THE EFFECTS OF INFORMATION-SYSTEM USER EXPECTATIONS ON THEIR PERFORMANCE AND PERCEPTIONS

The consequences of information system failure become more acute as or ganizations continue to invest in information technology and applicati on development. Being able to better predict IS failure before impleme ntation of a system could facilitate changes in the information system that can lead to implementation success. The realism of user expectat ions has been suggested as one possible means of assessing the eventua l success or failure of an IS. Cognitive dissonance theory was used to hypothesize the behavior and attitudes of end users having certain ex pectations of a system. This experiment investigates the association b etween unrealistic expectations with both users' perceptions (i.e., us er satisfaction) and their performance with the IS (i.e., decision per formance). A longitudinal experiment was performed in which the expect ations of the subjects were manipulated to be unrealistically high, re alistically moderate, or unrealistically low. The results suggest an a ssociation between realism of users' expectations and their perception s but not their actual performance. Future research should be directed toward the development of an instrument to measure user expectations, as well as toward understanding the causes of unrealistic user expect ations.