Quality of Usage as a Neglected Aspect of Information Technology Acceptance

The importance of user acceptance on the success of information technology (IT) implementations in organizations is widely acknowledged. Many contributions analyzed determinants of usage behavior and concluded in different behavioral models. However, most of these contributions conceptualized the quantity of usage like duration or frequency as the dependent variable. Beyond simple measures such as amount of use, the manner and form of usage should represent a new area for deeper understanding of technology usage. This paper aims to answer this call by recognizing "quality of usage" as a main aspect of IT usage behavior besides "quantity of usage". It is postulated that both measures have to be taken into account for explaining IT implementation success. Quality of usage seems to be of particular importance for explaining different outcomes of IT implementations when usage is compulsory in organizations. Hartwick and Barki (1994) stated that a mandatory nature of usage makes it meaningless as an indicator of system success, referring to quantity of usage. This paper postulates that in mandatory situations in organizations, where individuals can't determine their quantity of usage themselves, the consideration of usage quality offers an approach in order to understand different IT implementation outcomes. Based on former models of IT acceptance, a theoretical framework is build in order to explain (1) the determinants of quality of usage and (2) the impact of perceived usage compulsion on usage behavior. The research on this topic is in progress, no empirical validation of this framework has been done so far