The construction of theory in MIS research

As a relatively new academic discipline, MIS has gone through processes of initiation, expansion, and consolidation. During the past two decades, MIS researchers have examined the state of their discipline and have found it wanting at times in the area of theory building and development. One important criticism of early MIS research was that it lacked strong theory of its own, and that it was often weakly grounded in theory, if at all. This paper examines the process and significance of theory building with an emphasis on some of the most well known MIS research streams. This paper demonstrates that MIS researchers have begun to develop strong theory and apply it successfully

Maintenance Activities in OOP and 3GL

Maintenance is the process of changing existing software to modify software, either to add or enhance existing functions, or to fix errors (bugs). Maintenance is the dominant activity of many MIS organizations. An average of 70% of software budgets are devoted to maintenance (Swanson & Beath, 1989). Object-oriented programming (OOP) languages have been in used in research and, to a limited extent, in practice for approximately fifteen years. However, it was not until recently that OOP received considerable attention from the practitioner community. The object-oriented paradigm has been hailed because of its natural relationship to the real world, ease and speed of development, and ability to reuse objects in different programs. These capabilities are thought to produce major productivity gains over programming in 3GLs. However, given the importance of maintenance in the MIS organization, the decision to develop systems using OOP must include evaluation of the relative effectiveness of maintenance in that environment. Unfortunately, little research investigates the maintainability of applications written in object-oriented languages. The objective of this study is to examine the maintenance of systems developed in objected-oriented programming languages

Experience as a Moderating Variable in a Task-Technology Fit Model

We test the addition of experience with maintenance tools and with the maintenance task to our previously tested task-technology fit model for software maintenance tool use. Tool experience is significant as both a main and moderating effect, but task experience adds little to the explanatory power of the model

Examining Multiple Dimensions of Task Technology Fit

Investigating the fit of an information technology to a user’s task, known as task-technology fit (TTF), is a frequent focus of HCI/MIS research. In such research, “fit as moderation”, one of Venkatraman’s (1989) six conceptualizations of fit, is common. This conceptualization assumes two variables, e.g., task and technology, and an outcome variable. Task and technology, however, have multiple dimensions that should be considered when investigating fit. We examine three methods HCI/MIS researchers have used for augmenting the fit as moderation conceptualization for multiple dimensions. We propose and test a new method involving a single PLS model capturing the multiple dimensions of fit, which is more consistent with Venkatraman’s (1989) original conceptualization and statistical model for fit as moderation than those currently in the literature. Our method as compared against one method in the literature, using a separate model for each dimension, works at least as well

Extending the Technology Acceptance Model

We extend the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) using elements from a Task-Technology Fit Model (TTF). We test our integrated IT utilization model using path analysis. Our results provide a model with more explanatory power, which should lead to a better understanding of choices about using software

Developing a General Method to Assess Task-Technology Fit

This research generalizes a method of assessing task- technology fit that was developed for software maintenance tasks and tools. A general instrument is developed for assessing task needs, technology characteristics, and the resulting fit for general problem solving tasks and problem-solving support tool