IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/telpol/v45y2021i7s0308596121000586.html

The impact of literacy on intention to use digital technology for learning: A comparative study of Korea and Finland

Author

Listed:
  • Jang, Moonkyoung
  • Aavakare, Milla
  • Nikou, Shahrokh
  • Kim, Seongcheol

Abstract

Information and communications technology (ICT) and digital technologies are being actively used for education, and the ICT-enabled education market continues to grow. The recent COVID-19 pandemic situation is undoubtedly very stressful, because all teaching and learning activities have been forced to move online. This is an international comparative study examining the effects of 21st century skills (e.g., digital and information literacy) on intention to use digital technologies for learning in Korea and in Finland. To conduct a rigorous comparison of the two countries, this paper conducts an empirical study on 194 Korean and 192 Finnish young people in their 20s and 30s. A theory-based conceptual model is devised to examine the differences between Korean and Finnish respondents’ ICT usage using Structural equation modelling (SEM). The SEM results showed that information literacy has a direct effect on the intention to use digital technologies for learning in Korea and Finland. The higher information literacy is directly related to higher intention to use digital technology for learning with a small effect. The effect of digital literacy on intention to use technologies is fully mediated through the habit and performance expectancy with a medium effect. In addition, this study used multigroup analysis (MGA) to examine whether the impact of digital literacy and information literacy on intention to use digital technology for learning differed between Korean and Finnish respondents. Based on these results, recommendations for prospect research and theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Jang, Moonkyoung & Aavakare, Milla & Nikou, Shahrokh & Kim, Seongcheol, 2021. "The impact of literacy on intention to use digital technology for learning: A comparative study of Korea and Finland," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(7).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:45:y:2021:i:7:s0308596121000586
    DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2021.102154
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308596121000586
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.telpol.2021.102154?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pei Zhao & Xiaojun Li, 2015. "Arts Teachers' Media and Digital Literacy in Kindergarten: A Case Study on Finnish and Chinese Children using a Shared Blog in Early Childhood Education," International Journal of Digital Literacy and Digital Competence (IJDLDC), IGI Global Scientific Publishing, vol. 6(1), pages 1-17, January.
    2. Charles Kivunja, 2014. "Theoretical Perspectives of How Digital Natives Learn," International Journal of Higher Education, Sciedu Press, vol. 3(1), pages 1-94, February.
    3. Necmi K. Avkiran & Christian M. Ringle (ed.), 2018. "Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, number 978-3-319-71691-6, June.
    4. Alexander J.A.M. Van Deursen & Ellen J. Helsper & Rebecca Eynon, 2016. "Development and validation of the Internet Skills Scale (ISS)," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64485, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Sung S. Kim & Naresh K. Malhotra, 2005. "A Longitudinal Model of Continued IS Use: An Integrative View of Four Mechanisms Underlying Postadoption Phenomena," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(5), pages 741-755, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abdo-Salloum, Ahmad Mohamad & Al-Mousawi, Hasan Yousef, 2025. "Accounting Students’ Technology Readiness, Perceptions, and Digital Competence Toward Artificial Intelligence Adoption in Accounting Curricula," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. Mohammad Mulayh Alshammari & Yaser Hasan Al-Mamary & Aliyu Alhaji Abubakar, 2024. "Revolutionizing education: unleashing the power of social media in Saudi Arabian public universities," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Natalia Fischer-Suárez & David Lozano-Paniagua & Jessica García-González & Gracia Castro-Luna & Mar Requena-Mullor & Raquel Alarcón-Rodríguez & Tesifón Parrón-Carreño & Bruno José Nievas-Soriano, 2022. "Use of Digital Technology as a Collaborative Tool among Nursing Students—Survey Study and Validation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-12, November.
    4. Gaspare D’Amico & Roberta Arbolino & Lei Shi & Tan Yigitcanlar & Giuseppe Ioppolo, 2021. "Digital Technologies for Urban Metabolism Efficiency: Lessons from Urban Agenda Partnership on Circular Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-23, May.
    5. Qing Su & Qizhi Wei & Jinhua Xiao & Jun Yan & Cong Cao, 2025. "What Drives Older Adults to Embrace Smart Courier Lockers? A Study on Technology Acceptance and Information Literacy," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(3), pages 21582440251, September.
    6. Xiaobin Ren, 2025. "We want but we can’t: measuring EFL translation majors’ intention to use ChatGPT in their translation practice," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Yongbiao Duan & Xinyu Dong, 2025. "Does Digital Literacy Matter for E-Government Usage Behavior? An Empirical Analysis Based on Data from Rural Women in China," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(3), pages 21582440251, September.
    8. Nurhafizah Azizan & Hanani Fauzi & Aflah Isa & Siti Noorsiah Jamaludin, 2025. "Computer Self-Efficacy, Technology Usage, and Information Literacy Self-Efficacy among First-Year Undergraduates," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(9), pages 1332-1342, September.
    9. Choe, Hyoung-Seon & Yang, Chang-Gyu & Jun, Sung-Youl & Lee, Sang-Gun, 2023. "A study on forward and backward linkage effects in South Korea's telecom industry across generations," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(8).
    10. Nam, Jinyoung & Kim, Seongcheol, 2022. "Why do elderly people feel negative about the use of self-service technology and how do they cope with the negative emotions?," 31st European Regional ITS Conference, Gothenburg 2022: Reining in Digital Platforms? Challenging monopolies, promoting competition and developing regulatory regimes 265661, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alberto Peralta & Luis Rubalcaba, 2021. "How Governance Paradigms and Other Drivers Affect Public Managers’ Use of Innovation Practices. A PLS-SEM Analysis and Model," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-28, May.
    2. Liu, Qian & Shao, Zhen & Fan, Weiguo, 2018. "The impact of users’ sense of belonging on social media habit formation: Empirical evidence from social networking and microblogging websites in China," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 209-223.
    3. Si Xu & Pengfei Chen & Ge Zhang, 2024. "Exploring Chinese University Educators’ Acceptance and Intention to Use AI Tools: An Application of the UTAUT2 Model," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(4), pages 21582440241, October.
    4. Danilo Soares‐Silva & Gustavo Hermínio Salati Marcondes de Moraes & Alexandre Cappellozza & Cristiano Morini, 2020. "Explaining library user loyalty through perceived service quality: What is wrong?," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 71(8), pages 954-967, August.
    5. Al-Baraa Abdulrahman Al-Mekhlafi & Ahmad Shahrul Nizam Isha & Nicholas Chileshe & Mohammed Abdulrab & Anwar Ameen Hezam Saeed & Ahmed Farouk Kineber, 2021. "Modelling the Relationship between the Nature of Work Factors and Driving Performance Mediating by Role of Fatigue," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-17, June.
    6. Wei Mun Chin & Nor Aniza Ahmad & Ismi Arif Ismail & Siti Noormi Alias & Alia Sarah Asri, 2025. "A Serial Mediation Model on Trait Emotional Intelligence, Basic Psychological Needs, and Academic Motivation as Antecedents of Student Engagement," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(3), pages 21582440251, August.
    7. Nketiah, Emmanuel & Song, Huaming & Cai, Xiang & Adjei, Mavis & Adu-Gyamfi, Gibbson & Obuobi, Bright, 2022. "Citizens’ intention to invest in municipal solid waste to energy projects in Ghana: The impact of direct and indirect effects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PC).
    8. Yi Mei & Xiaoyan Xu & Xiaodong Li, 2020. "Encouraging Patient Engagement Behaviors from the Perspective of Functional Quality," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-15, November.
    9. James Agarwal & Wayne DeSarbo & Naresh K. Malhotra & Vithala Rao, 2015. "An Interdisciplinary Review of Research in Conjoint Analysis: Recent Developments and Directions for Future Research," Customer Needs and Solutions, Springer;Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth (iSIG), vol. 2(1), pages 19-40, March.
    10. Adilson Carlos Yoshikuni & José Eduardo Ricciardi Favaretto & Alberto Luiz Albertin & Fernando de Souza Meirelles, 2022. "How can Strategy-as-Practice Enable Innovation under the Influence of Environmental Dynamism?," RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration), ANPAD - Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração, vol. 26(1), pages 200131-2001.
    11. Younès El Manzani & Mohamed Larbi Sidmou & Jean-Jack Cegarra, 2018. "Does IS0 9001 quality management system support product innovation? An analysis from the sociotechnical systems theory," Post-Print hal-03080217, HAL.
    12. Luger, Michaela & Hofer, Katharina Maria & Floh, Arne, 2022. "Support for corporate social responsibility among generation Y consumers in advanced versus emerging markets," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2).
    13. Juan E. Núñez-Ríos & Jacqueline Y. Sánchez-García & Omar G. Rojas & Elias Olivares-Benitez, 2020. "Factors to Foster Organizational Sustainability in Tourism SMEs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-21, October.
    14. Emanuela Gemelli & Eva Olmedo-Moreno & à lvaro Manuel Úbeda-Sánchez & Clemente Rodríguez-Sabiote, 2024. "Bibliometric Study of Scientific Output Between 2011 and 2020 Regarding Teaching-Learning of the Sciences Through Comic Books," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(1), pages 21582440231, February.
    15. Alessia Acampora & Michele Preziosi & Maria Claudia Lucchetti & Roberto Merli, 2022. "The Role of Hotel Environmental Communication and Guests’ Environmental Concern in Determining Guests’ Behavioral Intentions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-23, September.
    16. Marcos Carchano & Inmaculada Carrasco & Angela González, 2025. "Examining environmental proactivity in the Spanish wine industry: The moderating role of size," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(1), pages 127-157, January.
    17. Rameshwar Dubey & Nezih Altay & Constantin Blome, 2019. "Swift trust and commitment: The missing links for humanitarian supply chain coordination?," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 283(1), pages 159-177, December.
    18. Lin Jia & Xiuwei Song & Dianne Hall, 2022. "Influence of Habits on Mobile Payment Acceptance: An Ecosystem Perspective," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 247-266, February.
    19. Stephan Gerschewski & Yong Kyu Lew & Zaheer Khan & Byung Il Park, 2018. "Post-Entry Performance of International New Ventures: The Mediating Role of Learning Orientation," John H Dunning Centre for International Business Discussion Papers jhd-dp2018-06, Henley Business School, University of Reading.
    20. Sami S. Binyamin & Md. Rakibul Hoque, 2020. "Understanding the Drivers of Wearable Health Monitoring Technology: An Extension of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-20, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:45:y:2021:i:7:s0308596121000586. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30471/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.