| Although electronic-commerce (e-commerce) has grown rapidly over the last decade, it still represents only a very small share of total retail sales. One major reason for this low share is the immense product choices offered by digital marketplaces result in excessive information processing demands on consumers, making it difficult them to identify products that meet their needs. To address this challenge, e-commerce websites increasingly offer personalized advice giving technologies, such as recommendation agents (RAs). RAs are software tools that attempt to understand individual users' preference function implicitly or explicitly and make recommendations accordingly. As there is an enormous potential for e-commerce yet to be exploited, there is a need for researchers as well as practitioners to examine how RAs can alleviate challenges faced by consumers and enhance their decision making while conducting online purchases.;There has been a vast body of research studying RA use and outcomes, such as decision quality and trust. While rich insights have emerged from this stream of research, the impact of psychological obligations that users perceive RAs have towards them has been relatively under-researched. This dissertation, organized into three essays, investigates how do unfulfilled obligations by an RA affect user perceptions and behavior. Essay 1 integrates the rich psychological contract literature with theories of social response to technology, trust in technology, and technology adoption to understand the role of unmet obligations in RA-user relationship. This essay contends that a psychological contract breach causes a negative emotional reaction, called a psychological contract violation, which, via trust and usefulness perceptions, influences users' intentions to follow an RA's recommendation. Essay 2 focuses on the role of design features in reducing the likelihood of a psychological contract breach in a user-RA relationship. This essay proposes that design features, such as the preference elicitation interface and explanation facilities, play a critical role in influencing user perceptions of a psychological contract breach. Finally, essay 3 examines the role of personality to explain individual differences in the RA-user relationship. Recent developments in the Information Systems literature have highlighted the role of dispositional factors in explaining individual differences in the technology acceptance and use. However, the influence of personality on consumer attitudes, cognitions, and behaviors has received very little attention. Essay 3 addresses this gap by arguing that consumers with different personality traits react differently when RAs do not deliver what they promise. |
