Abstract: Even though the adoption of emergency alerting systems may improve the safety and security of individuals, participation in existing systems that utilize mobile alerting in universities in USA varies and does not match the high adoption rate of mobile phone technology itself (Sullivan, Häkkinen & Piechocinski 2009; Wu, 2009). As the adoption of mobile alerting system (MAS) can be viewed as a critical life safety benefit, there is motivation to better understand factors that affect the acceptance of MAS. Among the possible, alternative methods of implementing mobile alerting, an opt-in type of system can enable the alerting process to be executed in a way that is more suitable and useful for a diverse community of individuals. As a result of this study, a refined version of technology acceptance model (TAM) is proposed, extended with factors of perceived trust and perceived financial cost to better interpret the acceptance of MAS. This model is being evaluated in ongoing research on MAS in a university and community context.

Abstract: The purpose of the study is to investigate the factors affecting the user acceptance of emergency alert systems. By studying the adoption of a SMS-based alert system at a large public university in the United States, this paper explores the research question: How are different motivational factors related to the intention and behavior of using emergency alert technology? Through a mixed-methods approach, the study demonstrates a “deepening” effort in applying the technology acceptance model (TAM) to emergency response system, drawing attention to the holistic nature of motivation-behavior in technology acceptance. Results of this research show that: The concept of usefulness has multiple levels of meanings to its intended users; the ease of use is more about the users' ability to control the system behavior; and subjective norm need to be examined with relation to its originating source.