Information Systems Appraisal and Coping: The Role of User Perceptions

Organizations increasingly rely on complex information systems (IS) to preserve and enhance competitive advantage. Prior work has shown that these IS are often underutilized, prompting researchers and practitioners to seek out better explanations to account for IS use behaviors. Coping theory has recently emerged as a promising foundation for understanding users’ post-adoptive reactions to IS. This paper takes a first step toward integrating theories of IS adoption and use with coping theory by examining how adoption-related IS perceptions influence individual-level post-adoptive IS appraisal. Survey data collected from IS users at a university health center indicate that performance and effort expectancies surrounding use of the IS strongly influence primary IS appraisal (judgments of what is at stake as a result of the IS), while the presence of facilitating conditions relates to secondary IS appraisal (judgments of what can be done in response to the IS)