Looking Beyond Adoption to Understanding the User-IT Artifact Relationship

Recent papers have debated whether there are any additional insights still to be gained from traditional information systems (IS) adoption models. Independently, recent research has paid attention to the “usage” construct and offered taxonomies of IS use. In this paper, we offer an overview of a theoretical model that offers researchers the ability to study individual users’ interaction with information technology (IT) artifacts, as well repeated interactions overtime. The proposed interaction-centric model highlights how the characteristics of an IT artifact, together with the user’s internal system and other structuring factors, affect users’ choices in terms of how to utilize the artifact. This subsequently, affects the types of beliefs users form about the artifact as well as their evaluations of it. Furthermore, we introduce a new set of constructs that capture users’ overall perceptions of the artifact and the relationship with it. To facilitate the study of this dynamic relationship that develops between the user and the artifact, we further explicate the effects of evaluations of the artifact from past interaction, and evaluations of the relationship with it, on how users choose to utilize the artifact in future interactions