End-User’s Disconfirmed Expectations and the Success of Information Systems

Noting considerable alienation or dissatisfaction on the part of computer users, MIS literature has looked at a variety of social science techniques, including consumer satisfaction theory, for solutions to these problems. The dominant model of consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction has been based on the disconfirmation of expectations paradigm. However, a critique of the disconfirmation of expectations model shows that using predictive expectation as a comparison standard reveals a number of conceptual and empirical problems. To overcome these problems, this paper suggests desired expectations as an alternative comparison standard. This paper proposes a desired expectations model of end-user computing (EUC) success that describes that the success of EUC be determined by the discrepancy between end-user desires and actual performance of information systems. Analysis of data from 150 end-users in Korean business firms shows that attitudinal measures of EUC success (i.e., overall user satisfaction and perceived usefulness) were significantly influenced by the level of discrepancy. This empirical result supports the assumption that the success of EUC depends on how end-users perceive the actual performance of information systems in the context of what they want