Alternative takes on information systems post-adoption behaviors : the deliberative, the ecological, and the emotional

Abstract

This thesis concerns individuals’ behaviors with Information Systems (IS) once an application has been applied by users in accomplishing their work activity. Despite research on IS acceptance and continuance, little is known about individuals’ cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes and their associated outcomes after the initial adoption of a system. My research aims to address this shortcoming. In doing so, this dissertation combines novel theories – the ecological perspective based on ecological psychology and the emotional perspective based on neuroscience, physiological, and psychological research – with the current IS post-adoption literature – the deliberative perspective – to the study of IS use as an ongoing behavioral process that unfolds over time.

Two studies were conducted to investigate these processes and outcomes. The first study used an experience sampling method. Employees of different organizations who used IS for their work were asked to carry a booklet and a pager for two weeks. Every time they were paged, they were asked to fill out both open-ended and close-ended questions about their feelings, thoughts and performance at the moment in the booklet. The second study followed an experimental design in order to investigate the phenomena of interest in a more controlled environment. The experiment combined multiple sources of data: such as protocol analysis, heart rate data, and analysis of behaviors through video coding. The overall results from both studies suggest that users do not think about the IS nor experience feelings related to the IS unless they are facing a difficulty with it (e.g., an error). Furthermore, the results indicate affective and physiological changes following difficulties with an IS as well as changes in cognitive and behavioral processes. Finally, the results show a relation between these affective processes and self-reported performance, and a relation between some of the cognitive and behavioral processes and both objective and self-reported performance.

Overall, this thesis provides a refreshing theoretical and empirical examination of the various events, processes and associated outcomes involved during actual IS use. The two empirical studies provide support for the theory of post-adoption IS use developed in this thesis. Finally, this thesis suggests exciting opportunities for future research.