Use IT Again? Dynamic Roles of Habit, Intention and their Interaction on Continued System Use by Individuals in Utilitarian, Volitional Contexts

Abstract

This paper employs a longitudinal perspective to examine continued system use (CSU) by individuals in utilitarian, volitional contexts when alternative systems are present . We focus on two key behavioural antecedents of CSU – habit and continuance intention – and theorise how the relationships between CSU and these antecedents evolve over time. In addition, we hypothesise how the interaction effect of habit and intention on CSU evolves temporally. Our theorising differs from extant literature in two important respects: 1) In contrast to the widespread acceptance of the diminishing effect of continuance intention on CSU in the information systems (IS) literature, we hypothesise that in our context, its impact increases with time; and 2) In contrast to the negative moderation effect of habit on the relationship between intention and CSU proposed in the literature, we posit a positive interaction effect. We collect longitudinal survey data on the use of a higher education IS from students in a European university. Our results suggest that the impact of continuance intention on CSU as well as the interaction effect between habit and intention are increasing over time. We further introduce a methodological innovation – the permutation approach to conduct the multi-group analysis with repeated measures – to the literature.