The essential position of trust in the technology acceptance model: a comprehensive review and bibliometric analysis in management studies

Purpose When it comes to how people accept and use technology, trust is crucial. To comprehend users’ attitudes and intentions toward adopting technology, the technology acceptance model (TAM) has been extensively used. Through a thorough study of the available research, this study aims to investigate the trust element in the TAM framework. Design/methodology/approach A Web of Science and Scopus bibliographic data set containing 892 journal articles was evaluated using descriptive and network analytics. To trace the various intellectual linkages, bibliographical coupling of journals and authors’ affiliated nations was performed. Using keyword cooccurrence analysis, prominent themes were visualized. Findings The findings indicate that trust research in the TAM has gathered steam in recent years and is currently expanding. Global interest in this topic is growing, with participation from academics in 153 different geographical areas, with China at the forefront. Leading publications, journals and nations are also disclosed. The subjects with the most research are TAM and trust. Emerging topics, such as “e-commerce,” “motivation” and “perceived risk” point to a corporate domain that is taking an interdisciplinary approach. Originality/value This systematic literature review is unique in that it takes a thorough approach to examine the trust element in the TAM framework, integrating bibliometric analysis to identify research trends and offering insights that might guide future research and practical solutions.