ANALYSIS OF "MANDATORY USE OF ELECTRONIC MAIL AND USER ACCEPTANCE: A CASE STUDY"
Scholarly research, particularly research that uses statistics as an integral component, can be formidable when used to support a particular argument. However, it is critical to analyze research in order to determine whether the work is appropriate to support or challenge a particular view, and whether the conclusions drawn from the research itself are valid. Articles that appear in peer-reviewed journals undergo scrutiny before they are published, but this does not remove the right--and sometimes the obligation--of readers to analyze carefully the information that is presented. This research considers an article in the Mid-American Journal of Business on the acceptance and productivity of an electronic mail system whose use was made mandatory by the institution where the system was deployed.
The article, "Mandatory Use of Electronic Mail and User Acceptance: A Case Study," is aptly named in that the research focuses on a single case (Lou, McClanahan and Holden 57). The authors are careful to note that their research does not include a random population of users of this particular e-mail system--All-In-1--and they note that although the system is in use throughout the university where the study was conducted, the research included only participants from the College of Business.
The article is presented in traditional research format: abstract, introduction, literature review, research method, research results and discussion, and summary. This is a standard format for presenting research findings, and whether imposed by the journal for acceptance, or used by the authors on their own, it is helpful to the reader who wants to search out specific information about the research.
The authors are less obvious in presenting the research question that they are examining. While the last sentence of the abstract indicates that the question invo...