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Past studies on the adoption of information systems [ISs] have centered on user satisfaction or on variables that motivate individuals to accept a new system. The initial acceptance of any information system is an important first step toward realizing success, but the ultimate viability of a system is dependent on its continued usage (Bhattacherjee, 2001). Because of its vital role in business processes, the ineffective, inappropriate, and infrequent long-term use of information systems often contributes to corporate failures (Lyytinen & Hirschheim, 1987). For IS providers, the cost of acquiring new customers is higher than retaining existing ones, which means customer turnover can be costly. The success of an IS platform depends mainly on user loyalty, so the focus of recent studies has shifted to the continued usage of information systems.
Current IS continuance research focuses mostly on cognitive factors such as system performance or usefulness (e.g., Bhattacherjee, 2001; Hong et al., 2006; Roca et al., 2006; Hsieh & Wang, 2007; Premkumar & Bhattacherjee, 2008; Limayem & Cheung, 2008), and only more recently have affective factors such as enjoyment or playfulness been considered (Lin et al., 2005; Thong et al., 2006; Roca & Gagne, 2008). The constant constructs found in these studies are confirmation and perceived usefulness. The concept of confirmation or disconfirmation of expectations, a popular topic and a vital construct in marketing literature exploring consumer satisfaction or service quality (e.g., Anderson, 1973; Oliver, 1977, 1980; Churchill & Surprenant, 1982; Parasuraman et al., 1985), has also been applied to IS continuance research (Bhattacherjee, 2001). In Bhattacherjee’s continuance model, confirmation captures pre-acceptance variables and is a cognitive belief that represents the appraisal of the extent to which users’ expectations of IS use are realized during actual usage. Perceived usefulness is the foundation of technology acceptance research in the IS field (Davis et al., 1989). It is a cognitive belief that refers to users’ appraisal of the probability that IS use will improve their performance. However, only a limited amount of research has examined what might influence these two constructs. Both beliefs are of a personal nature and from the perspective of an individual. One possible direction is to look for factors that might affect each person, such as individual differences.
With the continuing expansion of the Internet, information systems such as e-business systems have been growing exponentially, as have the numbers of users. If better online environments are to be designed, it is necessary to better understand customer behaviors, such as continuance in cyberspace, specifically in relation to their individual characteristics. Personalization and customization, made possible by advancements in Internet and mobile technologies, are fast gaining attention in the IS and e-commerce field (Mobasher et al., 2000; Riecken, 2000). Hence, individual-specific characteristics or differences, such as personality, situational, and demographic variables, could be key factors that influence the user’s beliefs about and use of information technology (Agarwal & Prasad, 1999) and could affect user satisfaction with a system and ultimately its effectiveness (Zmud, 1979; Robey, 1983). Personality is one of the more relevant user distinctions due to its enduring quality. A person’s personality persistently determines his or her conduct in many types of situations (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985), and it therefore should have significance in IS-related activities such as adoption and post-adoption processes (e.g., Devaraj et al., 2008; Barnett et al., 2015). If it is understood how personality can affect continuance, information systems or web sites can be designed to cater to each user with technologies for personalization or customization. But few studies have addressed the user’s personality characteristics in the post-adoption continued usage context.