Research On Users’ Information System Usage Behavior Based On Dual-Factor Perspective

With the rapid development and increasingly wider applications of information technology, whether users can use information technology efficiently determines the potentials that the information technology can fulfill in companies. That is to say, the condition of users’information technology usage is the key factor in determining companies’investment performance of the information technology. The driving force of information technology on organizational influence comes from the actual usage instead of the investment of information technology. Therefore, users’effective usage of information technology determines wether companies can gain profit from investment.In the research field of MIS, the most important research topic is the users’ behavior. The management information system will bring no benefits to the enterprises without the positive adoption and continuous usage by the users. How to manage the users’resistance effectively and encourage users to use the information system has been a long-term concern by the business managers and the scholars. At present, the relatively mature theoretical research achievements on "users’IS usage behavior" are: users’acceptance, user’s continuous usage and users’resistance. Moreover, some representative and classical theories have been arisen such as Technology Acceptance Model, Expectation-Confirmation Model and Three Factors of Resistance Theory. However, among the researches of users’behavior, users’positive usage (e.g acceptance and continuous usage) and users’negative resistance have been both regarded as independent research topics with seldom researches pay attention to the integration between them. In this research, according to the dual factor perspective of IS usage, both positive and negative factors should be considered within the research of the factors of users’usage behavior. Then, the influential mechanism of these two factors to users’usage behavior will be explored.This research integrates the users’ acceptance theory, users’continuous usage theory and users’resistance theory among the research of IS users’behavior from a dual-factor perspective. This research also takes advantage of other theories such as the Perceived Risk Theory of Consumer Behavior, the Innovative Resistance Theory, the Self-perception Theory and the Cognitive Dissonance Theory of Social Psychology and put forward that the perceived risks is the factor leading to resistance to change in pre-usage stage and the perceived threats is the factor leading to resistance in the post-usage stage. This research divides the perceived risks into four dimensions: perceived time risk, perceived technology risk, perceived social psychology risk and perceived credit risk., and divides the perceived threat into three dimensions:perceived power change, perceived cost-benefit change and perceived organizational culture change. It explores the influencing factors and evolution mechanism of users’usage behavior and establish the users’IS behavior model based on a dual factor perspective.This research discusses the following three research questions in depth:(1) Mature research conclusions concerning the factors that lead to the users’acceptance and continuous usage in different IS usage stage have been achieved. However, none systematic research conclusions have been made on the reasons of users’resistance in different stages. This research attempts to make a tentative study on this point.(2)How do the two factors influence the users’IS usage behavior?(3) Is there any connection between users’ initial usage and continuous usage after the acceptance of system? Is there any staged evolution mechanism of users’IS usage behavior?This research has analyzed the above questions through empirical research on187users that take advantage of MIS in a trust company. The following main conclusions have been achieved:(1) Perceived risks and perceived threats are the two key factors that lead to resistance in the pre-usage stage and post-usage stage respectively.(2) In the above two stages, the two factors (inhibitors and enablers) have impacts on users’IT usage behavior simultaneously. The resistant factor, that is,"resistance to change" factor has a negative influence on users’IS usage behavior; while the positive factor, that is, the "perceived usefulness" has a positive influence. Moreover, the negative factor has an out-of-line influence on the positive factor, that is, the "resistance to change" has a negative influence on the "perceived usefulness".(3) The confirmation of perceived threats has a direct impact. A higher degree of confirmation reduces users’ perception of threats from the new system usage.(4) The usage behaviors in usage stage have positive impacts on the confirmation in post-usage stage. Therefore, different stages of users’IS usage behavior can be connected. Behavior of users’IS usage can be studied from a sustained perspective.There are three innovative points of this research: First, it studies the behavior of IS usage from a dual factor perspective which builds a bridge between the researches of IS users’positive behavior (acceptance behavior, continuous usage behavior) and the researches of IS users’negative behavior (resistance behavior). It’s an integrated research on the two seemingly conflict questions in the study of users’behavior. This research makes a positive attempt on expanding the research perspectives and have a more actual research on users’complex psychology.Second, this research integrates different stages of IS usage behavior based on the Self-perception Theory and the Perception Disorder Theory of Social Psychology. It studies the changes and developments of users’IS usage behavior from a continuous perspective. It forms a model of behavior evolutions and provides a complement of the theories of IS usage behavior.Third, this research proposes that the perceptive risks and perceptive threats are the subjective perceptions that lead to "resistance to change" in the pre-usage stage and post-usage stage separately based on the research findings of Consumer Behavior and IS resistance theory. This research provides a valuable reference for a more-refined and staged study of the resistance causes of IS resistance behavior.In the last part of this research, limitations and gaps are analyzed and expectations are also put forward. The moderating functions of moderating variables such as "users’ own factor","organizational constraints" on the relationship between subjective perception and intentions are expected to be discussed deeply in further studies. The correlation of subjective perceptions of different stages is also expected in further studies. The research field can be broadened.