Nonlinear and Noncompensatory Models in User Information Satisfaction Measurement

Vikram Sethi and Ruth C. King
Additional contact information
Vikram Sethi: CIS Department, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri 65804
Ruth C. King: College of Commerce and Industry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois

Information Systems Research, 1999, vol. 10, issue 1, 87-96

Abstract: This study applies nonlinear and noncompensatory models to examine how users evaluate their satisfaction with their information systems (IS) environment. Several instruments have been developed in the literature to measure user information satisfaction (UIS). These instruments measure user satisfaction by asking respondents to rate their satisfaction/dissatisfaction with a variety of IS attributes; e.g., EDP services, EDP staff, information product, and involvement in IS development. These responses are then combined linearly to develop a surrogate measure for UIS satisfaction. This linear model is derived from Anderson's information theory (Anderson 1981) and based on the assumption that each attribute judgment has a conditionally monotone relationship with the UIS evaluation. However, the literature on attitude formation and decision making suggests that other nonlinear and noncompensatory models are available to decision makers for combining information and are used frequently in attitude formation. In this study, we use two sets of data to examine the linear model and five nonlinear models of decision making to evaluate whether nonlinear models are more effective in predicting a user's overall satisfaction with information systems. First, responses from faculty members at an academic institution were used to test each model. All the nonlinear models were more efficient predictors than the linear models. In addition, two nonlinear models—the multiplicative and the scatter models—best represented the data with square multiple correlations of 0.69 and 0.68, as compared to the linear model which had an R 2 of 0.61. Second, data from a previous study (Galletta and Lederer 1989) were analyzed to examine whether nonlinear models were more efficient. Data for this study were collected using the short version of the Bailey and Pearson (1983) UIS instrument. Results of the analysis from the full and cross-validation samples show that nonlinear, noncompensatory models performed at par or better than the linear model.

Keywords: User Satisfaction; Linear Models; Nonlinear Models; Measurement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.10.1.87 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orisre:v:10:y:1999:i:1:p:87-96

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Information Systems Research from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().