USEFULNESS OF SPSS SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS

Year 2014, Volume: 1 , 28 - 36, 31.05.2014

Urban šebjan Polona Tomınc

Abstract

Faculty of Economics and Business (University of
Maribor) offers complex and useful knowledge in the field of statistics, so
among other things the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is
part of students’ courses. SPSS is the most widely used statistical package
that is applied by professionals as well as by higher education institutions,
and it represents the important IT support. For that reason in this paper we
present conceptual model of the usability of IT SPSS support, which was tested
on a sample of 300 undergraduate and postgraduate students of economics and
business. The basis for conceptual model developed in this paper represents the
expanded TAM model (Technology Acceptance Model). The conceptual model was
verified using structural equation modeling (SEM). Based on the set of basic
models, we examined connections between formed constructs of the TAM model and
in this way we presented the results of the conceptual models. The study
reveals that there is a positive relationship between perceived usefulness of
statistics and perceived usefulness of SPSS, perceived ease of use of SPSS, and
attitude towards using the SPSS. Research model was analyzed by using the
SmartPLS and WarpPLS approaches. The examination of the usefulness of statistical
information support for educational institutions represents a starting point
for further pedagogical and software development, and it also provides an
opportunity to increase the value of SPSS in planning of IT support

Keywords

TAM model, usefulness of SPSS, statistics, student, structural equation modeling (SEM)

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