUT2 extensions were mapped to Johns' (2006) context dimensions to identify various limitations of the existing technology adoption research and to provide multi-level framework for future researchers with libraries of context dimensions.