Addressing Individual Perception: Extending the Technology Acceptance Model to the Interim Payment Method in Construction Projects

Abstract

An increasing trend in late payment and nonpayment of construction projects would hinder the sustainable development of projects by impeding progress or causing disputes. Although the interim payment method is a good practice to solve payment-related problems of construction projects, its acceptance rate is low, and studies on it are few. Therefore, this research aims to extend the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to understand practitioners’ acceptance behavior toward the interim payment method. By adopting TAM, this study established an acceptance model of the interim payment method, which consists of four constructs and 25 indicators, and validated it through 131 survey data collected in Jiangsu Province, China. The results showed that the adoption rate for public projects (17%) was much lower than that of private projects (44.8%). The results revealed that environmental factors, perceived usefulness, and attitude increase practitioners’ acceptance, while the perceived ease of use impedes practitioners’ acceptance. In addition, the settlement process and pricing method impact the ease of use the most and could be breakthrough points for improvement in the future. Moreover, the perceived usefulness significantly affects practitioners’ attitudes but does not affect behavioral intention. This study contributes to the body of knowledge of project management by identifying the key causes of the low acceptance of the interim payment method and provides strategies for further improvement. The findings would help to inform the decision-making in policies, strategies, and incentive schemes to increase practitioners’ acceptance in China and worldwide.