Abstract

Information Technology Use (ITU) is one of the most under conceptualized constructs in IS research. Historically, ITU has been conceptualized as a behavior: the interaction of a user with technology to accomplish a goal-directed task. However, this conceptualization leads to incommensurable results between studies. It also fails to consider the increase in the capabilities due to improvement in technological capabilities. These new capabilities have created IT Artifacts (ITA) which can replace humans and operate autonomously of humans. This paper reconceptualizes ITU as a structure: the manner in which an ITA is incorporated into the activities of a work system. We argue that this conceptualization of use alleviates the issue of incommensurability between studies and allows for conceptualization and measurement of use for modern ITAs. It does this by providing a way of describing use that can be utilized across work systems which enables direct comparison of the performance.

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