The Different Mechanisms of Habit and Past Behavior on Evaluations and IS Continuance Intention: An Empirical Investigation

Although much research has examined conscious use, which involves deliberate evaluation and decision making, we know less about automatic use, which occurs spontaneously with little conscious effort. The purpose of this study is to investigate the different underlying mechanisms of habitual usage and past usage in IS context. We tested the proposed hypotheses using 232 cross-sectional responses from actual users of Google search engine. Our results show that as individuals get into the habit of continuously using a system, the predictive power of evaluations on intention will be diluted. Consequently, the more usage is performed out of habit, the less cognitive planning is involved and the relationship between evaluations and intention weakens. In contrast, past behavior, though considered as an indicator or a proxy of habit, demonstrates a dissimilar mechanism from habit. We then discuss important findings that emerged from the study and suggest practical implications.