Venkatesh, V. “Impacts of COVID-19: A Research Agenda to Support People in Their Fight,” International Journal of Information Management, 2020, 102197.
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Grounded in the vast changes to work life (jobs) and home life that people are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic (hereinafter COVID), this article presents five research directions related to COVID’s impacts on jobs—i.e., job loss, job changes, job outcomes, coping, and support—and five research directions related to COVID’s impact on home life—i.e., home life changes, children, life-related outcomes, social life, and support. In addition to this, I discuss overarching possible research directions and considerations for researchers, editors, and reviewers, as we continue our scientific journey to support people through this pandemic and beyond. I organize these directions and considerations into two sets of five each: focal groups that should be studied—i.e., underprivileged populations, different countries and cultural contexts, women (vs. men), workers in healthcare (frontline workers), elderly and at-risk—and five general issues and special considerations—i.e., role of technology as the oxygen, pre- vs. mid- vs. post-COVID studies, constraints on data collection/research due to COVID, evolution of COVID, and focus on contextualization (generalizability is irrelevant).
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Venkatesh, V., Sykes, T.A., and Zhang, X. “ICT for Development in Rural India: A Longitudinal Study of Women’s Health Outcomes,” MIS Quarterly (44:2), 2020, 605-629.
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With a view toward improving the success of information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives in less developed countries in general and India in particular, this work seeks to uncover reasons for success and failure of ICT for development (ICT4D) initiatives. We drew on social networks theory in general and social contagion theory in particular, and examined the impact of advice network constructs on ICT kiosk use and the impact of ICT kiosk use on women’s health outcomes (i.e., seeking modern medical care and maternal mortality). A two-level model (i.e., village and individual) was developed to understand how women in rural India were influenced by other women in their advice networks to use ICT kiosks, and the effects of ICT kiosk use on seeking modern medical care and maternal mortality. At the village level, we proposed lead user network effects. At the individual level, we proposed structural network effects of other women in a focal woman’s network on individual outcomes of ICT kiosk use, seeking modern medical care, and maternal mortality. We focused on network position (i.e., centrality) and network tie strength (i.e., strong ties and weak ties) as explanatory variables. Specifically, we argued that strong tie centrality will have an adverse effect on ICT kiosk use, whereas weak tie centrality will have a favorable effect. We also argued ICT kiosk use will have a positive effect on seeking modern medical care and a negative effect on maternal mortality. Finally, we argued that seeking modern medical care will have a negative effect on maternal mortality. Our model was mostly supported in data collected about 6,710 women in 10 intervention group villages in rural India and 8,344 women in the control group villages over a period of approximately 7 years.
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Schuetz, S.W., and Venkatesh, V. “Blockchain, Adoption, and Financial Inclusion in India: Research Opportunities,” International Journal of Information Management (52), 2020, 101936.
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The economic development of rural India requires connecting remote villages to local and global supply chains. Yet, high rates of financial exclusion inhibit rural Indians from participating in these supply networks. We review the literature on financial inclusion, adoption, and blockchain in India, and posit that to resolve financial exclusion, the four challenges of geographical access, high cost, inappropriate banking products, and financial illiteracy need to be overcome. Next, we argue that blockchain technologies hold the potential to overcome most of these challenges. However, for blockchain technologies to become the cornerstone of financial inclusion initiatives, an understanding of technology adoption in India is needed. To guide the development of such understanding, we develop a research agenda on the antecedents of adoption, adoption patterns, and outcome of adoption. Answering these research questions will lead to a nuanced understanding of adoption of blockchain-based technologies in rural India. The practical contribution of this paper is the discussion of how blockchain can alleviate the issue of financial exclusion in rural India, thereby providing a basis for a solution that could connect rural Indians to global supply chain networks. The theoretical contribution lies in the identification of knowledge gaps that should be answered to achieve financial inclusion of rural Indians.
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Schuetz, S.W. and Venkatesh, V. “Research Perspectives: The Rise of Human Machines: How Cognitive Computing Systems Challenge Assumptions of User-System Interaction,” Journal of the AIS (21:2), 2020, 460-482.
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Cognitive computing systems (CCS) are a new class of computing systems that implement more human-like cognitive abilities. CCS are not a typical technological advancement but an unprecedented advance toward human-like systems fueled by artificial intelligence. Such systems can adapt to situations, perceive their environments, and interact with humans and other technologies. Due to these properties, CCS are already disrupting established industries, such as retail, insurance, and healthcare. As we make the case in this paper, the increasingly human-like capabilities of CCS challenge five fundamental assumptions that we as IS researchers have held about how users interact with IT artifacts. These assumptions pertain to (1) the direction of the user-artifact relationship, (2) the artifact’s awareness of its environment, (3) functional transparency, (4) reliability, and (5) the user’s awareness of artifact use. We argue that the disruption of these five assumptions limits the applicability of our extant body of knowledge to CCS. Consequently, CCS present a unique opportunity for novel theory development and associated contributions. We argue that IS is well positioned to take this opportunity and present research questions that, if answered, will lead to interesting, influential, and original theories.
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Venkatesh, V., Thong, J.Y.L., Chan, F.K.Y., Hoehle, H., and Spohrer, K. “How Agile Software Development Methods Reduce Work Exhaustion: Insights on Role Perceptions and Organizational Skills,” Information Systems Journal (30:4), 2020, 733-761.
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Agile methods are widely used in the software industry as a way to more rapidly develop and deliver new software. They define iterative work processes, advocate self-organization and openness for change, and prescribe how software developers interact with each other and external stakeholders. Despite their popularity, it is unclear how agile methods influence work exhaustion in software developers and how developer skills play into this effect. On the one hand, agile methods may reduce software developers’ work exhaustion by levelling out their workload across the entire duration of a project. On the other hand, agile methods exert a high level of pressure on software developers to continuously deliver working software, create many intensive social interactions, and to frequently adapt to changes. In light of these effects, prior research could not explain why some software developers become less exhausted from using agile methods, whereas others perceive the exact opposite. Based on the job demand-control model, we develop a theoretical model connecting agile method use to individual developer skills and to two established determinants of employee exhaustion: role conflict and role ambiguity. We tested our research model in a field study among 1894 software developers in 217 project teams that used agile methods. The random coefficient modelling results show that agile method use facilitates the achievement of clear and unambiguous role perceptions and thereby reduces work exhaustion in developers, particularly if developers possess the organizational skills to effectively interact with others in their organization. We highlight implications for theory on the individual-level effects of software development methods and provide practical insights for software companies.
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Aloysius, J.A., Arora, A., and Venkatesh, V. “Shoplifting in Mobile Checkout Settings: Cybercrime in Retail Stores,” IT & People (32:5), 2019, 1234-1261.
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Purpose – Retailers are implementing technology-enabled mobile checkout processes in their stores to improve service quality, decrease labor costs and gain operational efficiency. These new checkout processes have increased customer convenience primarily by providing them autonomy in sales transactions in that store employee interventions play a reduced role. However, this autonomy has the unintended consequence of altering the checks and balances inherent in a traditional employee-assisted checkout process. Retailers, already grappling with shoplifting, with an estimated annual cost of billions of dollars, fear that the problem may be exacerbated by mobile checkout and concomitant customer autonomy. The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of mobile checkout processes in retail stores on cybercrime in the form of shoplifting enabled by a technology transformed the retail environment. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted an online survey of a US sample recruited from a crowdsourced platform. The authors test a research model that aims to understand the factors that influence the intention to shoplift in three different mobile checkout settings − namely, smartphone checkout settings, store-provided mobile device checkout settings, and employee-assisted mobile checkout settings − and compare it with a traditional fixed location checkout setting. Findings – The authors found that, in a smartphone checkout setting, intention to shoplift was driven by experiential beliefs and peer influence, and experiential beliefs and peer influence had a stronger effect for prospective shoplifters when compared to experienced shoplifters; in a store-provided mobile devices checkout setting, experiential beliefs had a negative effect on shoplifters’ intention to shoplift and the effect was weaker for prospective shoplifters when compared to experienced shoplifters. The results also indicated that in an employee-assisted mobile checkout setting, intention to shoplift was driven by experiential beliefs and peer influence, and experiential beliefs had a stronger effect for prospective shoplifters when compared to experienced shoplifters. Originality/value – This study is the among the first, if not first, to examine shoplifters’ intention to shoplift in mobile checkout settings. We provide insights into how those who may not have considered shoplifting in less favorable criminogenic settings may change their behavior due to the autonomy provided by mobile checkout settings and also provide an understanding of the shoplifting intention for both prospective and experienced shoplifters in different mobile checkout settings.
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Venkatesh, V., Sykes, T.A., Rai, A., and Setia, P. “Governance and ICT4D Initiative Success: A Longitudinal Field Study of Ten Villages in Rural India,” MIS Quarterly (43:4), 2019, 1081-1104.
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Initiatives to leverage information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) have attracted huge investments, especially in less developed countries. However, the success rate of such initiatives has been low. Prior research on this topic has argued for various individual and network characteristics as predictors of information and communication technology (ICT) use and consequent benefits. We argue that, in order to garner potential benefits of the local information and knowledge resources embedded in citizens’ advice networks, hybrid governance from a combination of the local government and the technology sponsor is required. We further theorize that leadership by the local government or the technology sponsor for different stages of the ICT4D initiative affects the effectiveness of the pathways through which benefits of citizens’ advice networks accrue. We found support, in a longitudinal field study in ten villages in India (2,980 heads of households), for our theory that hybrid governance outperforms homogeneous governance models. Leadership by the local government for the pre-launch stage and by the technology sponsor for the post-launch stage was the most effective in promoting the behavioral pathway for economic benefits—that is, leveraging advice networks for ICT use and consequent gains in income. In contrast, leadership by the technology sponsor for the pre-launch stage and by the local government for the post-launch stage was the most effective in promoting the informational pathway—that is, leveraging information and knowledge from advice networks to directly generate gains in income. Adjacent villages that did not have a similar ICT4D intervention did not experience a comparable growth in farmer income.
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Venkatesh, V., Sykes, T.A., Chan, F.K.Y., Thong, J.Y.L., and Hu, P. “Children’s Internet Addiction, Family-to-Work Conflict, and Job Outcomes,” MIS Quarterly (43:3), 2019, 903-927.
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This paper examines the role of parenting behaviors in influencing children’s Internet addiction and the consequences of children’s Internet addiction on parents’ job outcomes. First, we draw on attachment theory to theorize that five parenting behaviors—i.e., parental control, monitoring, unstructured time, dissuasion, and rationalization—affect children’s Internet addiction and their effects are moderated by the children’s views of parent attachment. Second, we draw on research on work-family interface to theorize that children’s Internet addiction affects parents’ job outcomes—i.e., job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and work exhaustion—and the effects are mediated by family-to-work conflict. We tested our hypotheses using an integrated research approach that includes quantitative and qualitative analyses. We conducted an online survey to collect quantitative responses from 776 parent-child dyads. The model testing results showed that the effects of parenting behaviors on children’s Internet addiction, except for dissuasion, were moderated by the children’s views of parent attachment. Also, family-to-work conflict mediated the effects of children’s Internet addiction on parents’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and work exhaustion. Further, we collected qualitative data via interviews from 50 parents to cross-validate our model testing results.
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Ahmad, T., Aljafari, R., and Venkatesh, V. “The Government of Jamaica’s Electronic Procurement System: Experiences and Lessons Learned,” Internet Research (29:6), 2019, 1571-1588.
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Purpose – Realizing value from information and communication technology (ICT) in procurement in developing countries is complex due to diverse stakeholders and intertwined procurement processes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the experience of the Government of Jamaica in leveraging ICTs as an intervention to transform its procurement operations and combat corruption. Design/methodology/approach – The study examines conversations with employees in the Government of Jamaica to understand key milestones in its procurement history. Based on the view that the intervention context is an ecosystem where multiple and inconsistent views of the e-procurement system evolve over time, the study analyzes milestones to reveal key actions that contributed either to the initial success of or introduced challenges to the e-procurement system. Findings – The findings suggest that inducing positive sentiments about the intervention through transparency will overcome a long history of negative sentiments about the initiatives of government bodies in general. Furthermore, positive sentiments may not be directly related to the e-procurement system. Research limitations/implications – The study offers important insights that government bodies in similar contexts can apply to guide initiatives for transforming procurement operations. For instance, training should emphasize not only the technical aspects of the system from the perspective of different stakeholders but also their job descriptions. Future research may examine other initiatives in developing countries to compare the role of sentiments over time. Originality/value – The study adopts a unique approach to understand the experience of a developing country in harnessing ICTs to transform procurement operations.
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AbuJarour, S., Wiesche, M., Andrade, A. D., Fedorowicz, J., Krasnova, H., Olbrich, S., Tan, C-W., Urquhart, C., and Venkatesh, V. “ICT-enabled Refugee Integration: A Research Agenda,” Communications of the Association for Information Systems (44:1), 2019, 874-891.
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The recent phenomenon that has become known as the European refugee crisis is, in reality, a global problem. Accordingly, issues regarding refugee integration have become a central debate topic worldwide. In this paper, we examine how refugees use information and communication technology (ICT) in different regions across the world to understand how ICT supports their desperate journey to safety, their stay in temporary settlement camps, and their post-settlement inclusion in host countries. We conducted a series of interviews with Syrian refugees in Berlin, Germany, to collect preliminary insights. Then, we organized panel discussions at two key information systems conferences (ICIS 2016 and ECIS 2017) that involved participants from various countries. The panel discussions revealed seven key research themes: accessibility to information, availability of education and linguistic resources, admissibility to labor markets and entrepreneurship opportunities, communicability with home country, connectedness with local population, interactivity with host government, and volunteer coordination. We discuss how ICT might help to address issues related to each theme, present research questions relevant to each theme, and supply an illustration of how ICT has been employed to address an aspect of each theme. Insights gathered lead to theoretical implications and future opportunities for research in the information systems field, practical implications for different stakeholders interested in refugee integration to consider, and social implications related to refugee crisis that we cannot ignore.
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Maruping, L.M., Venkatesh, V., Thong, J.Y.L., and Zhang, X. “A Risk Mitigation Framework for Information Technology Projects: A Cultural Contingency Perspective,” Journal of Management Information Systems (36:1), 2019, 120-157.
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Initiatives to leverage information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) have attracted huge investments, especially in less developed countries. However, the success rate of such initiatives has been low. Prior research on this topic has argued for various individual and network characteristics as predictors of information and communication technology (ICT) use and consequent benefits. We argue that, in order to garner potential benefits of the local information and knowledge resources embedded in citizens’ advice networks, hybrid governance from a combination of the local government and the technology sponsor is required. We further theorize that leadership by the local government or the technology sponsor for different stages of the ICT4D initiative affects the effectiveness of the pathways through which benefits of citizens’ advice networks accrue. We found support, in a longitudinal field study in ten villages in India (2,980 heads of households), for our theory that hybrid governance outperforms homogeneous governance models. Leadership by the local government for the pre-launch stage and by the technology sponsor for the post-launch stage was the most effective in promoting the behavioral pathway for economic benefits—that is, leveraging advice networks for ICT use and consequent gains in income. In contrast, leadership by the technology sponsor for the pre-launch stage and by the local government for the post-launch stage was the most effective in promoting the informational pathway—that is, leveraging information and knowledge from advice networks to directly generate gains in income. Adjacent villages that did not have a similar ICT4D intervention did not experience a comparable growth in farmer income.
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Hoehle, H., Aloysius, J.A., Goodarzi, S., and Venkatesh, V. “A nomological network of customers’ privacy perceptions: Linking artifact design to shopping efficiency,” European Journal of Information Systems (28:1), 2019, 91-113.
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The explosive growth of mobile devices and their widespread acceptance by customers along with the potential benefits of autoID technologies have prompted retailers to consider adoption of emerging technologies. Their motives are to enhance in-store customer shopping experience and to acquire an advantage in the competitive retail environment. Two inter-related issues nevertheless have been a hindrance: mobile shopping application usability and customers’ privacy concerns. Drawing on a recently developed conceptualisation of mobile application usability and the multidimensional developmental theory of privacy, we tackle these two issues. We theorise about the impact of artifact design on mobile application usability and the consequent impact of usability on customers’ privacy concerns and shop-ping efficiency. We tested our hypotheses in two retail store laboratory studies in which the participants were assigned to two different shopping tasks: general browsing (n = 194) and goal-directed shopping (n = 190). We found that adhering to mobile application usability principles could mitigate privacy concerns and consequently, improve shopping efficiency. Our findings suggest new avenues to alleviate customers’ privacy concerns using artifact design, thus complementing conventional approaches that focus on preventive measures to deal with the issue of privacy concerns.
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Venkatraman, S., Cheung, C.M.K, Lee, Z.W.Y., Davis, F.D., and Venkatesh, V. “The ‘Darth’ Side of Technology Use: An Inductively Derived Typology of Cyberdeviance,” Journal of Management Information Systems (35:4), 2018, 1060-1091.
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Cyberdeviance, intentional use of information technology (IT) in the workplace that is contrary to the explicit and implicit norms of the organization and that threatens the well-being of the organization and/or its members, is an important research stream that has gained attention in academia and industry. Prior studies have treated different forms of cyberdeviance as different phenomena, resulting in a lack of a collective underlying conceptualization of cyberdeviance. This work inductively and empirically derives a typology of cyberdeviance with 439 respon-dents across three phases. Our results suggest that cyberdeviance varies along 3 dimensions: cyberdeviant behaviors that are minor versus serious; cyberdeviant behaviors that target individuals versus organizations; and cyberdeviant behaviors that require low versus high technical skill. We thus provide a comprehensive framework that fosters a logical linkage of various research programs related to cyberdeviance to guide future research investigation. The typology will help man-agers to distinguish different cyberdeviant behaviors and implement suitable inter-ventions depending on the behavior.
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Thongpapanl, N., Ashraf, A.R., Lapa, L., and Venkatesh, V. “Differential Effects of Consumers’ Regulatory Fit on Trust, Perceived Value, and M-Commerce Use among Developing and Developed Countries,” Journal of International Marketing (26:3), 2018, 22-44.
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Despite promising growth, mobile commerce (m-commerce) still represents only a small proportion of the world’s total e-commerce market. The research behind this article moves away from the predominantly single-country (typically developed) and utilitarian-focused market scope of past research to examine and provide a more nuanced understanding of customers’ motivations, whether utilitarian or hedonic, for using m-commerce across six countries. The six-country context, with data collected from 1,183 m-commerce users, offers a unique opportunity to advance mobile-retailing literature by comparing customers’ value perceptions, trust, and m-commerce use across disparate national markets. By treating motivations as conditions activated by individuals’ chronic regulatory orientations, our results show that hedonic motivation plays a more significant role in influencing customers’ value perceptions and trust for those who are promotion oriented (Australia and the United States), whereas utilitarian motivation plays a more important role for those who are prevention oriented (Bangladesh and Vietnam). Finally, both hedonic and utilitarian motivations play an important role in influencing customers’ value perceptions and trust for those who are moderately promotion and prevention oriented (India and Pakistan). These results offer insights to mobile retailers operating internationally in their decisions to standardize or adapt the mobile-shopping environment to deliver the most valuable, trustworthy, and engaging solutions to customers.
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Zhang, X. and Venkatesh, V. “From Design Principles to Impacts: A Theoretical Framework and Research Agenda,” AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction (10:2), 2018, 105-128.
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In this paper, we integrate three streams of research in information systems (i.e., IS success, technology adoption, and human-centered design principles) to extend our understanding of technology use. We present a theoretical framework that incorporates the core ideas from these three streams of research. We leverage the proposed framework to present propositions that could guide future work. Specifically, the propositions we develop relate system-design principles to use and net benefits (i.e., job performance and job satisfaction) and rich use to job performance. We further suggest several broad potential future research directions.
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Hoehle, H., Aloysius, J.A., Chan, F.K.Y., and Venkatesh, V. “Customers’ Tolerance for Validation in Omnichannel Retail Stores: Enabling Logistics and Supply Chain Analytics,” The International Journal of Logistics Management (29:2), 2018, 704-722.
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Mobile technologies are increasingly used as a data source to enable big data analytics that enable inventory control and logistics planning for omnichannel businesses. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the use of mobile technologies to facilitate customers’ shopping in physical retail stores and associated implementation challenges. First, the authors introduce three emerging mobile shopping checkout processes in the retail store. Second, the authors suggest that new validation procedures (i.e. exit inspections) necessary for implementation of mobile-technology-enabled checkout processes may disrupt traditional retail service processes. The authors propose a construct labeled “tolerance for validation” defined as customer reactions to checkout procedures. The authors define and discuss five dimensions – tolerance for: unfair process; changes in validation process; inconvenience; mistrust; and privacy intrusion. The authors develop a measurement scale for the proposed construct and conduct a study among 239 customers. The results show that customers have higher tolerance for validation under scenarios in which mobile technologies are used in the checkout processes, as compared to the traditional self-service scenario in which no mobile technology is used. In particular, the customers do not show a clear preference for specific mobile shopping scenarios. These findings contribute to our understanding of a challenge that omnichannel businesses may face as they leverage data from digital technologies to enhance collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment processes. The proposed construct and measurement scales can be used in future work on omnichannel retailing.
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Venkatesh, V., Rai, A., and Maruping, L.M. “Information Systems Projects and Individual Developer Outcomes: Role of Project Managers and Process Control,” Information Systems Research (29:1), 2018, 127-148.
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We integrate control theory and the information systems (IS) project management literature using a multilevel lens to theorize the cross-level effects of technical IS project risk on individual developer outcomes—performance and psychological stress—and the mechanisms by which IS project managers’ project-related knowledge attenuates this relationship. We argue that IS project managers with project-related knowledge mitigate technical IS project risk by facilitating the enactment of internal and external process controls in their IS projects. Our empirical study involves data collected from 1,230 individual developers embedded in 130 IS project teams that are managed by 20 IS project managers. Our results provide strong support for the three-level model and its set of (a) cross-level main effects of technical IS project risk on individual developer outcomes, (b) cross-level main effects of IS project manager project-related knowledge on enacted internal and external process controls, and (c) cross-level moderation of the relationship between technical IS project risk and individual developer outcomes by IS project manager project-related knowledge through internal and external process controls. Our study provides insights on how IS project management, IS project process controls, and technical IS project risk must be managed as a system of multilevel dependencies to achieve the desired developer outcomes.
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Aloysius, J.A., Hoehle, H., Goodarzi, S., and Venkatesh, V. “Big Data Initiatives in Retail Environments: Linking Service Process Perceptions to Shopping Outcomes,” Annals of Operations Research (270:1-2), 2018, 25-51.
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Given the enormous amount of data created through customers’ transactions in retail stores, it comes as no surprise that retailers are actively seeking initiatives to leverage big data and offer their customers superior services that provide mutual, previously unattainable benefits. Nonetheless, fulfilment of such a strategic aim requires customers to adopt and embrace emerging technology-driven services. Exploring customers’ perceptions of such big data initiatives in retail environments, we develop a model examining the effects of technology enablers and privacy concerns on critical shopping outcomes including repatronage intentions, store image, and intention to use medium in the context of recently identified service configurations. We conduct an exploratory study to understand customers’ reactions toward emerging shopping scenarios and to enhance our survey instrument and then conduct an online survey (n = 442) to test our model. We found that customers’ usefulness perceptions of emerging services positively affected their intentions to use medium, and that their privacy concerns about the amounts of personal information, being collected through emerging services, negatively affected their repatronage intentions and store image. We discuss the implications of our work for research and practice.
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Venkatesh, V., Hoehle, H., and Aljafari, R. “A Usability Study of the Obamacare Website: Evaluation and Recommendations,” Government Information Quarterly (34:2), 2017, 199-210.
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We conducted a usability study of the healthcare.gov website, popularly known as the Obamacare website, using the guidelines available on usability.gov, which were published by the Department of Health and Human Services. The study was conducted among 374 citizens.We found that the interface design,which we conceptualized as 16 dimensions,was rated rather low. Specifically, five dimensions of usability emerged as key to the prediction of overall usability of the website: hardware and software, home page, screen, scrolling and paging, and user experience. We also found that citizen satisfaction and intention to use the website were rated poorly. Based on a break down by gender, age and voting behavior (for Obama or not), we found several interesting patterns of differences. Ultimately, even if the infrastructure issues that have received a bulk of the media attention are miraculously resolved, our findings suggest that the site will be found wanting. The article offers specific illustrative examples of usability problems with the website and specific recommendations drawn from usability.gov. In addition to the practical implications for Obamacare, the article offers significant implications for researchers who seek to evaluate the usability of websites in general and healthcare websites in particular.
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Windeler, J., Maruping, L.M., and Venkatesh, V. “Technical Systems Development Risk Factors: The Role of Empowering Leadership in Lowering Developers’ Stress,” Information Systems Research (28:4), 2017, 775-796.
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The success of information systems development (ISD) projects depends on the developers who deliver them. However, developers face many challenges in bringing an ISD project to successful completion. These projects are often large, highly complex, with volatile targets, creating a stressful environment for developers. Although prior literature has considered how technical ISD risk factors, such as project size, complexity and target volatility, impact team- and project-level outcomes, their impact on developers has received limited attention. This gap in the literature is problematic for two reasons: (1) the interplay between individuals and project characteristics are unaccounted for, resulting in an incomplete picture of ISD; and (2) individual-level stress has been shown to reduce team performance. In this research, we examine the role of empowering leadership in reducing developer stress in ISD. We develop a multilevel model of the influence of empowering leadership on the relationship between technical ISD risk factors and developers’ role perceptions and explore the consequences for developers’ stress. The model was tested in a field study of 350 developers in 73 ISD teams from a large U.S.-based firm. Results showed that empowering leadership ameliorated the negative effects of project size and target volatility on role ambiguity, as well as the negative effects of project size, complexity, and target volatility on role conflict and stress. We also found that empowering leadership reduced role ambiguity, role conflict, and stress directly, and that role ambiguity and role conflict increased stress. Project size, complexity, and target volatility were found to increase empowering leadership behaviors. We conclude that empowering leadership can be an effective means of helping developers cope with technical ISD risk factors and discuss the implications of our findings for research and practice.
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Venkatesh, V., Shaw, J.D., Sykes, T.A., Wamba, F.S., and Macharia, M. “Networks, Technology, and Entrepreneurship: A Field Quasi-Experiment among Women in Rural India,” Academy of Management Journal (60:5), 2017, 1709-1740. [Recognized as the best paper published in AMJ in 2017]
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We address a grand economic challenge faced by women in rural India. We hypothesized about the interplay of women’s social networks (ties to family, ties to community, and ties to men in power), information and communication technology (ICT) use, and time in relating to the initiation and success of women’s entrepreneurial ventures. The results from a 7-year field quasi experiment in 20 rural villages in India provided substantial support for the model. Ties to family and community positively, and ties to men in power negatively, related to ICT use, entrepreneurial activity, and entrepreneurial profit. The ICT intervention also had a strong effect on entrepreneurship, with 160 new businesses in the 10 intervention villages compared to 40 new businesses in the control villages. The results also provide evidence of the dynamic interplay of social networks and ICT use. For ties to family and community, an amplification effect was found such that the highest levels of entrepreneurial activity and success were observed among women with high centrality and ICT use, effects that were stronger over time. For ties to men in power, ICT use was associated with increased entrepreneurial activity only when ties to men in power were low, but these interactive temporary temporal patterns did not emerge for profit. We address the implications of our research for the grand challenges of empowering women in less developed countries.
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Zhang, X. and Venkatesh, V. “A Nomological Network of Knowledge Management System Use: Antecedents and Consequences,” MIS Quarterly (41:4), 2017, 1275-1306.
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A key objective of knowledge management system (KMS) implementations is to facilitate job outcomes, such as job performance and job satisfaction. Prior KMS research indicates many KMS implementations have failed to achieve their intended job outcomes, such as job performance and job satisfaction, and one important reason for failure could be that employees do not know how to use a KMS to enhance job outcomes. Given that research on this topic is scant and the findings inconsistent, this paper sought to develop a better understanding of the topic. Specifically, we examine how employees can use a small number of KMS features to get a majority of their job tasks done. Limited research has used a systematic approach to identify these features, examined drivers of using these features, and impacts of the use of such features on job outcomes. Based on a literature review, we first identified several KMS features. Then, these features were examined using a qualitative study among 35 employees in a large organization in the finance industry to identify the key KMS features that could contribute positively to job outcomes. We then developed a nomological network of KMS feature use. Leveraging social network theory, we present peer support ties in general, and help-seeking ties and help-providing ties in particular, as key drivers of the use of these features and job outcomes. We also present various competing hypotheses for the effects from peer support to KMS feature use, KMS feature use to job outcomes, and peer support to job outcomes. We conducted a quantitative study (n = 1,441) in the same organization (noted above) to validate our model. Results indicated that our model was largely supported.
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Sykes, T.A. and Venkatesh, V. “Explaining Post-Implementation Employee System Use and Job Performance: Impacts of the Content and Source of Social Network Ties,” MIS Quarterly (41:3), 2017, 917-936.
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This paper draws from communication research and negative asymmetry theory to examine how employee social network ties at work affect deep structure use and job performance in the context of an enterprise system implementation. Specifically, we examine how the content—i.e., advice and impeding—and source—i.e., friends and acquaintances—of social network ties interact with one another to influence both deep structure use of the new ES and employee job performance. A longitudinal field study was conducted, with data collected from 145 employees and their supervisors in a business unit of a large multinational telecommunications firm. Results show that both source and content of social network ties influenced deep structure use of the new ES as well as employee job performance. This work contributes to the ES implementation literature by examining the influence of both positive and negative social ties. This work also identifies an important boundary condition of negative asymmetry theory by showing that not all negative stimuli influences behavior equally.
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Goode, S., Hoehle, H., Venkatesh, V., and Brown, S.A. “User Compensation as a Data Breach Recovery Action: An Investigation of the Sony PlayStation Network Breach,” MIS Quarterly (41:3), 2017, 703-727.
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Drawing on expectation confirmation research, we develop hypotheses regarding the effect of compensation on key customer outcomes following a major data breach and consequent service recovery effort. Data were collected in a longitudinal field study of Sony customers during their data breach in 2011. One hundred forty-four customers participated in the two-phase data collection that began when the breach was announced and concluded after reparations were made. Using polynomial modeling and response surface analysis, we demonstrate that a modified assimilation-contrast model explained perceptions of service quality and continuance intention and a generalized negativity model explained repurchase intention. The results of our work contribute to research on data breaches and service failure by demonstrating the impacts of compensation on customer outcomes. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.
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Venkatesh, V., Windeler, J., Bartol, K.M., and Williamson, I.O. “Person-organization and Person-job Fit Perceptions of New IT Employees: Work Outcomes and Gender Differences,” MIS Quarterly (41:2), 2017, 525-558.
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Drawing from a total rewards perspective, we introduce three work outcomes—namely, extrinsic, social and intrinsic—as determinants of person-organization (PO) and person-job (PJ) fit perceptions of new IT employees. Gender is proposed as a moderator of the relationships between valuations of different work outcomes and fit perceptions. We found support for our model in three separate studies. In each of the studies, we gathered data about the work outcomes and fit perceptions of IT workers. The studies were designed to complement each other in terms of cross-temporal validity (studies were conducted at difference points in time over ten years, in periods of differing economic stability) and in terms of prior work experience (entry-level workers in studies 1 and 2, and those with prior work experience starting new jobs in study 3). All three studies also included data both pre- and post-organizational entry in order to further validate the robustness of the model. The studies largely supported our hypotheses that: (a) the effect of extrinsic outcomes on PO fit was moderated by gender, such that it was more important to men in determining their PO fit perceptions; (b) the effects of social outcomes on both PO fit and PJ fit was moderated by gender, such that it was more important to women in determining their fit perceptions; and (c) intrinsic outcomes influenced perceptions of PJ fit for both men and women. We discuss implications for research and practice.
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Venkatesh, V., Aloysius, J.A., Hoehle, H., and Burton, S. “Design and Evaluation of Auto-ID Enabled Shopping Assistance Artifacts in Customers’ Mobile Phones: Two Retail Store Laboratory Experiments,” MIS Quarterly (41:1), 2017, 83-113.
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There has been widespread use of auto-ID technologies for firm-side applications and operations, such as inventory control. With the increasing diffusion of smartphones, the potential to serve content to shoppers using auto-ID technologies is starting to receive interest among technology firms and retailers alike. Using a design science approach, we design-and-build, theorize about, and compare six shopping assistance artifacts by manipulating the hardware design—barcode scanner vs. radio frequency identification (RFID) reader—and content design—product information vs. product review vs. both. We theorize about how these artifact conditions will compare to a control condition (no shopping assistance artifact available) across three sets of outcomes: technology adoption, security beliefs, and shopping. We tested our propositions in two experiments—wherein the task was varied: general browsing and shopping (n=227) vs. goal-directed shopping (n=221)—conducted in a retail store laboratory. We found support for the propositions that the RFID reader was most favorably received in terms of technology adoption outcomes and shopping outcomes, although it was most negatively viewed in terms of security beliefs. We also found support for the propositions that the content design conditions—i.e., product information, product reviews, and both—were favorably received. In a post-hoc analysis, we found a two-way interaction of hardware and content designs such that content fueled by RFID was most favorably received in terms of technology adoption and shopping outcomes, whereas most negatively viewed in terms of security beliefs. Interestingly, the two-way interaction was most pronounced in the goal-directed shopping condition such that the most positive effects were observed for RFID in combination with both product information and reviews.
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Maruping, L.M., Bala, H., Venkatesh, V., and Brown, S.A. “Going Beyond Intention: Integrating Behavioral Expectation into the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology,” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (68:3), 2017, 623-637.
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Research on information technology (IT) adoption and use, one of the most mature streams of research in the information science (IS) literature, is primarily based on the intentionality framework. Behavioral intention (BI) to use an IT is considered the sole proximal determinant of IT adoption and use. Recently, researchers have discussed the limitations of BI and argued that behavioral expectation (BE) would be a better predictor of IT use. However, without a theoretical and empirical understanding of the determinants of BE, we remain limited in our comprehension of what factors promote greater IT use in organizations. Using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) as the theoretical framework, we develop a model that posits two determinants (i.e., social influence and facilitating conditions) of BE and four moderators (i.e., gender, age, experience, and voluntariness of use) of the relationship between BE and its determinants. We argue that the cognitions underlying the formation of BI and BE differ. We found strong support for the proposed model in a longitudinal field study of 321 users of a new IT. We offer theoretical and practical IT implications of our findings.
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Bala, H. and Venkatesh, V. “Employees’ Reactions to IT-enabled Process Innovations in the Age of Data Analytics in Healthcare,” Business Process Management Journal (23:3), 2017, 671-702.
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Interorganizational business process standards (IBPS) are IT-enabled process specifications that standardize, streamline, and improve business processes related to interorganizational relationships. There has been much interest in IBPS as organizations from different industries implement these process standards that lead to successful organizational outcomes by integrating and standardizing intra- and inter-organizational business processes. These process standards enable data analytics capabilities by facilitating new sources of interorganizational process data. The purpose of this study is to unearth employees’ reactions to a new type of supply chain process innovations that involved an implementation of new IBPS, a supply chain management (SCM) system and associated analytics capabilities. We gathered and analyzed qualitative data for a year from the employees of a healthcare supplier, a high-tech manufacturing organization, during the implementation of a SCM system and RosettaNet-based IBPS. In what we termed the initiation stage, there was quite a bit of confusion and unrest among employees regarding the relevance of the new process standards and associated analytics capabilities. With the passage of time, in the institutionalization stage, although the situation improved slightly, employees found workarounds that allowed them to appropriate just part of specific processes and the analytics capabilities. Finally, once routinized, employees felt comfortable in the situation but still did not appropriate the new supply chain processes faithfully. Overall, employees’ reactions toward the SCM system and associated analytics capabilities were different from their reactions toward the new business processes. We contribute to the literature by offering novel insights on how employees react to and appropriate process innovations that change their work processes.
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Bala, H., Venkatesh, V., Venkatraman, S., and Bates, J. “If the Worst Happens: Five Strategies for Developing and Leveraging Information Technology-Enabled Disaster Response in Healthcare,” IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics (20:6), 2015, 1545-1551.
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Natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, wildfires, and floods, have a profound impact on healthcare by limiting healthcare providers’ ability to effectively provide patient care in the affected areas and respond to myriad healthcare needs of the affected population. The situation can potentially be exacerbated if healthcare providers do not have effective mechanisms in place for disaster response. The response to Hurricane Katrina, a Category 3 hurricane that made landfall in August 2005 and affected several states in the southwestern U.S., was a vivid example of how the lack of effective planning and responsiveness can affect healthcare services. In this article, based on an extensive case study, which included a rigorous examination of the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) information technology (IT) infrastructure and its response to hurricane Katrina, we present five strategies that healthcare organizations can undertake to develop and leverage IT-enabled disaster response. These include the development of: (1) an integrated IT architecture; (2) a universal data repository; (3) web-based disaster communication and coordination; (4) an IT-enabled disaster support system; and (5) standardized and integrated IT-enabled disaster response processes. We discuss how these strategies can help healthcare providers manage continuity and offer quality healthcare during natural disasters.
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Venkatesh, V., Bala, H., and Sambamurthy, V. “Implementation of an Information and Communication Technology in a Developing Country: A Multimethod Longitudinal Study in a Bank in India,” Information Systems Research (27:3), 2016, 558-579.
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Developing countries, such as India and China, are the fastest growing economies in the world. The successful implementation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in these countries is likely to hinge on a set of institutional factors that are shaped by environmental tension created by two competing forces, emergent catalysts, such as new economic policies and reform programs, and traditional challenges, such as infrastructure and traditional value systems. To unearth the temporal dynamics underlying the success and failure of ICT implementations in organizations in developing countries, we conducted a 2-year multi-method study of an ICT implementation at a large bank in India. Based on data collected from over 1,000 employees and over 1,000 customers, we found, relative to pre-implementation levels for up to 2 years post-implementation, that we characterized as the shakedown phase: (1) operational efficiency did not improve, (2) job satisfaction declined, and (3) customer satisfaction declined. In-depth interviews of approximately 40 members of top management, 160 line employees, and 200 customers indicated that these outcomes could be attributed to the strong influence of a set of institutional factors, such as ICT-induced change, labor economics, western isomorphism, parallel-manual system, and technology adaptation. The interplay between these institutional factors and environmental tension posed a formidable challenge for the bank throughout the implementation that led to the poor and unintended outcomes.
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Venkatesh, V., Brown, S.A., and Sullivan, Y.W. “Guidelines for Conducting Mixed-methods Research: An Extension and Illustration,” Journal of the AIS (17:7), 2016, 435-495.
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In this paper, we extend the guidelines of Venkatesh et al. (2013) for mixed-methods research by identifying and integrating variations in mixed-methods research. By considering 14 properties of mixed-methods research (e.g., purposes, research questions, epistemological assumptions), our guidelines demonstrate how researchers can flexibly identify the existing variations in mixed-methods research and proceed accordingly with a study design that suits their needs. To make the guidelines actionable for various situations and issues that researchers could encounter, we develop a decision tree to map the flow and relationship among the design strategies. We also illustrate one possible type of mixed-methods research in information systems in depth and discuss how to develop and validate metainferences as the outcomes of such a study.
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Venkatesh, V., Rai, A., Sykes, T.A., and Aljafari, R. “Combating Infant Mortality in Rural India: Evidence from a Field Study of eHealth Kiosk Implementations,” MIS Quarterly (40:2), 2016, 353-380.
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The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals listed high infant mortality rates as a major problem in developing countries, especially in rural areas. Given the powerful information dissemination capabilities, information and communication technologies (ICTs), they have been suggested as interventions to build infant care awareness, modify healthcare behaviors. We examine how the use of one ICT intervention—specifically, eHealth kiosks disseminating authenticated and accessible medical information—can alleviate the problem of high infant mortality in rural India. We investigate how mothers’ social networks affect their use of eHealth kiosks, seeking professional medical care for their infants and ultimately, infant mortality. Drawing on social epidemiology and social networks literatures, we focus on advice and hindrance from both strong and weak ties as the conduit of social influence on mothers’ health-related behaviors for the care of their infants. Over a period of 7 years, we studied 4,620 infants across 10 villages where the eHealth kiosks were implemented along with support resources for proxy use. The results revealed that (1) eHealth kiosk use promotes seeking professional medical care and reduces infant mortality, (2) mothers are especially vulnerable to hindrance from both strong and weak ties as they choose to maintain the status quo of traditional infant healthcare practices (e.g., reliance on untrained personnel, superstitions, fatalism) in villages, and (3) advice from both strong and weak ties offers the potential to break down misplaced beliefs about infant healthcare practices and to develop literacy on seeking professional medical care. In contrast, in a comparative group of 10 neighboring villages, the reduction in infant mortality was not as pronounced and the effect of professional medical care in reducing infant mortality was lower. Our findings suggest that an ICT intervention can effectively address one of society’s most important problems—i.e., infant mortality—even in parts of the world with limited resources and deep suspicion of technology and change. Overall, we believe such an ICT intervention will complement other investments being made including the facilitation of use (proxy use) and provision of professional medical facilities to reduce infant mortality.
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Venkatesh, V., Thong, J.Y.L., Chan, F.K.Y., and Hu, P.J.H. “Managing Citizens’ Uncertainty in E-Government Services: The Mediating and Moderating Roles of Transparency and Trust,” Information Systems Research (27:1), 2016, 87-111.
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This paper investigates how citizens’ uncertainty in e-government services can be managed. First, we draw from uncertainty reduction theory, and propose that transparency and trust are two key means of reducing citizens’ uncertainty in e-government services. Second, we identify two key sets of relevant drivers of e-government service use: (1) information quality characteristics—i.e., accuracy and completeness; and (2) channel characteristics—i.e., convenience and personalization. We propose that the means of uncertainty reduction, information quality characteristics, and channel characteristics are interrelated factors that jointly influence citizens’ intentions to use e-government. We tested our model with 4,430 Hong Kong citizens’ reactions to two e-government services: government Web sites and online appointment booking. Our results show that the information quality and channel characteristics predict citizens’ intentions to use e-government. Further, transparency and trust mediate as well as moderate the effects of information quality and channel characteristics on intentions. A follow-up survey found that citizens’ intentions predict use and ultimately, citizens’ satisfaction.
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Bala, H. and Venkatesh, V. “Adaptation to Information Technology: A Holistic Nomological Network from Implementation to Job Outcomes,” Management Science (62:1), 2016, 156-179.
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Information technology (IT) implementation is a major organizational change event that substantially disrupts employees’ work environment. We develop a model of technology adaptation behaviors that employees perform to cope with a new IT that causes such disruptions. Our model posits technology adaptation behaviors as a key linking mechanism between IT implementation and employee job outcomes, thus offering a holistic nomological network of technology adaptation behaviors. Two field studies conducted over a period of six months, with four waves of data collection each, in two organizations (N = 211 and 181) implementing two different ITs supported the model. We found that employees engaged in four different technology adaptation behaviors, i.e., exploration-to-innovate, exploitation, exploration-to-revert, and avoidance, based on whether they appraised an IT as an opportunity or a threat and whether they had perceptions of control over an IT. Employees’ experiential engagements, i.e., user participation and training effectiveness, and psychological engagements, i.e., user involvement and management support, during the implementation jointly determined their appraisal of an IT. Finally, we found that technology adaptation behaviors influenced changes in two key job outcomes, i.e., job performance and job satisfaction.
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Venkatesh, V., Thong, J.Y.L., and Xu, X. “Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology: A Synthesis and the Road Ahead,” Journal of the AIS (17:5), 2016, 328-376.
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The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) is a decade old and has been used extensively in information systems (IS) and other fields as evidenced by the large number of citations to the original article introducing the theory. The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesize the IS literature on UTAUT, perform a theoretical analysis of UTAUT and its extensions, and chart an agenda for research going forward. Based on Weber’s (2012) framework of theory evaluation, we examined UTAUT and its extensions along two sets of quality dimensions—namely, the parts of the theory and the theory as a whole. While our review identifies many merits to UTAUT, we also found that its achievements have hampered further theoretical development in research into technology acceptance and use. To chart an agenda for research that will enable significant future work, we analyze the theoretical contributions of UTAUT using Whetten’s (2009) notion of cross-context theorizing. Our analysis reveals a number of limitations that lead us to propose a multi-level framework that can serve as the theoretical foundation for future research. Specifically, this framework integrates the notion of research context and cross-context theorizing with the theory evaluation framework to (1) synthesize the existing UTAUT extensions across both the dimensions and the levels of the research context; and (2) highlight promising research directions. We conclude with recommendations for future UTAUT-related research using the proposed framework.
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Hoehle, H., Aljafari, R., and Venkatesh, V. “Leveraging Microsoft’s Mobile Usability Guidelines: Conceptualizing and Developing Scales for Mobile Application Usability,” International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (89:5), 2016, 35-53.
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This research conceptualizes mobile application usability and develops and validates an instrument to measure the same. Mobile application usability has attracted widespread attention in the field of human–computer interaction because well-designed applications can enhance user experiences. To conceptualize mobile application usability, we analyzed Microsoft’s mobile usability guidelines and defined 10 constructs representing mobile application usability. Next, we conducted a pilot study followed by a quantitative assessment of the content validity of the scales. We then sequentially applied exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to two samples (n=404; n=501) consisting of German consumers using mobile social media applications on their smartphones. To evaluate the confirmatory factor model, we followed a step-by-step process assessing unidimensionality, discriminant validity and reliability. To assess the nomological validity of our instrument, we examined the impact of mobile application usability on two outcomes: continued intention to use and brand loyalty. The results confirmed that mobile application usability was a good predictor of both outcomes. The constructs and scales associated with mobile application usability validated in this paper can be used to guide future research in human–computer interaction and aid in the effective design of mobile applications.
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Aloysius, J.A., Hoehle, H., and Venkatesh, V. “Exploiting Big Data for Customer and Retailer Benefits: A Study of Emerging Mobile Checkout Scenarios,” International Journal of Operations and Production Management (36:4), 2016, 467-486.
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Mobile checkout in the retail store has the promise to be a rich source of big data. It is also a means to increase the rate at which big data flows into an organization as well as the potential to integrate product recommendations and promotions in real time. However, despite efforts by retailers to implement this retail innovation, adoption by customers has been slow. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Based on interviews and focus groups with leading retailers, technology providers, and service providers, the authors identified several emerging in-store mobile scenarios; and based on customer focus groups, the authors identified potential drivers and inhibitors of use. A first departure from the traditional customer checkout process flow is that a mobile checkout involves two processes: scanning and payment, and that checkout scenarios with respect to each of these processes varied across two dimensions: first, location – whether they were fixed by location or mobile; and second, autonomy – whether they were assisted by store employees or unassisted. The authors found no evidence that individuals found mobile scanning to be either enjoyable or to have utilitarian benefit. The authors also did not find greater privacy concerns with mobile payments scenarios. The authors did, however, in the post hoc analysis find that mobile unassisted scanning was preferred to mobile assisted scanning. The authors also found that mobile unassisted scanning with fixed unassisted checkout was a preferred service mode, while there was evidence that mobile assisted scanning with mobile assisted payment was the least preferred checkout mode. Finally, the authors found that individual differences including computer self-efficacy, personal innovativeness, and technology anxiety were strong predictors of adoption of mobile scanning and payment scenarios. The work helps the authors understand the emerging mobile checkout scenarios in the retail environment and customer reactions to these scenarios.
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Brown, S.A., Venkatesh, V., and Hoehle, H. “Technology Adoption Decisions in the Household: A Seven-model Comparison,” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (66:9), 2015, 1933-1949.
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We identified 7 theoretical models that have been used to explain technology adoption and use. We then examined the boundary conditions of these models of technology adoption when applied to the household context using longitudinal empirical data from households regarding their purchase and use decisions related to household technologies. We conducted 2 studies and collected 1,247 responses from U.S. households for the first study and 2,064 responses from U.S. households for the second study. Those households that had adopted household technologies were surveyed regarding their use behavior. Potential adopters (i.e., those who had currently not adopted) were surveyed regarding their purchase intentions. This allowed us to identify the most influential factors affecting a household’s decision to adopt and use technologies. The results show that the model of adoption of technology in the household provided the richest explanation and explained best why households purchase and use technologies.
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Maruping, L.M., Venkatesh, V., Thatcher, S., and Patel, P. “Folding Under Pressure or Rising to the Occasion? Perceived Time Pressure and the Moderating Role of Team Temporal Leadership,” Academy of Management Journal (58:5), 2015, 1313-1333.
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Team temporal leadership orients teams toward managing the time-related aspects of their work. We examined how perceived time pressure affects team processes and subsequent performance under weak versus strong team temporal leadership. Results of a field study of 111 project teams show that the mediated relationship between perceived time pressure and team performance is non-linear. Moreover, this non-linear mediated relationship is moderated by team temporal leadership such that under strong team temporal leadership, the indirect effect of perceived time pressure on team performance is mostly positive; and under conditions of weak team temporal leadership, the indirect effect is positive at low levels of perceived time pressure and negative at intermediate to high levels. Implications for current and future time pressure research are discussed.
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Hoehle, H. and Venkatesh, V. “Mobile Application Usability: Conceptualization and Instrument Development,” MIS Quarterly (39:2), 2015, 435-472.
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This paper presents a mobile application usability conceptualization and survey instrument following the 10-step procedure recommended by MacKenzie et al. (2011). Specifically, we adapted Apple’s user experience guidelines to develop our conceptualization of mobile application usability that we then developed into 19 first-order constructs that formed 6 second-order constructs. To achieve our objective, we collected 4 datasets: content validity (n=318), pre-test (n=440), validation (n=408), and cross-validation (n=412). The nomological validity of this instrument was established by examining its impact on two outcomes: continued intention to use and mobile application loyalty. We found that the constructs that represented our mobile application usability conceptualization were good predictors of both outcomes and compared favorably to an existing instrument based on Microsoft’s usability guidelines. In addition to being an exemplar of the recent procedure of MacKenzie et al. to validate an instrument, this work provides a rich conceptualization of and instrument for mobile application usability that can serve as a springboard for future work to understand the impacts of mobile application usability and can be used as a guide to design effective mobile applications.
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Hoehle, H., Zhang, X., and Venkatesh, V. “An Espoused Cultural Perspective to Understand Continued Intention to Use Mobile Applications: A Four-country Study of Mobile Social Media Application Usability,” European Journal of Information Systems (24:3), 2015, 337-359.
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As most mobile applications are tailored for worldwide consumption, it is a significant challenge to develop applications that satisfy individuals with various cultural backgrounds. To address this issue, we drew on a recently developed conceptualization and associated instrument of mobile application usability to develop a model examining the impact of mobile social media application usability on continued intention to use. Drawing on Hofstede’s five cultural values, we incorporated espoused cultural values of masculinity/femininity, individualism/collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation into our model as moderators. To test the model, we collected data from 1,844 consumers in four countries—U.S, Germany, China, and India—who use mobile social media applications on their smartphones. The results provided support for the role of espoused national cultural values in moderating the impact of mobile social media application usability on continued intention to use and the model, with espoused cultural values explaining significantly more variance in continued intention to use (i.e., 38%) than the main effects only model (i.e., 19%). Interestingly, our results demonstrated that culture at the national level did not play a significant role in affecting the relationship between usability constructs and continued intention to use, thus underscoring the importance of espoused culture.
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Xu, X., Thong, J.Y.L., and Venkatesh, V. “Effects of ICT Service Innovation and Complementary Strategies on Brand Equity and Customer Loyalty in a Consumer Technology Market,” Information Systems Research (25:4), 2014, 710-729.
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This paper examines the effects of information and communication technology (ICT) service innovation and its complementary strategies on brand equity and customer loyalty toward ICT service providers. We draw from research on brand equity and customer loyalty, ICT innovation management, and strategy complementarity to propose a model that includes new constructs representing ICT service innovation, i.e., service leadership, and its two complementary strategies, i.e., customization-personalization control and technology leadership, and how their interactions influence customer loyalty through customer-based brand equity. We test our model using data from an online survey of 1,210 customers of mobile data services. The results show that service leadership and customization-personalization control have significant direct impacts on ICT service providers’ brand equity. Moreover, when either the level of technology leadership or the level of customization-personalization control is high, the impact of service leadership on brand equity is enhanced. In turn, brand equity has significant impacts on consumers’ affective loyalty and conative loyalty, but not on cognitive loyalty. Our study contributes to the literature on service management and service science, and in particular to the management of ICT service innovation in a consumer technology market.
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Venkatesh, V., Hoehle, H., and Aljafari, R. “A Usability Evaluation of the Obamacare Website,” Government Information Quarterly (31:4), 2014, 669-680.
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The healthcare.gov website, popularly called the Obamacare website, was off to a rough start. Although infrastructure issues received a great deal of media attention, the site has had its fair share of interface design problems. Drawing on the usability guidelines on the government site of usability.gov, we developed a survey instrument that comprised 16 dimensions to form overall usability. Based on a survey of 374 citizens, we found that usability strongly predicted citizen satisfaction with the website and intention to use the website. Six out of the 16 dimensions of usability emerged as significant in driving overall usability perceptions. In addition to key theoretical implications for e-government and usability research, our work offers practical implications for the healthcare.gov website and e-government web applications in general.
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Brown, S.A., Venkatesh, V., and Goyal, S. “Expectation Confirmation in Information Systems Research: A Test of Six Competing Models,” MIS Quarterly (38:3), 2014, 729-756.
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Expectation confirmation research in general, and in information systems (IS) in particular, has produced conflicting results. In this paper, we discuss six different models of expectation confirmation: assimilation, contrast, generalized negativity, assimilation-contrast, experiences only, and expectations only. Relying on key constructs from the technology acceptance model (TAM), we test each of these six models that suggests different roles for expectations and experiences of the key predictor—here, perceived usefulness—and their impacts on key outcomes—here, behavioral intention, use, and satisfaction. Data were collected in a field study from 1,113 participants at two points in time. Using polynomial modeling and response surface analysis, we provide the analytical representations for each of the six models and empirically test them to demonstrate that the assimilation-contrast is the best existing model in terms of its ability to explain the relationships between expectations and experiences of perceived usefulness and important dependent variables—namely, behavioral intention, use, and satisfaction—in individual-level research on IS implementations.
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Venkatesh, V., Sykes, T.A., and Venkatraman, S. “Understanding E-government Portal Use in Rural India: Role of Demographic and Personality Characteristics,” Information Systems Journal (24:3), 2014, 249-269.
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Electronic government (e-Government) is one of the most important ways to bridge the digital divide in developing countries. We develop a model of e-Government portal use. We use various individual characteristics, namely demographics and personality, as predictors of e-Government portal use. Specifically, our predictors were (1) gender, age, income and education; (2) the Big Five personality characteristics, i.e. extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness to experience; and (3) personal innovativeness with information technology. We conducted a field study in a village in India. We collected data from over 300 heads of household. We found support for our model, with most variables being significant and explaining 40% of the variance in e-Government portal use.
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Sykes, T.A., Venkatesh, V., and Johnson, J.L. “Enterprise System Implementation and Employee Job Performance: Understanding the Role of Advice Networks,” MIS Quarterly (38:1), 2014, 51-72.
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The implementation of enterprise systems, such as modules of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, alters business processes and associated workflows, and introduces new software applications that employees must use. Employees frequently find such technology-enabled organizational change to be a major challenge. Although many challenges related to such changes have been discussed in prior work, little research has focused on post-implementation job outcomes of employees affected by such change. We draw from social network theory—specifically, advice networks—to understand a key post-implementation job outcome—i.e., job performance. We conducted a social network study among 87 employees, with data gathered before and after the implementation of an ERP system module in a business unit of a large organization. We found support for our hypotheses that workflow advice and software advice are associated with job performance. Further, as predicted, we found that the interactions of workflow and software get-advice, workflow and software give-advice, and software giving and getting advice were associated with job performance. This nuanced treatment of advice networks advances our understanding of post-implementation success of enterprise systems.
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Bala, H. and Venkatesh, V. “Changes in Employees’ Job Characteristics during an Enterprise System Implementation: A Latent Growth Modeling Perspective,” MIS Quarterly (37:4), 2013, 1113-1140.
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Enterprise system implementations often create tension in organizations. On the one hand, these systems can provide significant operational and strategic benefits. On the other hand, implementation of these systems is risky and a source of major disruptions. In particular, employees experience significant changes in their work environment during an implementation. Although the relationship between ES implementations and employees’ jobs has been noted in prior research, there is limited research on the nature, extent, determinants, and outcomes of changes in employees’ job characteristics following an ES implementation. This paper develops and tests a model, termed the job characteristics change model (JCCM), that posits that employees will experience substantial changes in two job characteristics (i.e., job demands and job control) during the shakedown phase (i.e., immediately after the rollout) of an ES implementation. These changes are theorized to be predicted by work process characteristics, namely perceived process complexity, perceived process rigidity, and perceived process radicalness, that in turn will be influenced by technology characteristics (i.e., perceived technology complexity, perceived technology reconfigurability, and perceived technology customization). JCCM further posits that changes in job characteristics will influence employees’ job satisfaction. Longitudinal field studies conducted in two organizations (N = 281 and 141 respectively) provided support for the model. The scientific and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
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Zhang, X. and Venkatesh, V. “Explaining Employee Job Performance: The Role of Online and Offline Workplace Communication Networks,” MIS Quarterly (37:3), 2013, 695-722.
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By distinguishing between employees’ online and offline workplace communication networks, this paper incorporates technology into social network theory to understand employees’ job performance. Specifically, we conceptualize network ties as direct and indirect ties in both online and offline workplace communication networks, thus resulting in four distinct types of ties. We theorize that employees’ ties in online and offline workplace communication networks are complementary resources that interact to influence their job performance. We found support for our model in a field study among 104 employees in a large telecommunication company. The paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications.
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Venkatesh, V. and Sykes, T.A. “Digital Divide Initiative Success in Developing Countries: A Longitudinal Field Study in a Village in India,” Information Systems Research (24:2), 2013, 239-260.
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Digital divide initiatives in developing countries are an important avenue for the socio-economic advancement of those countries. Yet, little research has focused on understanding the success of such initiatives. We develop a model of technology use and economic outcomes of digital divide initiatives in developing countries. We use social networks as the guiding theoretical lens as it is well-suited to this context given the low literacy, high poverty, high collectivism and an oral tradition of information dissemination in developing countries. We test our model with longitudinal data gathered from 210 families in a rural village in India in the context of a digital divide initiative. As theorized, we found that the social network constructs contributed significantly to explanation of technology use (R2 = .39). Also, as we predicted, technology use partially mediated the effect of social network constructs on economic outcomes (R2 = .47). We discuss implications for theory and practice.
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Setia, P., Venkatesh, V., and Joglekar, S. “Leveraging Digital Technologies: How Information Quality Leads to Localized Capabilities and Customer Service Performance,” MIS Quarterly (37:2), 2013, 565-590.
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With the growing recognition of the customer’s role in service creation and delivery, there is an increased impetus on building customer-centric organizations. Digital technologies play a key role in such organizations. Prior research studying digital business strategies has largely focused on building production-side competencies and there has been little focus on customer-side digital business strategies to leverage these technologies. We propose a theory to understand the effectiveness of a customer-side digital business strategy focused on localized dynamics—here, a firm’s customer service units (CSUs). Specifically, we use a capabilities perspective to propose digital design as an antecedent to two customer service capabilities—namely, customer orientation capability and customer response capability—across a firm’s CSUs. These two capabilities will help a firm to locally sense and respond to customer needs, respectively. Information quality from the digital design of the CSU is proposed as the antecedent to the two capabilities. Proposed capabilitybuilding dynamics are tested using data collected from multiple respondents across 170 branches of a large bank. Findings suggest that the impacts of information quality in capability-building are contingent on the local process characteristics. We offer implications for a firm’s customer-side digital business strategy and present new areas for future examination of such strategies.
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Venkatesh, V., Brown, S.A., and Bala, H. “Bridging the Qualitative-Quantitative Divide: Guidelines for Conducting Mixed Methods Research in Information Systems,” MIS Quarterly (37:1), 2013, 21-54. [Among the 50 papers to receive Emerald’s Citations of Excellence award for 2015]
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Mixed methods research is an approach that combines quantitative and qualitative research methods in the same research inquiry. Such work can help develop rich insights into various phenomena of interest that cannot be fully understood using only a quantitative or a qualitative method. Notwithstanding the benefits and repeated calls for such work, there is a dearth of mixed methods research in information systems. Building on the literature on recent methodological advances in mixed methods research, we develop a set of guidelines for conducting mixed methods research in IS. We particularly elaborate on three important aspects of conducting mixed methods research: (1) appropriateness of a mixed methods approach; (2) development of meta-inferences (i.e., substantive theory) from mixed methods research; and (3) assessment of the quality of meta-inferences (i.e., validation of mixed methods research). The applicability of these guidelines is illustrated using two published IS papers that used mixed methods.
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Venkatesh, V. and Bala, H. “Adoption and Impacts of Interorganizational Business Process Standards: Role of Partnering Synergy,” Information Systems Research (23:4), 2012, 1131-1157.
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Notwithstanding potential benefits, such as quality of interorganizational relationships and operational and strategic gains, adoption of information technology (IT)-enabled interorganizational business process standards (IBPS) is still limited. Given that these standards are designed for interorganizational business processes, we suggest that adoption of these standards depends not only on the factors pertinent to a focal firm but also on factors that represent synergies between a focal firm and its trading partners. In this paper, building on the technological, organizational, and environmental (TOE) framework and interorganizational theories, we propose a model that postulates that a set of TOE factors will have synergistic effects (i.e., interactions between a focal firm’s and its partner’s factors) on IBPS adoption. We tested our model in a study of 248 firms (124 dyads) in the high-tech industry implementing RosettaNet-based IBPS and found that three TOE factors (i.e., process compatibility, standards uncertainty, and technology readiness) had synergistic effects and two factors (i.e., expected benefits and relational trust) had direct effects on IBPS adoption. We also found that IBPS adoption led to greater relationship quality (i.e., partnering satisfaction) and operational efficiency (i.e., cycle time). Further, we found that IBPS adoption mediated the effect of TOE factors on partnering satisfaction and cycle time.
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Venkatesh, V. and Windeler, J.B. “Hype or Help? A Longitudinal Field Study of Virtual World Use for Team Collaboration,” Journal of the AIS (13:10), 2012, 735-771.
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Despite increasing organizational interest and investment in virtual worlds (VWs), there is a lack of research on the benefits of VWs. When and how does the use of VW systems engender better organizational outcomes than traditional collaborative technologies? This paper investigates the value of VWs for team collaboration. Team collaboration is particularly relevant in studying VWs given the rich interactive nature of VWs and an increasing organizational reliance on virtual teamwork. To understand the value of VW use for team collaboration, we examine the relationship between a team’s disposition toward IT, their general disposition (personality) and VW use in influencing team cohesion and performance. We conducted a field study that compares two collaborative technology systems – one that is based on a traditional desktop metaphor and one that is grounded in the principles of a virtual world. We tracked the use of the systems for one year. We analyzed data at the team level and the results generally support our model, with agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and computer self-efficacy interacting with time and technology type to positively influence team technology use. We also found that the use of the virtual world system positively influenced the relationship between technology use and team cohesion, which, in turn, predicts team performance. The model explains 57 percent, 21 percent, and 24 percent of the variance in team technology use, team cohesion, and team performance, respectively.
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Brown, S.A., Venkatesh, V., and Goyal, S. “Expectation Confirmation in Technology Use,” Information Systems Research (23:2), 2012, 474-487.
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We propose a model to study expectation confirmation in information systems. The proposed model is based on the assimilation-contrast model and prospect theory, and suggests that both are needed to account for the magnitude and direction of the deviations between experiences and expectations. Using the technology acceptance model’s (TAM) primary construct, namely perceived usefulness, expectations and experiences were conceptualized and operationalized to test our model. Data were collected in a field study from 1,113 participants at two points in time. Using polynomial modeling and response surface analysis, we demonstrated that our model offers a good explanation of the relationship among information systems expectations, experiences, and use. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.
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Venkatesh, V., Chan, F.K.Y., and Thong, J.Y.L. “Designing E-government Services: Key Service Attributes and Citizens’ Preference Structures,” Journal of Operations Management (30:1-2), 2012, 116-133. [Recognized in 2017 with the Ambassador award for citation impact for papers published between 2012 and 2017; Nominated for the Jack Meredith Best Paper Award for the best published paper in the journal in 2012]
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Advances in Internet technologies have led to the popularity of technology-based self-service, with the design of such services becoming extremely important. Using technology-based services in the public sector as the setting, we identified the key service attributes driving adoption and use of transactional e-government services, and citizens’ preference structures across these attributes. After identifying four key attributes, i.e., usability, computer resource requirement, technical support provision and security provision, we conducted a Web-based survey and a conjoint experiment among 2465 citizens. In a two-stage Web-based survey, citizens reported their perceptions about a smartcard technology for transactional e-government services before use, and their use and satisfaction 4 months later. Results showed that the key attributes (noted above) influenced citizens’ intentions, subsequent use and satisfaction. In the conjoint experiment, citizens reported their preferences for key service attributes for two transactional e-government services. Further, a cluster analysis uncovered four distinct citizen segments, i.e., balanced, usability-focused, risk-conscious and resource-conservative, that can inform efforts in designing e-government services. A post hoc analysis confirmed the appropriateness of the market segmentation in understanding citizens’ adoption and use of transactional e-government services.
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Venkatesh, V., Thong, J.Y.L., and Xin, X. “Consumer Acceptance and Use of Information Technology: Extending the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology,” MIS Quarterly (36:1), 2012, 157-178. [Among Google Scholar’s top-10 most-cited papers in business and economics that were published between 2011 and 2015]
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This paper extends the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to study acceptance and use of technology in a consumer context. Our proposed UTAUT2 incorporates three constructs into UTAUT: hedonic motivation, price value, and habit. Individual differences—namely, age, gender, and experience—are hypothesized to moderate the effects of these constructs on behavioral intention and technology use. Results from a two-stage online survey, with technology use data collected four months after the first survey, of 1,512 mobile Internet consumers supported our model. Compared to UTAUT, the extensions proposed in UTAUT2 produced a substantial improvement in the variance explained in behavioral intention (56 percent to 74 percent) and technology use (40 percent to 52 percent). The theoretical and managerial implications of these results are discussed.
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Venkatesh, V., Zhang, X., and Sykes, T.A. “Doctors Do Too Little Technology: A Longitudinal Field Study of an Electronic Healthcare System Implementation,” Information Systems Research (22:3), 2011, 523-546.
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With the strong ongoing push toward investment in and deployment of electronic healthcare (e-healthcare) systems, understanding the factors that drive the use of such systems and the consequences of using such systems is of scientific and practical significance. Elaborate training in new healthcare systems is not a luxury that is typically available to healthcare professionals—i.e., doctors, paraprofessionals (e.g., nurses) and administrative personnel—because of the 24×7 nature and criticality of operations of healthcare organizations, especially hospitals, thus making peer interactions and support a key driver of or barrier to such e-healthcare system use. Against this backdrop, using social networks as a theoretical lens, this paper presents a nomological network related to e-healthcare system use. A longitudinal study of an e-healthcare system implementation, with data gathered from doctors, para-professionals, administrative personnel, patients and usage logs, lent support to the hypotheses that: (1) in-group and out-group ties to doctors negatively affect use in all user groups; (2) in-group and out-group ties to paraprofessionals and administrative personnel positively affect use in both those groups, but have no effect on doctors’ use; and (3) use contributes positively to patient satisfaction mediated by healthcare quality variables—i.e., technical quality, communication, interpersonal interactions and time spent. This work contributes to the theory and practice related to the success of e-healthcare system use in particular and information systems in general.
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Zhang, X., Venkatesh, V., and Brown, S.A. “Designing Collaborative Systems to Enhance Team Performance,” Journal of the AIS (12:8), 2011, 556-584.
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Collaborative technologies are widely used to enable teams to function effectively in today’s competitive business environment. However, prior research has been inconclusive regarding the impacts of collaborative technologies on team performance. To address the inconsistencies in prior work, this paper seeks to understand the mediational mechanisms that transmit the effect of collaborative technologies on team performance. Specifically, we theorize that there is a relationship between design features and knowledge contextualization. We further theorize relationships between knowledge contextualization and a team’s capability for collaboration, specifically examining collaboration know-how and absorptive capacity, both of which are expected to influence team performance. We conduct a field study including 190 software project teams from a large organization in China. The results support our theoretical model and demonstrate that design features have an impact on performance outcomes, mediated by collaboration know-how and absorptive capacity.
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Venkatesh, V., Thong, J.Y.L., Chan, F.K.Y., Hu, P.J-H., and Brown, S.A. “Extending the Two-Stage Information Systems Continuance Model: Incorporating UTAUT Predictors and the Role of Context,” Information Systems Journal (21:6), 2011, 527-555.
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This study presents two extensions to the two-stage expectation-confirmation theory of information systems (IS) continuance. First, we expand the belief set from perceived usefulness in the original IS continuance model to include three additional predictors identified in the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, namely effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions. Second, we ground the IS continuance model in the context of transactional systems that involve transmission of personal and sensitive information and include trust as a key contextual belief in the model. To test the expanded IS continuance model, we conducted a longitudinal field study of 3159 Hong Kong citizens across two electronic government (e-government) technologies that enable citizens’ access to government services. In general, the results support the expanded model that provides a rich understanding of the changes in the pre-usage beliefs and attitudes through the emergent constructs of disconfirmation and satisfaction, ultimately influencing IS continuance intention. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the expanded model.
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Thong, J.Y.L., Venkatesh, V., Xu, X., Hong, S-J., and Tam, K.Y. “Consumer Acceptance of Personal Information and Communication Technology Services,” IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management (58:4), 2011, 613-625.
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In today’s information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled service economy, there is great interest in digital service management. While the extant technology acceptance research has mainly studied user acceptance of various ICTs, there is a dearth of research on consumer acceptance of personal ICT services. In this paper, we extend the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology to the context of ICT services by examining the moderating role of ICT service type. We tested the proposed model in a large-scale survey of 4777 consumers, including both potential and current consumers of mobile data services (MDS), of two different types of MDS: communication and infotainment services. The results strongly supported the model with service type moderating the key relationships. The findings have theoretical and practical implications for digital service management in particular and service science in general.
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Sykes, T.A., Venkatesh, V., and Rai, A. “Explaining Physicians’ Use of EMR Systems and Performance in the Shakedown Phase,” Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (18:2), 2011, 125-130.
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This work seeks to complement and extend prior work by using a multidisciplinary approach to explain electronic medical records (EMR) system use and consequent performance (here, patient satisfaction) among physicians during early stages of the implementation of an EMR. This was a quantitative study, with data obtained from three distinct sources: individual-level and social-network data from employees; use data from EMR logs; and patient satisfaction data from patients and/or authorized decision-makers. Responses were obtained from 151 physicians and 8440 patient satisfaction surveys over the course of a 1-year period at the shakedown phase of an EMR system implementation. Physicians who were better connected, both directly and indirectly, to their peers—that is, other physicians—for advice on their work, used the system less than those who were less connected. In addition to such social network ties, demographic characteristics (gender and age), three personality characteristics (openness to experience, agreeableness and extroversion) and a key technology perception (perceived usefulness) predicted EMR system use. For hospital administrators and other stakeholders, understanding the contributors to, and the relative importance of various factors in explaining EMR system use, and its impact on patient satisfaction is of great importance. The factors identified in this work that influence a physician’s use of EMR systems can be used to develop interventions and applications that can increase patient buy-in and use of EMR systems.
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Venkatesh, V., Bala, H., and Sykes, T.A. “Impacts of Information and Communication Technology Implementations on Employees’ Jobs in Service Organizations in India: A Multi-method Longitudinal Field Study,” Production and Operations Management (19:5), 2010, 591-613.
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India is an important frontier for economic growth, investments, and development. Like the manufacturing industry, the service sector in India is also booming. Following the trend of their western counterparts, service organizations in India are implementing enterprise-level information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support service processes. In this paper, we used socio-technical systems theory to develop hypotheses about the effects of ICTs on the five job characteristics, i.e., skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback, as specified by the job characteristics model (JCM). We also tested the entire JCM that relates job characteristics to job satisfaction and job performance via various mediators and moderators. We conducted a 32-month long field study of 1,743 employees, with data gathered before and after an ICT implementation at a bank in India. We found that although the ICT enriched employees’ job characteristics, employees reported significantly lower job satisfaction and job performance. To understand this puzzling finding, we conducted a qualitative study and identified four contextual forces contributing to these results: environmental barriers, learning difficulty, culture shock, and employee valuation. These findings reveal factors that hinder successful implementation of ICTs in the service sector in India and possibly, other developing countries.
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Brown, S.A., Dennis, A.R., and Venkatesh, V. “Predicting Collaboration Technology Use: Integrating Technology Adoption and Collaboration Research,” Journal of MIS (27:2), 2010, 9-53.
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The paper presents a model integrating theories from collaboration research (i.e., social presence theory, channel expansion theory, and the task closure model) with a recent theory from technology adoption research (i.e., unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, abbreviated to UTAUT ) to explain the adoption and use of collaboration technology. We theorize that collaboration technology characteristics, individual and group characteristics, task characteristics, and situational characteristics are predictors of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions in UTAUT . We further theorize that the UTAUT constructs, in concert with gender, age, and experience, predict intention to use a collaboration technology, which in turn predicts use. We conducted two field studies in Finland among (1) 349 short message service (SMS) users and (2) 447 employees who were potential users of a new collaboration technology in an organization. Our model was supported in both studies. The current work contributes to research by developing and testing a technology-specific model of adoption in the collaboration context.
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Chan, F., Thong, J.Y.L., Venkatesh, V., Brown, S.A., Hu, P.J., and Tam, K.Y. “Modeling Citizen Satisfaction with Mandatory Adoption of an E-Government Technology,” Journal of the AIS (11:10), 2010, 519-549.
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While technology adoption is a major stream of research in information systems, few studies have examined the antecedents and consequences of mandatory adoption of technologies. To address this gap, we develop and test a model of mandatory citizen adoption of e-government technology. Based on a framework that outlines the key stages associated with the launch of technology products, we identify various external factors as antecedents of four key technology adoption variables from the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), i.e., performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions, which ultimately impact citizen satisfaction. The four stages of technology launch and the salient antecedents in each stage are: (1) market preparation stage – awareness; (2) targeting stage – compatibility and self-efficacy; (3) positioning stage – flexibility and avoidance of personal interaction; and (4) execution stage – trust, convenience, and assistance. We test our model in a two-stage survey of 1,179 Hong Kong citizens, before and after they were issued a mandatory smart card to access e-government services. We find that the various factors tied to the different stages in launching the technology predict key technology adoption variables that, in turn, predict citizen satisfaction with e-government technology. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications for governments implementing technologies whose use by citizens is mandated.
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Xu, X., Venkatesh, V., Tam, K.Y., and Hong, S. “Model of Migration and Use of Platforms: Role of Hierarchy, Current Generation, and Complementarities in Consumer Settings,” Management Science (56:8), 2010, 1304-1323.
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We develop and test a model of migration and use of platforms to explain consumers’ reactions to the newest generation of an information and communication technology platform. We draw from information systems and consumer behavior research on adoption and use of technologies, and adapt and incorporate the construct of complementarity from macrolevel research on platform leadership, network effects, and innovation ecosystems. We conceptualize complementarities between the hardware and software platforms, software platform and applications, and applications and services. The complementarities are theorized to influence migration intention, with current generation of the consumer’s platform being a key moderator. We empirically validated our model with data collected using two waves of surveys from 4,412 consumers (2,333 consumers in the second wave) before and after the introduction of the third generation (3G) mobile data services platform in Hong Kong. We explained 60% of the variance in migration intention that in turn was strongly correlated with migration to and use of 3G.
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Magni, M., Taylor, M.S., and Venkatesh, V. “To Play or Not to Play: A Cross-temporal Investigation Using Hedonic and Instrumental Perspectives to Explain User Intentions to Explore a Technology,” International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (68:9), 2010, 572-588.
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The present research extends prior work on the relationship between users and technology by examining users’ intention to explore a technology. Drawing on exploration and individual motivation theories, we developed and tested a model examining the effects of hedonic (i.e., personal innovativeness and cognitive absorption) and instrumental (i.e., performance expectancy and image enhancement) factors on individuals’ intentions to explore a technology over time. We found that both instrumental and hedonic factors affect individuals’ intentions to explore, but their effects change over time such that as time goes by, the effect of personal innovativeness decreases and performance expectancy increases. In addition to our contributions and implications for research on technology acceptance, we present practical implications both for developers and managers, with a view toward helping the development and deployment of technologies that satisfy the evolution of users’ needs over time.
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Venkatesh, V. and Goyal, S. “Expectation Disconfirmation and Technology Adoption: Polynomial Modeling and Response Surface Analysis,” MIS Quarterly (34:2), 2010, 281-303.
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Individual-level information systems (IS) adoption research has recently seen the introduction of expectation-disconfirmation theory (EDT) to explain how and why user reactions change over time. Such prior research has produced valuable insights into the phenomenon of technology adoption beyond traditional models, such as the technology acceptance model. First, we identify gaps in EDT research that present potential opportunities for advances—specifically, we discuss methodological and analytical limitations in EDT research in IS and present polynomial modeling and response surface methodology as solutions. Second, we draw from research on cognitive dissonance, realistic job preview, and prospect theory to present a polynomial model of expectation-disconfirmation in IS. Finally, we test our model using data gathered over a period of six months among 1,143 employees being introduced to a new technology. The results confirmed our hypotheses that disconfirmation in general was bad, as evidenced by low behavioral intention to continue using a system for both positive and negative disconfirmation, thus supporting the need for a polynomial model to understand expectation disconfirmation in information systems.
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Morris, M.G. and Venkatesh, V. “Job Characteristics and Job Satisfaction: Understanding the Role of Enterprise Resource Planning System Implementation,” MIS Quarterly (34:1), 2010, 143-161.
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Little research has examined the impacts of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems implementation on job satisfaction. Based on a 12-month study of 2,794 employees in a telecommunications firm, we found that ERP system implementation moderated the relationships between three job characteristics (skill variety, autonomy, and feedback) and job satisfaction. Our findings highlight the key role that ERP system implementation can have in altering well-established relationships in the context of technology-enabled organizational change situations. This work also extends research on technology diffusion by moving beyond a focus on technology-centric outcomes, such as system use, to understanding broader job outcomes.
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Rai, A., Venkatesh, V., Bala, H., and Lewis, M. “Transitioning to a Modular Enterprise Architecture: Drivers, Constraints, and Actions,” MIS Quarterly Executive (9:2), 2010, 83-94.
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Best practice suggests that a modular enterprise architecture, where interfaces between and among business processes and services are standardized, is a key IT capability for firms to achieve profitable growth. But few firms have successfully designed, implemented, and maintained such an architecture. This article presents findings on the drivers, constraints, and actions taken by two companies that transitioned to a modular enterprise architecture in response to competitive pressures from their business partners or customers. One company implemented an industry standard and the other developed custom partner interface processes (PIPs) to achieve business modularity. The lessons from these two case studies show how companies can smoothly transition to a modular enterprise architecture.
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Venkatesh, V. and Zhang, X. “Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology: U.S. Vs. China,” Journal of Global Information Technology Management (13:1), 2010, 5-27.
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This paper seeks to enrich our understanding of research on technology adoption by examining a potential boundary condition, related to culture, of the fairly recently developed model of technology adoption and use—i.e., unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). Based on the cultural differences between the U.S. and China, we outline the similarities and dissimilarities between the hypotheses specified in the original UTAUT, which was validated in the U.S., and how the relationships will play in the context of employees in China. We conducted an empirical study in a single organization that operated both in the U.S. and China and collected longitudinal data from a total of over 300 employees in one business unit in each of the two countries. Our study confirmed our hypotheses that social influence will be more uniformly important across all employees, without contingencies related to gender, age and volunatariness that were found to be the case in the U.S. As we theorized, other UTAUT hypotheses held both in the U.S. and China. This work contributes by examining culture as a boundary condition and identifies the bounds of generalizability of UTAUT.
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Maruping, L.M., Zhang, X., and Venkatesh, V. “Role of Collective Ownership and Coding Standards in Coordinating Expertise in Software Project Teams,” European Journal of Information Systems (18:4), 2009, 355-371.
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Software development is a complex undertaking that continues to present software project teams with numerous challenges. Software project teams are adopting extreme programming (XP) practices in order to overcome the challenges of software development in an increasingly dynamic environment. The ability to coordinate developer efforts is critical in such conditions. Expertise coordination has been identified as an important emergent process through which software project teams manage non-routine challenges in software development. However, the extent to which XP enables software project teams to coordinate expertise is unknown. Drawing on the agile development and expertise coordination literatures, we examine the role of collective ownership and coding standards as processes and practices that govern coordination in software project teams. We examine the relationship between collective ownership, coding standards, expertise coordination, and software project technical quality in a field study of 56 software project teams comprising 509 programmers. We found that collective ownership and coding standards play a role in improving software project technical quality. We also found that collective ownership and coding standards moderated the relationship between expertise coordination and software project technical quality, with collective ownership attenuating the relationship and coding standards strengthening the relationship. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
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Maruping, L.M., Venkatesh, V., and Agarwal, R. “A Control Theory Perspective on Agile Methodology Use and Changing User Requirements,” Information Systems Research (20:3), 2009, 377-399.
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In this paper, we draw on control theory to understand the conditions under which the use of agile practices is most effective in improving software project quality. Although agile development methodologies offer the potential of improving software development outcomes, limited research has examined how project managers can structure the software development environment to maximize the benefits of agile methodology use during a project. As a result, project managers have little guidance on how to manage teams who are using agile methodologies. Arguing that the most effective control modes are those that provide teams with autonomy in determining the methods for achieving project objectives, we propose hypotheses related to the interaction between control modes, agile methodology use, and requirements change. We test the model in a field study of 862 software developers in 110 teams. The model explains substantial variance in four objective measures of project quality—bug severity, component complexity, coordinative complexity, and dynamic complexity. Results largely support our hypotheses, highlighting the interplay between project control, agile methodology use, and requirements change. The findings contribute to extant literature by integrating control theory into the growing literature on agile methodology use and by identifying specific contingencies affecting the efficacy of different control modes. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our results.
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Rai, A., Maruping, L.M., and Venkatesh, V. “Offshore Information Systems Project Success: The Role of Social Embeddedness and Cultural Characteristics,” MIS Quarterly (33:3), 2009, 617-641.
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Agency theory has played a significant role in identifying drivers of offshore information system (IS) project success. Consequently, the role of relational factors in driving project success has been overlooked in this literature. In this paper, we integrate the social embeddedness perspective and the culture literature by theorizinghow and why relational factors affect the success of offshore IS projects that are strategic in nature, and by identifying organizational and interpersonal cultural differences as critical success factors in this context. Using data from a longitudinal field study of 155 offshore IS projects managed by 22 project leaders, we found evidence of a relationship between hypothesized relational factors and two measures of offshore IS project success—namely, project cost overruns and client satisfaction—over and above the effects of project characteristics and agency factors. Specifically, we found that information exchange, joint problem-solving, and trust reduce project cost overruns and improve client satisfaction. We also found a relationship between cultural differences at the organizational and team level, and offshore IS project success. The model explained 40% and 41% of the variance in project cost overruns and client satisfaction respectively for projects with a client representative. For projects with no client representative, the model explained 35% and 37% of the variance in project cost overruns and client satisfaction respectively. Collectively, the results have important theoretical and practical implications for how client-vendor relationships should be managed when partnering with offshore firms and designing offshore IS project teams.
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Sykes, T.A., Venkatesh, V., and Gosain, S. “Model of Acceptance with Peer Support: A Social Network Perspective to Understand Employees’ System Use,” MIS Quarterly (33:2), 2009, 371-393.
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Prior research has extensively studied individual adoption and use of information systems, primarily using beliefs as predictors of behavioral intention to use a system, which in turn predicts system use. We propose a model of acceptance with peer support (MAPS) that integrates prior individual research with social networks constructs. We argue that an individual’s embeddedness in the social network of the organizational unit implementing a new information system can enhance our understanding of technology use. An individual’s co-workers can be important sources of help in overcoming knowledge barriers constraining use of a complex system; and interactions with others can determine an employee’s ability to influence eventual system configuration and features. We incorporate network density (reflecting “get-help” ties for an employee) and network centrality (reflecting “give-help” ties for an employee), drawn from prior social network research, as key predictors of system use. Further, we conceptualize valued network density and valued network centrality, both of which take into account ties to those with relevant system-related information, knowledge and resources, and employ them as additional predictors. We conducted a 3-month long study of 87 employees. The results confirmed our theory that social network constructs can significantly enhance our understanding of technology use over and above predictors from prior individual-level adoption research.
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Bala, H., Venkatesh, V., Venkatraman, S., Bates, J., and Brown, S.H. “Disaster Response in Health Care: A Design Extension for Enterprise Data Warehouse,” Communications of the ACM (52:1), 2009, 136-140.
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An Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) is developed to meet the needs of strategic decision making that operational data sources and systems such as online transaction processing (OLTP), by design, cannot support. In this article, we present an EDW architectural extension for the health care organizations so that they can continue providing high quality patient care during large-scale disasters. We develop this extension based on our study of the Veteran Health Administration’s (VHA) information technology (IT) systems and responses during Hurricane Katrina.
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Venkatesh, V., Brown, S.A., Maruping, L.M., and Bala, H. “Predicting Different Conceptualizations of System Use: The Competing Roles of Behavioral Intention, Facilitating Conditions, and Behavioral Expectation,” MIS Quarterly (32:3), 2008, 483-502.
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Employees’ underutilization of new information systems undermines organizations’ efforts to amass the expected benefits from such systems. The two main predictors of technology use in prior research—behavioral intention and facilitating conditions—have limitations that we discuss. We introduce behavioral expectation as a predictor that addresses the limitations of behavioral intention and facilitating conditions and provides a better understanding of technology use. Use is examined in terms of its three key conceptualizations—duration, frequency, and intensity. Drawing on recent work on conceptualizations of use, we develop theoretical links between behavioral intention and behavioral expectation, and the various conceptualizations of use. We argue that the cognitions underlying behavioral intention and behavioral expectation differ and consequently, the mechanisms through which they influence different conceptualizations of use differ as well. We test the proposed model in the context of a longitudinal field study of 321 users of a new information system. The model explains 65%, 60%, and 60% of the variance in duration, frequency, and intensity of use respectively. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.
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Venkatraman, S., Bala, H., Venkatesh, V., and Bates, J. “Six Strategies for Electronic Medical Records Systems,” Communications of the ACM (51:11), 2008, 140-144.
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The health care sector, despite its importance, is still behind most other industries such as retail, manufacturing, and financial services to leverage information technology (IT) for operational and strategic purposes. Effective development and successful implementation of IT systems are immensely critical for the health care sector as it has direct implications for patient safety, mortality, and better quality of life. In this paper, based on a case study of one of the largest health care providers in the nation, the Veteran Health Administration (VHA), we discuss several potential drawbacks of current electronic medical records (EMR) systems and offer six key strategies for development and improvement. We expect that these strategies will have important ramifications for the overall IT architecture of health care providers and help them improve the quality of patient care.
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Venkatesh, V. and Bala, H. “Technology Acceptance Model 3 and a Research Agenda on Interventions,” Decision Sciences (39:2), 2008, 273-315. [Ranked among the 50 papers to receive Emerald’s Citations of Excellence award for 2012; in 2014, ranked among the 35 most-cited papers across 15 years of award winners; most cited of all papers ever published in Decision Sciences]
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Prior research has provided valuable insights into how and why employees make a decision about the adoption and use of information technologies (ITs) in the workplace. From an organizational point of view, however, the more important issue is how managers make informed decisions about interventions that can lead to greater acceptance and effective utilization of IT. There is limited research in the IT implementation literature that deals with the role of interventions to aid such managerial decision making. Particularly, there is a need to understand how various interventions can influence the known determinants of IT adoption and use. To address this gap in the literature, we draw from the vast body of research on the technology acceptance model (TAM), particularly the work on the determinants of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, and: (i) develop a comprehensive nomological network (integrated model) of the determinants of individual level (IT) adoption and use; (ii) empirically test the proposed integrated model; and (iii) present a research agenda focused on potential pre- and postimplementation interventions that can enhance employees’ adoption and use of IT. Our findings and research agenda have important implications for managerial decision making on IT implementation in organizations.
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Brown, S.A., Venkatesh, V., Kuruzovich, J., and Massey, A.P. “Expectation Confirmation: An Examination of Three Competing Models,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (105:1), 2008, 52-66.
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We discuss three theoretical models from met expectations research in the fields of organizational behavior and consumer psychology. Based on the fundamental arguments in the models, we term these models: disconfirmation, ideal point, and experiences only. We present three-dimensional graphical and analytical representations of the models with satisfaction being a function of expectations and experiences. We tested the models in the context of a new information system implementation in an organization, with expectations, experiences, and system satisfaction measured for both ease of use and usefulness, the focal constructs of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). We found that an experiences only model in which expectations had no measurable effect best explained the data for ease of use. The results for usefulness indicated a modified version of the experiences only model in which the positive effect of experiences becomes slightly stronger—i.e., more positive—as expectations increase.
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Bala, H. and Venkatesh, V. “Assimilation of Interorganizational Business Process Standards,” Information Systems Research (18:3), 2007, 340-362.
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Organizations have not fully realized the benefits of interorganizational relationships (IORs) due to the lack of cross-enterprise process integration capabilities. Recently,interorganizational business process standards (IBPS) enabled by information technology (IT) have been suggested as a solution to help organizations overcome this problem. Drawing on three theoretical perspectives, i.e., the relational view of the firm, institutional theory, and organizational inertia theory, we propose three mechanisms—relational, influence, and inertial—to explain the assimilation of IBPS in organizations. We theorize that these mechanisms will have differential effects on the assimilation of IBPS in dominant and nondominant firms. Using a cross-case analysis based on data from 11 firms in the high-tech industry, we found evidence to support our propositions that relational depth, relationship extendability, and normative pressure were important for dominant firms while relational specificity and influence mechanisms (coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures) were important for nondominant firms. Inertial mechanisms, i.e., ability and willingness to overcome resource and routine rigidities, were important for both dominant and nondominant firms.
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Venkatesh, V. and Bala, H. “Adoption of Interorganizational Business Process Standards in Business-to-Business Integration: An Exploratory Study,” Systemes d’Information et Management (12:2), 2007, 53-78.
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We conducted an exploratory study to understand the factors that played important role in the adoption of RosettaNet-based interorganizational business process standards (IBPS) in business-to-business integration (B2Bi). We found 3 sets of drivers of IBPS adoption in organizations—i.e., external, internal, and instrumental. External factors include institutional pressures, standards uncertainty, and quality of interorganizational relationships. Internal factors include internal pressures, job change, technology readiness, ICT competence, and organizational culture. Finally, instrumental factors include perceived benefits, process compatibility, and complexity.
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Venkatesh, V., Bala, H., Venkatraman, S., and Bates, J. “Enterprise Architecture Maturity: The Story of the Veterans Health Administration,” MIS Quarterly Executive (6:2), 2007, 79-90.
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The Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) health care system was once considered one of the worst in the United States. For many veterans, it was the last resort. In the early 1990s, in fact, its system had deteriorated so much that Congress considered disbanding it. However, since then, it has undergone a dramatic transformation and is now considered one of the best health care systems in the nation and a leader in almost every health care performance metric. We conducted an in-depth investigation of the VHA for about a year to understand its dramatic turnaround. We found that information technology (IT) played a key role. In particular, we found that by increasing the maturity of its enterprise architecture, the VHA achieved a high degree of integration and standardization in its business processes, which helped it transform its operations. Based on our study of the VHA, we postulate six catalysts for successfully evolving enterprise architecture maturity: (1) formulate a strategic vision for enterprise architecture and gain long-term commitment from top management; (2) involve central and local groups; (3) take an evolutionary, rather than a revolutionary, approach; (4) have a strategy for supporting IT systems and business processes; (5) require local accountability for implementing global objectives; and (6) implement an effective performance management program. Once an enterprise architecture is mature, it can be used for strategic advantage.
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Venkatesh, V., Davis, F.D., and Morris, M.G. “Dead or Alive? The Development, Trajectory, and Future of Technology Adoption Research,” Journal of the AIS (8:4), 2007, 267-286.
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Research on individual-level technology adoption is one of the most mature streams of information systems (IS) research. In this paper, we compare the progress in the area of technology adoption with two widely-researched streams in psychology and organizational behavior: theory of planned behavior and job satisfaction. In addition to gauging the progress in technology adoption research, this allows us to identify some fruitful areas for future research. Based on our comparison, we conclude that there has been excellent progress in technology adoption research. However, as a next step, we call for research focused on interventions, contingencies, and alternative theoretical perspectives (to the largely social psychology-based technology adoption research. Also, we believe it would be important to use the comparisons discussed here as a basis to develop a framework-driven set of future research directions to guide further work in this area.
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Venkatesh, V. “Where to go from Here? Thoughts on Future Directions for Research on Individual-level Technology Adoption with a focus on Decision-making,” Decision Sciences (37:4), 2006, 497-518.
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This article recognizes the maturity of individual-level technology-adoption research and suggests three broad future research directions. They are: (i) business process change and process standards, (ii) supply-chain technologies, and (iii) services. Each of these areas is identified based on the topics likely of interest to the readers of the “Decision Sciences” by closely examining “Decision Sciences'” editorial mission and the recent research published in it. Within each of these three different broad topic areas, a few different specific directions are identified. The directions outlined here are not meant to be exhaustive but rather potential directions that can result in a theoretical contribution to individual-level technology-adoption research and the specific topic area.
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Brown, S.A., Venkatesh, V., and Bala, H. “Household Technology Use: Integrating Household Lifecycle and the Model of Adoption of Technology in Households,” The Information Society (22:4), 2006, 205-218.
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Recently, the model of adoption of technology in households (MATH) was developed and tested in the context of household personal computer (PC) adoption. In this study, we apply MATH to predict PC use. We conducted a nationwide survey including 370 households that owned at least one PC. Results indicate that attitudinal beliefs are extremely important in determining use of a PC in the household. In contrast to previous work examining adopters, normative and control beliefs were not significant in predicting use. Furthermore, several determinants of adoption that were important at different stages of the household lifecycle were found non-significant in predicting use for the same stages of the household lifecycle. Overall, the results demonstrate that the belief structure for household PC use is different from that of household PC adoption. Further, the results provide additional evidence regarding the importance of including household lifecycle in studies of household technology adoption and use.
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Venkatesh, V., Maruping L.M., and Brown, S.A. “Role of Time in Self-prediction of Behavior,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (100:2), 2006, 160-176.
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This paper examines three specific manifestations of time—anticipation (proximal vs. distal), prior experience with the behavior, and frequency (episodic vs. repeat)—as key contingencies affecting the predictive validity of behavioral intention, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral expectation in predicting behavior. These three temporal contingencies are examined in two longitudinal field studies: (1) study 1—a 6-month study of PC purchase behavior among 861 households and (2) study 2—a 12-month study among 321 employees in the context of a new technology implementation in an organization. In study 1, where the episodic behavior of PC purchase was examined, we found that increasing anticipation (i.e., more distal) weakened the relationship between behavioral intention and behavior and strengthened the relationship between behavioral expectation and behavior. In contrast, increasing experience strengthened the relationship between behavioral intention and behavior and weakened the relationship between behavioral expectation and behavior. In study 2, where the repeat behavior of technology use was examine, we found two significant three-way interactions—(1) the relationship between behavioral intention and behavior is strongest when anticipation is low (i.e., proximal) and experience is high; and (2) the relationship between behavioral expectation and behavior is strongest when anticipation is high (i.e., distal) and experience is low.
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Venkatesh, V. and Ramesh, V. “Web and Wireless Site Usability: Understanding Differences and Modeling Use,” MIS Quarterly (30:1), 2006, 181-206.
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Recent research has presented a conceptualization, metric, and instrument based on Microsoft Usability Guidelines (MUG; see Agarwal and Venkatesh 2002). In this paper, we use MUG to further our understanding of web and wireless site use. We conducted two empirical studies among over 1,000 participants. In study 1, conducted in both the United States and Finland, we establish the generalizability of the MUG conceptualization, metric, and associated instrument from the United States to Finland. In study 2, which involved longitudinal data collection in Finland, we delved into an examination of differences in factors important in determining web versus wireless site usability. Also, in study 2, based on a follow-up survey about site use conducted 3 months after the initial survey, we found support for a model of site use that employs the MUG categories and subcategories as predictors. The MUG-based model outperformed the widely employed technology acceptance model both in terms of richness and variance explained (about 70 percent compared to 50 percent).
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Venkatesh, V. and Agarwal, R. “Turning Visitors into Customers: A Usability-Centric Perspective on Purchase Behavior in Electronic Channels,” Management Science (52:3), 2006, 367-382.
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We develop a theoretical model for predicting purchase behavior in electronic channels. The model suggests that website use (i.e., technology use), a key indicator of the degree to which a site is “sticky,” is a significant antecedent of purchase behavior. Furthermore, we relate the usability of a website to use behavior and purchase behavior. Specifically, individual characteristics and product type are argued to differentially influence the weights that customers place on five different categories of usability. The weighted ratings of the five categories together determine use behavior and purchase behavior, after controlling for purchase need, experience with similar sites, and previous purchase on the specific sites. The model was tested in a longitudinal field study among 757 customers who provided usability assessments for multiple websites from four different industries-i.e., airlines, online bookstores, automobile manufacturers, and car rental agencies. Six months later, 370 of these individuals provided responses to help understand the transition from visitor to customer, i.e., whether they actually transacted with a specific website. Results provided strong support for the model and yield important theoretical and practical implications.
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Brown, S.A. and Venkatesh, V. “Model of Adoption of Technology in Households: A Baseline Model Test and Extension Incorporating Household Life Cycle,” MIS Quarterly (29:3), 2005, 399-426.
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Individual adoption of technology has been studied extensively in the workplace. Far less attention has been paid to adoption of technology in the household. In this paper, we performed the first quantitative test of the recently developed model of adoption of technology in the household (MATH). Further, we proposed and tested a theoretical extension of MATH by arguing that key demographic characteristics that vary across different life cycle stages would play moderating roles. Survey responses were collected from 746 U.S. households that had not yet adopted a PC. The results showed that the integrated model, including MATH constructs and life cycle characteristics, explained 74 percent of the variance in intention to adopt a PC for home use, a significant increase over baseline MATH that explained 50 percent of the variance. Finally, we compared the importance of various factors across household life cycle stages and gained a more refined understanding of the moderating role of household life cycle stage.
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Morris, M.G., Venkatesh, V., and Ackerman, P.L. “Gender and Age Differences in Employee Decisions About New Technology: An Extension to the Theory of Planned Behavior,” IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management (52:1), 2005, 69-84.
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This research extends the theory of planned behavior by incorporating gender and age as moderators of user perceptions and individual adoption and sustained use of technology in the workplace. Individual reactions and technology use behavior were studied over a six-month period among 342 workers being introduced to a new software technology application. While previous studies in the literature have reported gender or age differences separately, the pattern of results from the study reported here indicated that gender effects in individual adoption and use of technology differed based on age. Specifically, gender differences in technology perceptions became more pronounced among older workers, but a unisex pattern of results emerged among younger workers. The theory and empirical results are also discussed in relation to the widely employed technology acceptance model. The results from this study suggest that old stereotypes that portray “technology” as a male-oriented domain may be disappearing; particularly among younger workers. In light of these findings, theoretical implications for researchers and practical suggestions for managers are discussed.
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Venkatesh, V., Morris, M.G., Sykes, T.A., and Ackerman, P.L. “Individual Reactions to New Technologies in the Workplace: The Role of Gender as a Psychological Construct,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology (34:3), 2004, 445-467.
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Recent research investigating gender differences has demonstrated that women and men make technology adoption decisions very differently. Specifically, using the theory of planned behavior, it has been shown that women make “balanced” decisions in that they are influenced by attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control; in contrast, men are influenced only by attitude. That research treated gender as a biological, dichotomous construct that is typical of much research in this area. This paper extends the line of inquiry by treating gender as a psychological construct by employing Bem’s Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). Individual reactions to the new technology and technology usage behavior were studied over a twelve-month period among 552 employees being introduced to a new computer-based system in the workplace. When considering gender as a psychological construct, important distinctions were revealed. Specifically, masculine sex-type individuals exhibited the same pattern as men in the previous research; feminine sex-typed individuals were different from women in that, they were influenced only by subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. The “balanced” decision-making process was observed only in the case of individuals categorized as androgynous. The high percentage of women who tested to be androgynous explains the divergence in results from the previous work, and provides evidence of changing sex roles for women in today’s organizations and society.
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Davis, F.D. and Venkatesh, V. “Toward Preprototype User Acceptance Testing of New Information Systems: Implications for Software Project Management,” IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management (51:1), 2004, 31-46.
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Errors in requirements specifications have been identified as a major contributor to costly software project failures. It would be highly beneficial if information systems developers could verify requirements by predicting workplace acceptance of a new system based on user evaluations of its specifications measured during the earliest stages of the development project, ideally before building a working prototype. However, conventional wisdom among system developers asserts that prospective users must have direct hands-on experience with at least a working prototype of a new system before they can provide assessments that accurately reflect future usage behavior after workplace implementation. The present research demonstrates that this assumption is only partially true. Specifically, it is true that stable and predictive assessments of a system’s perceived ease of use should be based on direct behavioral experience using the system. However, stable and behaviorally predictive measures of perceived usefulness can be captured from target users who have received information about a system’s functionality, but have not had direct hands-on usage experience. This distinction is key because, compared to ease of use, usefulness is generally much more strongly linked to future usage intentions and behaviors in the workplace. Two longitudinal field experiments show that pre-prototype usefulness measures can closely approximate hands-on based usefulness measures, and are significantly predictive of usage intentions and behavior up to six months after workplace implementation. The present findings open the door toward research on how user acceptance testing may be done much earlier in the system development process than has traditionally been the case. Such pre-prototype user acceptance tests have greater informational value than their post-prototype counterparts because they are captured when only a relatively small proportion of project costs have been incurred and there is greater flexibility to modify a new system’s design attributes. Implications are discussed for future research to confirm the robustness of the present findings and to better understand the practical potential and limitations of pre-prototype user acceptance testing.
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Venkatesh, V., Ramesh, V., and Massey, A. “Understanding Usability in Mobile Commerce,” Communications of the ACM (46:12), 2003, 53-56.
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This article discusses various issues related to the significance of usability and the user interface in mobile commerce (m-commerce). The article makes specific reference to a study conducted in this regard. The user interface represents an environment wherein online users conduct communication, information search, and transactions. It is highlighted that satisfying the sensory and functional needs of users via interfaces is a vital prerequisite for the success of electronic commerce and m-commerce sites. It is stated that as m-commerce includes a set of applications and services people can access from their Web-enabled mobile devices, an in-depth understanding of important aspects of usability is required in this regard.
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Venkatesh, V., Morris, M.G., Davis, G.B, and Davis, F.D. “User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a Unified View,” MIS Quarterly (27:3), 2003, 425-478. [2nd most cited of all papers ever published in MIS Quarterly]
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Information technology (IT) acceptance research has yielded many competing models, each with different sets of acceptance determinants. In this paper, we (1) review user acceptance literature and discuss eight prominent models, (2) empirically compare the eight models and their extensions, (3) formulate a unified theory that integrates elements across the eight models, and (4) empirically validate the unified model. The eight models reviewed are the theory of reasoned action, the technology acceptance model, a motivational model, the theory of planned behavior, a model combining the technology acceptance model and the theory of planned behavior, a model of PC utilization, innovation diffusion theory, and social cognitive theory. Using data from four organizations over a six-month period with three points of measurement, the eight models explained between 17 percent and 53 percent of the variance in user intentions to use information technology. Next, a unified theory, called the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), was formulated, with four core determinants of intention and usage, and up to four moderators of key relationships. UTAUT was then tested using the original data and found to outperform the eight individual models (69 percent adjusted R2). UTAUT was then confirmed with data from two new organizations with similar results (70 percent adjusted R2). UTAUT thus provides a useful tool for managers needing to assess the likelihood of success for new technology introductions and helps them understand the drivers of acceptance in order to proactively design interventions (including training, marketing, etc.) targeted at populations of users that may be less inclined to adopt and use new systems. The paper also makes several recommendations for future research including developing a deeper understanding of the dynamic influences studied here, refining measurement of the core constructs used in UTAUT, and understanding the organizational outcomes associated with new technology use.
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Brown, S.A. and Venkatesh, V. “Bringing Non-Adopters Along: The Challenge Facing the PC Industry,” Communications of the ACM (46:3), 2003, 76-80.
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Venkatesh, V. and Johnson, P. “Telecommuting Technology Implementations: A Within- and Between-Subjects Longitudinal Field Study,” Personnel Psychology (55:3), 2002, 661-687. [Nominated for the William A. Owens Scholarly Achievement Award for the best publication in a refereed article in the field of industrial and organizational psychology]
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This research examines the impact of technology design on the acceptance and long-term use of telecommuting systems. Specifically, we compare employee acceptance and sustained use of a traditional system designed based on the common “desktop metaphor,” with a virtual-reality system designed to enhance social richness and telepresence. This 1-year study incorporated a within- and between-subjects examination of 527 employees across 3 locations of a large organization. Results showed much higher telecommuter acceptance and use of the virtual-reality system. Strong support emerged for the hypotheses that higher social richness and higher telepresence leads to higher telecommuter motivation and higher sustained use of the system.
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Speier, C. and Venkatesh, V. “The Hidden Minefields in the Adoption of Sales Force Automation Technologies,” Journal of Marketing (66:3), 2002, 98-111.
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Sales force automation technologies are increasingly used to support customer relationship management strategies; however, commentary in the practitioner press suggests high failure rates. The authors use identity theory as a lens to better understand salesperson perceptions associated with technology rejection. They collected survey data from 454 salespeople across two firms that had implemented sales force automation tools. The results indicate that immediately after training, salespeople had positive perceptions of the technology. However, six months after implementation, the technology had been widely rejected, and salesperson absenteeism and voluntary turnover had significantly increased. There were also significant decreases in perceptions of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, person—organization fit, and person—job fit across both firms. Finally, salespeople with stronger professional commitment indicated more negative job-related perceptions as experience with the technology increased.
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Agarwal, R. and Venkatesh, V. “Assessing a Firm’s Web Presence: A Heuristic Evaluation Procedure for the Measurement of Usability,” Information Systems Research (13:2), 2002, 168-186.
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Web site usability is a critical metric for assessing the quality of a firm’s Web presence. A measure of usability must not only provide a global rating for a specific Web site, ideally it should also illuminate specific strengths and weaknesses associated with site design. In this paper, we describe a heuristic evaluation procedure for examining the usability of Web sites. The procedure utilizes a comprehensive set of usability guidelines developed by Microsoft. We present the categories and subcategories comprising these guidelines, and discuss the development of an instrument that operationalizes the measurement of usability. The proposed instrument was tested in a heuristic evaluation study where 1,475 users rated multiple Web sites from four different industry sectors: airlines, online bookstores, automobile manufacturers, and car rental agencies. To enhance the external validity of the study, users were asked to assume the role of a consumer or an investor when assessing usability. Empirical results suggest that the evaluation procedure, the instrument, as well as the usability metric exhibit useful properties. Implications of the .ndings for researchers, for Web site designers, and for heuristic evaluation methods in usability testing are offered.
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Venkatesh, V., Speier, C., and Morris, M.G. “User Acceptance Enablers in Individual Decision-Making about Technology: Toward an Integrated Model,” Decision Sciences (33:2), 2002, 297-316.
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Building on recent unique, yet potentially complementary, approaches to understanding the formation of user perceptions about technology (Venkatesh, 1999; Venkatesh & Speier, 1999), the present work reanalyzes the data from both studies to develop an integrated model of technology acceptance. The integrated model specifically examines the influence of pre-training and training environment interventions (termed user acceptance enablers) to understand how user perceptions are formed prior to system implementation. The model is then further extended and tested using longitudinal data in a field setting. The results indicate that the integrated model emerged as a better predictor of user behavior when compared to the existing models.
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Carswell, A.D. and Venkatesh, V. “Learner Outcomes in an Asynchronous Distance Education Environment,” International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (56:5), 2002, 475-494.
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This research investigated student outcomes in a web-based distance learning environment characterized by asynchronous electronic communications between student and teacher. We employed two dominant theories–the theory of planned behavior and innovation diffusion theory–to study student reactions to web-based distance education. We hypothesized that student perceptions of the technology are positively related to learning outcomes and intentions to further use the technology, and are negatively related to using alternative, synchronous media in the learning experience. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from 540 students via a web-based survey. Partial support was found for the hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications for human–computer interaction, distance education and user acceptance are discussed.
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Venkatesh, V. and Brown, S.A. “A Longitudinal Investigation of Personal Computers in Homes: Adoption Determinants and Emerging Challenges,” MIS Quarterly (25:1), 2001, 71-102.
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While technology adoption in the workplace has been studied extensively, drivers of adoption in homes have been largely overlooked. This paper presents the results of a nation-wide, two-wave, longitudinal investigation of the factors driving personal computer (PC) adoption in American homes. The findings revealed that the decisions driving adoption and non-adoption were significantly different. Adopters were driven by utilitarian outcomes, hedonic outcomes (i.e., fun), and social outcomes (i.e., status) from adoption. Non-adopters, on the other hand, were influenced primarily by rapid changes in technology and the consequent fear of obsolescence. A second wave of data collection conducted six months after the initial survey indicated an asymmetrical relationship between intent and behavior, with those who did not intent to adopt a PC following more closely with their intent than those who intended to adopt one. We present important implications for research on adoption of technologies in homes and the workplace, and also discuss challenges facing the PC industry.
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Venkatesh, V. and Davis, F.D. “A Theoretical Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model: Four Longitudinal Field Studies,” Management Science (46:2), 2000, 186-204. [2nd most cited of all papers ever published in Management Science]
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The present research develops and tests a theoretical extension of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) that explains perceived usefulness and usage intentions in terms of social influence and cognitive instrumental processes. The extended model, referred to as TAM2, was tested using longitudinal data collected regarding four different systems at four organizations (N = 156), two involving voluntary usage and two involving mandatory usage. Model constructs were measured at three points in time at each organization: preimplementation, one month postimplementation, and three months postimplementation. The extended model was strongly supported for all four organizations at all three points of measurement, accounting for 40%-60% of the variance in usefulness perceptions and 34%-52% of the variance in usage intentions. Both social influence processes (subjective norm, voluntariness, and image) and cognitive instrumental processes (job relevance, output quality, result demonstrability, and perceived ease of use) significantly influenced user acceptance. These findings advance theory and contribute to the foundation for future research aimed at improving our understanding of user adoption behavior.
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Venkatesh, V. “Determinants of Perceived Ease of Use: Integrating Control, Intrinsic Motivation, and Emotion into the Technology Acceptance Model,” Information Systems Research (11:4), 2000, 342-365. [2nd most cited of all papers ever published in Information Systems Research]
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Much previous research has been established that perceived ease or 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 the 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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Venkatesh, V. and Morris, M.G. “Why Don’t Men Ever Stop to Ask For Directions? Gender, Social Influence, and Their Role in Technology Acceptance and Usage Behavior,” MIS Quarterly (24:1), 2000, 115-139.
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Using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this research investigated gender differences in the overlooked context of individual adoption and sustained usage of technology in the workplace. User reactions and technology usage behavior were studied over a five-month period among 342 workers being introduced to a new software system. At all three points of measurement, compared to women, men’s technology usage decisions were more strongly influenced by their perceptions of usefulness. In contrast, women were more strongly influenced by perceptions of ease of use and subjective norm, although the effect of subjective norm diminished over time. These findings were robust even after statistically controlling for key confounding variables identified in prior organizational behavior research (i.e., income, occupation, and education levels), and another possible confound from technology research, prior experience with computers in general. Thus, in addition to identifying key boundary conditions in the role of the original TAM constructs (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use), this research provides the basis for the integration of subjective norm into the model. In light of these findings, implications for theory and practice are discussed.
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Venkatesh, V., Morris, M.G., and Ackerman, P.L. “A Longitudinal Field Investigation of Gender Differences in Individual Technology Adoption Decision-Making Processes,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (83:1), 2000, 33-60.
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This research investigated gender differences in the overlooked context of individual adoption and sustained usage of technology in the workplace using the theory of planned behavior (TPB). User reactions and technology usage behavior were studied over a 5-month period among 355 workers being introduced to a new software technology application. When compared to women’s decisions, the decisions of men were more strongly influenced by their attitude toward using the new technology. In contrast, women were more strongly influenced by subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. Sustained technology usage behavior was driven by early usage behavior, thus fortifying the lasting influence of gender-based early evaluations of the new technology. These findings were robust across income, organization position, and computer self-efficacy levels.
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Venkatesh, V. and Speier, C. “Creating an Effective Training Environment for Enhancing Telework,” International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (52:6), 2000, 991-1005.
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There is a growing need for research examining the effective implementation and management of teleworking as it is increasingly being used as an organizational work structure. The enhanced functionality of many information technologies facilitates the completion of work across geographically dispersed teleworkers while simultaneously providing a vehicle to overcome social isolation that has been viewed as an inhibitor of teleworker effectiveness. This research assesses two training methods that can be used to help teleworkers develop skill sets for using these technologies. The results suggest that using a game-based training method facilitates the training process by increasing users’ intrinsic motivation resulting in increased intention to use the technology. This can be particularly important in enhancing the effective completion of team and individual telework while at the same time providing a mechanism to minimize teleworkers social isolation.
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Morris, M.G. and Venkatesh, V. “Age Differences in Technology Adoption Decisions: Implications for a Changing Work Force,” Personnel Psychology (53:2), 2000, 375-403.
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This research investigated age difference in individual adoption and sustained usage of technology in the workplace using the theory of planned behavior. User reactions and technology usage behavior were studied over a 5-month period among 118 workers being introduced to a new software system. At 2 points of measurement, compared to older workers, younger workers’ technology usage decisions were more strongly influenced by attitude toward using the technology. In contrast, older workers were more strongly influenced by subjective norm and perceived behavioral control, although the effect of subjective norm diminished over time. These findings were robust, even after controlling for key confounding variables identified in prior organizational behavior research (i.e., income, occupation, and education levels). Theoretical and practical implications for understanding the effects of aging on technology adoption and usage in the workplace are discussed.
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Venkatesh, V. “Creation of Favorable User Perceptions: Exploring the Role of Intrinsic Motivation,” MIS Quarterly (23:2), 1999, 239-260.
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A key issue facing information systems researchers and practitioners has been the difficulty in creating favorable user reactions to new technologies. Insufficient or ineffective training has been identified as one of the key factors underlying this disappointing reality. Among the various enhancements to training being examined in research, the role of intrinsic motivation as a lever to create favorable user perceptions has not been sufficiently exploited. In this research, two studies were conducted to compare a traditional training method with a training method that included a component aimed at enhancing intrinsic motivation. The results strongly favored the use of an intrinsic motivator during training. Key implications for theory and practice are discussed.
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Venkatesh, V. and Speier, C. “Computer Technology Training in the Workplace: A Longitudinal Investigation of the Effect of Mood,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (79:1), 1999, 1-28.
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How does a person’s mood during technology training influence motivation, intentions, and, ultimately, usage of the new technology? Do these mood effects dissipate or are they sustainable over time? A repeated-measures field study (n = 316) investigated the effect of mood on employee motivation and intentions toward using a specific computer technology at two points in time: immediately after training and 6 weeks after training. Actual usage behavior was assessed for 12 weeks after training. Each individual was assigned to one of three mood treatments: positive, negative, or control. Results indicated that there were only short-term boosts in intrinsic motivation and intention to use the technology among individuals in the positive mood intervention. However, a long-term lowering of intrinsic motivation and intention was observed among those in the negative mood condition.
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Venkatesh, V. and Davis, F.D. “A Model of the Antecedents of Perceived Ease of Use: Development and Test,” Decision Sciences (27:3), 1996, 451-481. [in 2020, this paper was recognized as the 2nd most cited paper ever published in Decision Sciences’ 50-year history]
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The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been widely used to predict user acceptance and use based on perceived ease of use and usefulness. However, in order to design effective training interventions to improve user acceptance constructs. In this research, we focus on understanding the determinants of perceived ease of use. Data from three experiments spanning 108 subjects and six different systems supported our hypothesis that an individual’s perception of a particular system’s ease of use is anchored to her or his general computer self-efficacy at all times, and objective usability has an impact on ease of use perceptions about a specific system only after direct experience with the system. In addition to being an important research issue in user acceptance research, understanding antecedents of perceived ease of use is also important from a practical standpoint since several systems in which millions of dollars are invested are rejected because of poor user interfaces. Moreover, the actual underlying problem might be low computer self-efficacy of the target user group. In such cases, training interventions aimed at improving computer self-efficacy of users may be more effective than improved interface design for increasing user acceptance.
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Davis, F.D. and Venkatesh, V. “A Critical Assessment of Potential Measurement Biases in the Technology Acceptance Model: Three Experiments,” International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (45:1), 1996, 19-45.
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The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is widely used by researchers and practitioners to predict and explain user acceptance of information technologies. TAM models system usage intentions and behavior as a function of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The original scales for measuring the TAM constructs have been confirmed to be reliable and valid in several replications and applications spanning a range of technologies and user populations. However, a measurement bias may be present because the TAM instrument physically groups together the multiple items measuring each individual construct. Many scholars of instrument design would object to such item grouping, instead advocating that items from different constructs be intermixed in order to reduce “carryover” effects among the responses to multiple items targeting a specific construct, which might artificially inflate the observed reliability and validity. Three experiments involving two systems and a total of 708 subjects are reported which address whether such carryover biases are present in the TAM measures. All three studies found that item grouping vs. item intermixing had no significant effect (positive or negative) either on the high levels of reliability and validity of the TAM scales, or on the path coefficients linking them together. Ironically, open-ended verbal evaluations indicated that subjects were more confused and annoyed when items were intermixed, suggesting a tendency toward “output interference” effects, which themselves could have a biasing effect. Our findings suggest that those who employ the TAM measures should continue using the original (grouped) format in order to best predict and explain user acceptance of information technology.
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