Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User

Valid measurement scales for predicting user acceptance of computers are in short supply. Most subjective measures used in practice are unvalidated, and their relationship to system usage is unknown. The present research develops and validates new scales for two specific variables, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, which are hypothesized to be fundamental determinants of user acceptance. Definitions of these two variables were used to develop scale items that were pretested for content validity and then tested for reliability and construct validity in two studies involving a total of 152 users and four application programs. The measures were refined and streamlined, resulting in two six-item scales with reliabilities of .98 for usefulness and .94 for ease of use. The scales exhibited hgih convergent, discriminant, and factorial validity. Perceived usefulness was significnatly correlated with both self-reported current usage r = .63, Study 1) and self-predicted future usage r = .85, Study 2). Perceived ease of use was also significantly correlated with current usage r = .45, Study 1) and future usage r = .59, Study 2). In both studies, usefulness had a signficnatly greater correaltion with usage behavior than did ease of use. Regression analyses suggest that perceived ease of use may actually be a causal antecdent to perceived usefulness, as opposed to a parallel, direct determinant of system usage. Implications are drawn for future research on user acceptance.

Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology

A large number of studies have been conducted during the last decade and a half attempting to identify those factors that contribute to information systems success. However, the dependent variable in these studies-I/S success-has been an elusive one to define. Different researchers have addressed different aspects of success, making comparisons difficult and the prospect of building a cumulative tradition for I/S research similarly elusive. To organize this diverse research, as well as to present a more integrated view of the concept of I/S success, a comprehensive taxonomy is introduced. This taxonomy posits six major dimensions or categories of I/S success-SYSTEM QUALITY, INFORMATION QUALITY, USE, USER SATISFACTION, INDIVIDUAL IMPACT, and ORGANIZATIONAL IMPACT. Using these dimensions, both conceptual and empirical studies are then reviewed a total of 180 articles are cited and organized according to the dimensions of the taxonomy. Finally, the many aspects of I/S success are drawn together into a descriptive model and its implications for future I/S research are discussed.

Information Systems Success: The Quest for the Dependent Variable

The Technology Acceptance Model and two variations of the Theory of Planned Behavior were compared to assess which model best helps to understand usage of information technology. The models were compared using student data collected from 786 potential users of a computer resource center. Behavior data was based on monitoring 3,780 visits to the resource center over a 12-week period. Weighted least squares estimation revealed that all three models performed well in terms of fit and were roughly equivalent in terms of their ability to explain behavior. Decomposing the belief structures in the Theory of Planned Behavior provided a moderate increase in the explanation of behavioral intention. Overall, the results indicate that the decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior provides a fuller understanding of behavioral intention by focusing on the factors that are likely to influence systems use through the application of both design and implementation strategies.

Understanding Information Technology Usage: A Test of Competing Models

Much previous research has established that perceived ease of use is an important factor influencing user acceptance and usage behavior of information technologies. However, very little research has been conducted to understand how that perception forms and changes over time. The current work presents and tests an anchoring and adjustment-based theoretical model of the determinants of system-specific perceived ease of use. The model proposes control (internal and external--conceptualized as computer self-efficacy and facilitating conditions, respectively), intrinsic motivation (conceptualized as computer playfulness), and emotion (conceptualized as computer anxiety) as anchors that determine early perceptions about the ease of use of a new system. With increasing experience, it is expected that system-specific perceived ease of use, while still anchored to the general beliefs regarding computers and computer use, will adjust to reflect objective usability, perceptions of external control specific to the new system environment, and system-specific perceived enjoyment. The proposed model was tested in three different organizations among 246 employees using three measurements taken over a three-month period. The proposed model was strongly supported at all points of measurement, and explained up to 60% of the variance in system-specific perceived ease of use, which is twice as much as our current understanding. Important theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

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Determinants of Perceived Ease of Use: Integrating Control, Intrinsic Motivation, and Emotion into the Technology Acceptance Model

One of the fundamental issues inherent to both practice and academia emanates from the need to know what knowledge and skills personnel must possess to successfully perform their jobs. This article addresses this issue by performing an educational needs assessment, one that considers the deficiencies of both IS and end-user personnel. To this end, an instrument has been developed, tested, and completed by 275 employees within eight different organizations. The findings of this study suggest that among six different knowledge and skill areas, both IS and end-user personnel are most deficient in the area of "general IS knowledge" (e.g., IS policies and plans, fit between IS and organization, etc.). In addition, IS personnel appear to be in need of more "organizational knowledge" (e.g., organizational goals and objectives, critical success factors, etc.). End users, on the other hand, seem to require more IS-related skills (e.g., data access, use of software packages, etc.). The implications of these findings for practitioners and academicians focus on finding ways to improve the education and training programs currently in place.

Educational needs as perceived by IS and end-user personnel: a survey of knowledge and skill requirements

1 Jeanne Ross was the accepting Senior Editor for this article. 2 The author gratefully acknowledges Barb Wixom, Mike Morris, Peter Todd, Steve McConnell, Jerry Deville, Jeanne Ross, Barbara McNurlin, and the reviewers for their helpful suggestions on improving this article. My sincere thanks to the graduate students that conducted, and the organizations that participated in, the retrospectives that made this article possible. 3 Chaos Chronicles, Version 3.0 The Standish Group International, West Yarmouth, MA, 2003. Standish Group definitions: projects undertaken by Fortune 500 companies are completed successfully. In other words, almost twothirds of the 13,522 IT projects surveyed suffered from one or more of the following:

Project Retrospectives: Evaluating Project Success, Failure, and Everything in Between

ecent studies estimate that of the more than $50 billion that U.S. organizations spend on training annually [1], well over $5 billion is directed toward the users of information technology [10]. Despite the high dollar investment in end-user training (EUT), there was little evidence of verifiable returns or of effective results. Less than 50% of those organizations that evaluated their training programs attempted to measure the programs' impact on the organizations' budgets. Similarly, the American Society for Training and Development found that organizations conducted a training needs assessment less than 50% of the time [11]. When taken in aggregate, these studies present a rather discouraging scenario: the inputs into the training process are often not systematically identified while the outputs of the process are often not systematically evaluated. Therefore, a great deal of money and effort may be going into programs that reflect a precarious and ineffective \" Random In–Random Out, \" approach to training. Careful needs assessment and systematic evaluation are needed to guide improvements in training [5, 8, 9, 14]. Where needs assessment identifies the objectives of training, evaluation measures the accomplishment of objectives. Needs assessment, therefore, clearly sets the stage for effective training. Unfortunately only two substantive models have been offered to direct needs assessment: one by McGehee and Thayer in 1961 and the other by Ostroff and Ford in 1989. For over 30 years, both managers and researchers applied McGehee and Thayer's [12] approach to needs assessment that identifies three \" content \" areas—organizational, task, and person. However, most applications and investigations of needs assessment, including those focused on end-user training, have emphasized only the person component, ignoring the critical roles of the organizational and task components. For example, researchers from the fields of human resource management and information systems have elected to concentrate on such issues as the interaction between learning styles and types of learning tasks [18] cognitive learning models [3, 19] disposi-tions toward computers [4, 17] and human-computer interaction [20]. As Gash and Kossek contend, \" if managers persist in viewing end-user training as an individual-level phenomenon, they are wasting their money. Similarly, researchers who only focus on individual aspects of training are studying the wrong questions and overlooking critical organizational and strategic issues of training \" ([7] p. 230). In an attempt to broaden the narrow focus of practice and research, Ostroff and Ford [15] expanded on McGe-hee and Thayer's approach, developing …

The assessment of end-user training needs

In this paper, we discuss the nature and use of the Delphi methodology in information systems research. More specifically, we explore how and why it may be used. We discuss criteria for evaluating Delphi research and define characteristics useful for categorizing the studies. We review Delphi application use in IS research over the last 23 years, summarize lessons learned from prior studies, offer suggestions for improvement, and present guidelines for employing this distinctly useful qualitative method in future information systems research studies.

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The Delphi Method Research Strategy in Studies of Information Systems

The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) program was begun in 1977 by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The SBDC was initiated to fill an unmet need for consulting for small businesses. The results of two empirical studies designed to test the effectiveness of the SBCD programs in Georgia and South Carolina are reported herein.. The studies measured the contribution to tax revenues in these two states that resulted from the improvements in the performance of small businesses served by the SBDCs. Studies conducted in 1982 were based on 84 Georgia and 19 South Carolina businesses that had used the counseling services between October 1980 and Juy 1981, allowing comparison of performance before and after counseling. Data on gross sales, number of employees, and net income were gathered. Data were analyzed to calculated the average and incremental value added to Georgia and South Carolina state tax revenues (personal state income tax, taxable business income, and business income tax), as well as federal tax revenue. For Georgia, the tax-generating value of the assistance to the sample firms was $1.2 million, an excess over the $1 million dollar cost to run the program. For South Carolina, the tax revenues for the sample firms represent almost 70 percent of the cost of the program. Results offer evidence that the SBDC public sector program has been administered in a cost-effective manner in excess of the operating costs for the program; in addition, many small businesses experienced improved economic performance. (TNM)

R. Ryan Nelson

Papers

Educational needs as perceived by IS and end-user personnel: a survey of knowledge and skill requirements

Project Retrospectives: Evaluating Project Success, Failure, and Everything in Between

The assessment of end-user training needs

The Delphi Method Research Strategy in Studies of Information Systems

The Impact of Sbdc Consulting Activities