An Empirical Investigation of End-User Query Development: The Effects of Improved Model Expressiveness vs. Complexity

Paul L. Bowen (), Robert A. O'Farrell () and Fiona H. Rohde ()
Additional contact information
Paul L. Bowen: College of Business, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306
Robert A. O'Farrell: School of Business, The University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia
Fiona H. Rohde: School of Business, The University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia

Information Systems Research, 2009, vol. 20, issue 4, 565-584

Abstract: Data models provide a map of the components of an information system. Prior research has indicated that more expressive conceptual data models (despite their increased size) result in better performance for problem solving tasks. An initial experiment using logical data models indicated that more expressive logical data models also enhanced end-user performance for information retrieval tasks. However, the principles of parsimony and bounded rationality imply that, past some point, increases in size lead to a level of complexity that results in impaired performance. The results of this study support these principles. For a logical data model of increased but still modest size, users composing queries for the more expressive logical data model did not perform as well as users composing queries for the corresponding less expressive but more parsimonious logical data model. These results indicate that, when constructing logical data models, data modelers should consider tradeoffs between parsimony and expressiveness.

Keywords: scalability; expressiveness; ontology; ontological clarity; parsimony; logical data models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.1080.0181 (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:20:y:2009:i:4:p:565-584

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 ().