An Empirical Study of the Inhibitors of Technology Usage

Information systems research has focused extensively on the factors that foster adoption and usage. This research has focused on overall beliefs about system usage, antecedents of system satisfaction, and other factors that facilitate system success, create positive attitudes, and encourage usage. However, little attention has been given to what inhibits usage. The inhibitors of usage are implicitly assumed to be the opposite of the facilitators. The position taken in this paper is that usage inhibitors deserve their own independent investigation and are proposed to exist and act uniquely apart from the extensive set of positively oriented beliefs well established in the information systems literature. A theory that proposes inhibitors as beliefs about an information system that uniquely discourage technology use both directly as well as by negatively influencing other beliefs about the system is developed and tested. To test the theory, an empirical field study involving 387 participants in a scenario-based exercise involving a variety of actual e-Business Websites was conducted. The results support that usage inhibitors are qualitatively different from established system attributes and that they act uniquely to negatively bias these beliefs. The theory and results add to our understanding of IS design and functionality and why users may choose not to use a system.