Trust in technology is an emerging research domain that examines trust in the technology artifact instead of trust in people. Although previous research finds that trust in technology can predict important outcomes, little research has examined the effect of unmet trust in technology expectations on trusting intentions. Furthermore, both trust and expectation disconfirmation theories suggest that trust disconfirmation effects may be more complex than the linear expectation disconfirmation model depicts. However, this complexity may only exist under certain contextual conditions. The current study contributes to this literature by introducing a nonlinear expectation disconfirmation theory model that extends understanding of trust-in-technology expectations and disconfirmation. Not only does the model include both technology trust expectations and technology trusting intention, it also introduces the concept of expectation maturity as a contextual factor. We collected data from three technology usage contexts that differ in expectation maturity, which we operationalize as length of the introductory period. We find that the situation, in terms of expectation maturity, consistently matters. Using polynomial regression and response surface analyses, we find that in contexts with a longer introductory period (i.e., higher expectation maturity), disconfirmation has a nonlinear relationship with trusting intention. When the introductory period is shorter (i.e., expectation maturity is lower), disconfirmation has a linear relationship with trusting intention. This unique set of empirical findings shows when it is valuable to use nonlinear modeling for understanding technology trust disconfirmation. We conclude with implications for future research.
Oftentimes researchers may not only generalize across a population, but may also extrapolate research findings across time. While either assumption can introduce difficulties, generalizing results in one time frame to another time frame may be especially perilous. We study a data exchange, and find that interventions designed to improve exchange features at two points in time have markedly varying effects, from an initial transaction use (time one) to a second transaction occurring two weeks later (time two). Our research objective is to test whether two system design features have the same effects on the intent to continue using an exchange in time two as they had in time one. The two features are control transparency (the availability of information cues) and interim shipping outcome feedback. These effects are mediated, in varying degrees, by perceived information quality. We use social exchange theory and social cognition theory to develop hypotheses regarding changes between time one (the first user transaction) and time two (the second transaction). These are tested using a combined experiment and survey. Supporting the theory, outcome feedback matters at time two even though it did not matter at time one. While control transparency has direct effects on a user's intent to continue use of the exchange in time one, its effects are reduced in time two if negative outcome feedback is communicated to the user. Outcome feedback's effects grow stronger from time one to time two vis-à-vis control transparency's effects. This underscores how critical it is to examine such phenomena at more than one period of time. The study also suggests different strategies for managing data exchanges based on the time frame of use. At the initial transaction use, the exchange should make transparent high-quality information cues to its user. At the next transaction, it should provide feedback showing properly fulfilled orders. These findings have implications for both future research examining effective data exchange design and for professionals who wish to enrich electronic data exchange interactions.
The information technology professional is regularly expected to work with colleagues in both IT and other areas of the organization. During these interactions, the IT employee is expected to conform to occupational or organizational norms regarding the display of emotion. How do these display norms affect the IT professional? This study examines an IT professional's emotional dissonance, the conflict between norms of emotional display and an employee's felt emotion. Emotional dissonance is studied as a factor of IT professionals' work exhaustion, job satisfaction, and turnover intention, modeled as an extension to the work of Moore (2000a). The results indicate emotional dissonance predicts work exhaustion better than do perceived workload, role conflict, or role ambiguity, constructs which have long been associated with work exhaustion. Job satisfaction is influenced directly by role ambiguity and work exhaustion. In turn, job satisfaction influences employee turnover intention. We discuss implications of these findings for both IT management and future research.
This study examines the antecedents of turnover intention among information technology road warriors. Road warriors are IT professionals who spend most of their workweek away from home at a client site. Building on Moore's (2000) work on turnover intention, this article develops and tests a model that is context-specific to the road warrior situation. The model highlights the effects of work--family conflict and job autonomy, factors especially applicable to the road warrior's circumstances. Data were gathered from a company in the computer and software services industry. This study provides empirical evidence for the effects of work--family conflict, perceived work overload, fairness of rewards, and job autonomy on organizational commitment and work exhaustion for road warriors. The results suggest that work--family conflict is a key source of stress among IT road warriors because they have to juggle family and job duties as they work at distant client sites during the week. These findings suggest that the context of the IT worker matters to turnover intention, and that models that are adaptive to the work context will more effectively predict and explain turnover intention.
This study examines the role of information quality in the success of initial phase interorganizational (I-O) data exchanges. We propose perceived information quality (PIQ) as a factor of perceived risk and trusting beliefs, which will directly affect intention to use the exchange. The study also proposes that two important system design factors--control transparency and outcome feedback--will incrementally influence PIQ. An empirical test of the model demonstrated that PIQ predicts trusting beliefs and perceived risk, which mediate the effects of PIQ on intention to use the exchange. Thus, PIQ constitutes an important indirect factor influencing exchange adoption. Furthermore, control transparency had a significant influence on PIQ, while outcome feedback had no significant incremental effect over that of control transparency. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating the important role of PIQ in I-O systems adoption and by showing that information cues available to a user during an initial exchange session can help build trusting beliefs and mitigate perceived exchange risk. For managers of I-O exchanges, the study implies that building into the system appropriate control transparency mechanisms can increase the likelihood of exchange success.
Evidence suggests that consumers often hesitate to transact with Web-based vendors because of uncertainty about vendor behavior or the perceived risk of having personal information stolen by hackers. Trust plays a central role in helping consumers overcome perceptions of risk and insecurity. Trust makes consumers comfortable sharing personal information, making purchases, and acting on Web vendor advice--behaviors essential to wide-spread adoption of e-commerce. Therefore, trust is critical to both researchers and practitioners. Prior research on e-commerce trust has used diverse, incomplete, and inconsistent definitions of trust, making it difficult to compare results across studies. This paper contributes by proposing and validating measures for a multidisciplinary, multidimensional model of trust in e-commerce. The model includes four high-level constructs--disposition to trust, institution-based trust, trusting beliefs, and trusting intentions--which are further delineated into 16 measurable, literature-grounded subconstructs. The psychometric properties of the measures are demonstrated through use of a hypothetical, legal advice Web site. The results show that trust is indeed a multidimensional concept. Proposed relationships among the trust constructs are tested (for internal nomological validity), as are relationships between the trust constructs and three other e-commerce constructs (for external nomological validity)--Web experience, personal innovativeness, and Web site quality. Suggestions for future research as well as implications for practice are discussed.