Toward a unified view of personality and IT traits: A hierarchical theory perspective

In the face of continued corporate IS investment, non-use and underutilization of technology continues to undermine the returns reaped from these investments. Consequently, a long-standing stream of IS research focuses on understanding the factors that drive IS utilization in organizations. While several categories of factors have been identified in this stream, human factors are the most enduring and predictive of user behavior. Unfortunately, this category of factors has also been identified as relatively underserved by IS scholars. This research contributes to the knowledge base on human factors by proposing a unified theoretical model of trait-based individual differences which influences technology-related behaviors. Founded on established trait hierarchy theories from psychology and marketing, the proposed model links personality and IT-specific traits via a hierarchical underlying structure and proposes that it is systems of trait-based individual differences that drive technology-related behaviors. A theoretically-grounded model linking together the key traits identified in the IS literature is currently absent, which has led to disjointed and sometimes contradictory positioning of constructs in models of individual differences. The proposed model is empirically tested via a large field survey of working professionals who frequently use technology to accomplish their work. The results of this research support the hierarchical view of traits and personality as a salient predictor of IT utilization. Overall, the results not only unify disjointed findings and resolve conflicting findings from the individual differences research stream, the results will also guide future studies on trait-based individual differences and establish much-needed cumulative tradition within this stream.