Social Cognitive Effects on Information and Technology Use

Abstract

Researchers in the past decade have been actively investigating
technology use and disuse among conventional and communications
technologies, but have largely ignored information use. Passive technologies
merely gather information to inform a human decision maker, which makes it
difficult to determine if the technology user makes use of the information.
However, recent advancements in expert systems technology have enabled
the concurrent investigation of technology and information use because expert
systems generate explicit courses of action for users to follow. This empirical
study integrated social cognitive theory to extend the DeLone and McLean
model. A regression analysis indicated differences between technology and
information use. Further, social influences and attitudes were found to interact
relative to information use resulting in a non-linear relationship such that
when attitudes are poor and social pressures are high, people use the
technology but ignore the information. We also found that the EDSS use was
negatively related to human-induced errors.