Ph.D. candidate in Information Systems, UniversitŽ Paris-Dauphine, Research Center in Management and Organization (DRM/CREPA); Georgia State University, J. Mack Robinson College of Business, CIS Department
Organizations are increasingly concerned about ensuring that workers have sufficient sense of control over the information technology (IT) that they use. However, we know little about the antecedents of the end user's perceived behavioral control (PBC) with respect to IT. Drawing on Kurt Lewin's field theory, the present study responds to this concern by formulating and testing a model whereby individual, contextual, and social forces influence PBC directly and indirectly via computer anxiety. In order to test the model, a survey was conducted in France with IT end users enrolled in professional training programs. The results show that increasing autonomy, offering appropriate managerial support, reducing work overload, and perceived innovativeness with IT can together reduce computer anxiety and increase PBC. These findings emphasize the forces that managers can manipulate in order to foster users' feelings of control with respect to IT in the workplace. Following this, the paper makes three main contributions to research. First, it increases our knowledge of the nomological net surrounding PBC by shedding light on the joint influences of internal, external, and social forces on this variable. Second, it reveals the role of computer anxiety, emphasizing that it is an important conduit through which these forces influence workers' PBC. Third, the paper shows how Lewin's field theory can help to create richer and less fragmented models in order to capture more fully the determinants of IT adoption and adaptation. The practical implications regarding the actions that managers can take in order to increase workers' PBC are discussed.
The topic of trust in information technology (IT) artifacts has piqued interest among researchers, but studies of this form of trust are not definitive regarding which factors contribute to it the most. Our study empirically tests a model of trust in IT artifacts that increases our understanding in two ways. First, it sets forth two previously unexamined system quality constructs--navigational structure and visual appeal. We found that both of these system quality constructs significantly predict the extent to which users place trust in mobile commerce technologies. Second, our study considers the effect of culture by comparing the trust of French and American potential users in m-commerce technologies. We found that not only does culture directly affect user trust in IT artifacts but it also moderates the extent to which navigational structure affects this form of trust. These findings show that system quality and culture significantly affect trust in the IT artifact and point to rich possibilities for future research in these areas.