Perceived Ease of Use (TAM) — Davis (1989)
Perceived Ease of Use is the second core belief in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by Fred Davis (1989). It captures how far a person believes that using a system would be free of effort.
What it measures
Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) is defined by Davis (1989) as the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort. In TAM it influences Perceived Usefulness, attitude, and ultimately the intention to use a technology.
PEOU is a reflective construct, so its items are treated as interchangeable indicators of one underlying belief. This means you can examine internal consistency and confirm the factor structure with CFA before using it in a model.
Scale items
The item wording is under the publisher’s copyright, so we do not reproduce it here. You can find the full items in the original article (see the citation below). In Explonia, signed-in users get this scale complete in the built-in library and can add it to their own study — no need to find the items yourself. For use in your own research; please cite the original source.
How to use and cite it
Cite Davis (1989), MIS Quarterly, in your Methods section and report any wording you adapt to your context. The item text is copyright; obtain it from the published article rather than copying it from a blog or thesis.
With Explonia (Academic tier) you can add the scale to a study, collect data, and run reliability and CFA in the same place, with an exportable APA paragraph. New to scale selection? Start with how to find a validated scale.
Reporting reliability and validity
Report internal consistency for PEOU (Cronbach's alpha, ideally omega or composite reliability) against the usual .70 floor, and in CFA/SEM report AVE ≥ .50 plus a discriminant-validity check (for example HTMT) so PEOU is empirically distinct from Perceived Usefulness. Reliability alone does not prove validity, and a reflective factor needs at least three items to be well identified.
Reference table
| Property | Detail |
|---|---|
| Construct | Perceived Ease of Use (TAM) |
| Type | Reflective |
| Number of items | 6 (final refined scale) |
| Response format | 7-point Likert (likely–unlikely / agree–disagree) |
| Original source | Davis, F. D. (1989). MIS Quarterly, 13(3), 319–340. |
| DOI | 10.2307/249008 |
| Reported reliability | High internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha around .94) in the original validation |
| Domain | Technology acceptance / information systems |
Frequently asked questions
Is Perceived Ease of Use the same as Perceived Usefulness?
No. Perceived Ease of Use is about expected effort, while Perceived Usefulness is about expected performance gains. In TAM, ease of use influences usefulness, and both feed into intention to use. They are separate reflective constructs and should pass a discriminant-validity check.
How is the scale scored?
Davis (1989) used a 6-item reflective scale on a 7-point Likert format. Researchers typically average or sum the items after confirming internal consistency and a one-factor structure with CFA.
How to cite this page
If this page helped your research, you can cite it (APA 7):
Szymkowiak, A. (2026). Perceived Ease of Use Scale (TAM, Davis 1989). Explonia. https://explonia.com/scales/tam-perceived-ease-of-use/
Last updated: July 2026
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