Key Factors Affecting User Adoption of Open-Access Data Repositories in Intelligence and Security Informatics: An Affordance Perspective

Abstract

Rich, diverse cybersecurity data are critical for efforts by the intelligence and security informatics (ISI) community. Although open-access data repositories (OADRs) provide tremendous benefits for ISI researchers and practitioners, determinants of their adoption remain understudied. Drawing on affordance theory and extant ISI literature, this study proposes a factor model to explain how the essential and unique affordances of an OADR (i.e., relevance, accessibility, and integration) affect individual professionals' intentions to use and collaborate with AZSecure, a major OADR. A survey study designed to test the model and hypotheses reveals that the effects of affordances on ISI professionals' intentions to use and collaborate are mediated by perceived usefulness and ease of use, which then jointly determine their perceived value. This study advances ISI research by specifying three important affordances of OADRs; it also contributes to extant technology adoption literature by scrutinizing and affirming the interplay of essential user acceptance and value perceptions to explain ISI professionals' adoptions of OADRs.