AN APPLICATION OF THE CUSP CATASTROPHE MODEL TO USER INFORMATION SATISFACTION

This study shows that there is a nonlinear relationship between overal l user information satisfaction (UIS) and an index created by combinin g satisfaction responses to various information systems components/att ributes. Several instruments have been developed in the IS literature to measure UIS. These measure UIS by asking respondents to rate their satisfaction/dissatisfaction with a variety of IS attributes; for exam ple, EDP services, EDP staff, information products, and involvement in IS development. Tests of predictive validity, in the past, have shown only a 55% correlation between global UIS and UIS scores. Here, we sh ow that the global UIS measure and IS factor scores follow a nonlinear relationship and are, in fact, cusp-distributed. The extent of use of IS is shown to be a splitting factor in this distribution and produce s abrupt, catastrophic changes. Responses from faculty members at an a cademic institution were used to test for the distribution using IS co mponent scores as the normal independent variable and the extent of us e of IS as the splitting variable. The cusp model was a more efficient predictor than the linear model or a control equation using bimodal t ransformation. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.