Abstract

Business intelligent (BI) systems enable organizations to convert large volumes of data into actionable insights, supporting faster and more informed decision-making. Despite their strategic potential, however, many intelligent system initiatives fail to achieve the expected level of sustained and widespread use. One important reason is that effective use of intelligent systems often requires employees to cross functional, cognitive, and social boundaries. Although prior research has examined individual attitudes, technical capabilities, and organizational support as important drivers of system use, less attention has been paid to how individual- and department-level boundary-crossing forces jointly shape employees’ actual system use. Grounded in Cross-Boundary Theory, this study develops and tests a multilevel model of intelligent system use. We argue that BI system use is influenced not only by individual employees’ own boundary-crossing attitudes but also by the boundary-crossing attitudes of departmental power users and the broader departmental climate. At the individual level, employees with stronger social boundary-crossing attitudes are more likely to engage with BI tools because they are more willing to communicate, seek assistance, and exchange knowledge across functional boundaries. Employees with longer organizational tenure and IT-related backgrounds are also expected to use BI tools more extensively because they possess greater familiarity with business processes or stronger technical foundations. At the department level, power users play a critical bridging role between the intelligent system and ordinary end users. When departmental power users demonstrate strong social and cognitive boundary-crossing attitudes, they can help translate system knowledge, connect analytical functions with business needs, and lower the barriers that prevent employees from using the system. In addition, a supportive departmental climate may further encourage employees to explore and incorporate BI tools into their daily work routines. To empirically examine these arguments, we integrate survey data from 1,479 employees with one year of objective BI usage logs from a multinational enterprise. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we analyze how individual characteristics, departmental power users’ boundary-crossing attitudes, and department-level contextual factors jointly explain employees’ actual system use. The results show that, at the individual level, employees with stronger social boundary-crossing attitudes, longer tenure, and IT backgrounds are more likely to engage with the BI system. At the department level, power users’ social boundary-crossing attitudes are positively associated with end users’ system use, suggesting that socially proactive power users can stimulate broader BI engagement within their departments. Moreover, power users’ cognitive boundary-crossing attitudes moderate the effects of individual employees’ IT background and tenure. Specifically, when power users possess stronger cognitive boundary-crossing attitudes, employees with lower IT backgrounds or less business process familiarity can still engage in BI system use. This finding suggests that cognitively capable power users can help compensate for individual employees’ lack of technical or business knowledge by translating system functions into meaningful work practices. Our study contributes to Cross-Boundary Theory by adopting a bidirectional multi-level perspective, showing that both power users and end users engage in boundary-crossing processes that shape system use.

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