Research Note—Two Competing Perspectives on Automatic Use: A Theoretical and Empirical Comparison
Abstract
Although much research has examined conscious use, which involves deliberate evaluation and decision making, we know less about automatic use, which occurs spontaneously with little conscious effort. The objective of this study is to compare two contrasting views in the literature on the nature of automatic use, namely, the habit/automaticity perspective (HAP) and the instant activation perspective (IAP). According to HAP, automatic use occurs because of the force of habit/automaticity without the formation of evaluations and intention; thus, past use—which is a proxy for habit/automaticity—is believed to weaken the evaluations-intention-usage relationship. In contrast, IAP posits that automatic use is simply an expedited form of conscious use; accordingly, as with conscious use, automatic use is still a function of evaluations/intention, so past use will not weaken the evaluations-intention-usage relationship. We tested the competing hypotheses using 2,075 cross-sectional and 990 longitudinal responses from actual users of two online news sites. Our results show that the evaluations-intention-usage relationship is generally weaker among heavier users than among lighter users. These findings suggest that with an increase in past use, user behavior becomes less evaluative and less intentional, in support of the argument that automatic use is driven more by habit/automaticity than by instant activation of cognitions. Overall, this research shows an initial piece of evidence of…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
People tend to rely on their past experience to inform their assessments of current decisions, and the level of reliance depends on the certainty of the context.
“While people tend to rely on their past experience to inform their assessments of current decisions, the level of reliance depends on the certainty of the context.”
From Trust, Satisfaction, and Online Repurchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Perceived Effectiveness of E-Commerce Institutional Mechanisms1 (2014) · cites this paper as Kim et al. 2005
To save cognitive effort, people tend to form a stable set of beliefs based on past experience which can be conveniently retrieved to infer new situations.
“To save cognitive effort, people tend to form a stable set of beliefs based on past experience which can be conveniently retrieved to infer new situations (Kim et al. 2005; Louis and Sutton 1991).”
From Trust, Satisfaction, and Online Repurchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Perceived Effectiveness of E-Commerce Institutional Mechanisms1 (2014) · cites this paper as Kim et al. 2005
When PEEIM is high, the transaction environment is protected and has low uncertainty; in such a certain and stable environment, people's ingrained cognitive script formed based on past experience can be activated automatically without conscious information processing.
“When PEEIM is high, the transaction environment is protected by high PEEIM and thus has low uncertainty. In such a certain and stable environment, peoples' 'ingrained cognitive script' is formed based on their past experience and can be activated automatically without conscious information processing e.g. automatic thinking (Kim et al. 2005; Louis and Sutton 1991).”
From Trust, Satisfaction, and Online Repurchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Perceived Effectiveness of E-Commerce Institutional Mechanisms1 (2014) · cites this paper as Kim et al. 2005
Kim et al. (2005), Majchrzak et al. (2005), and Angst and Agarwal (2009) reported significant moderating effects with R-square changes about 1%.
“For example, Kim et al. (2005), Majchrzak et al. (2005), and Angst and Agarwal (2009) also reported significant moderating effects with R-square changes about 1%.”
From Trust, Satisfaction, and Online Repurchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Perceived Effectiveness of E-Commerce Institutional Mechanisms1 (2014) · cites this paper as Kim et al. (2005)
Cites
The theory of planned behavior
Ajzen, I. (1991) · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · doi:10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-t · Cited by 90,587 · see citing works
User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward A Unified View1
Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B., & Davis, F. D. (2003) · MIS Quarterly · doi:10.2307/30036540 · Cited by 45,035 · see citing works
On the Evaluation of Structural Equation Models
Bagozzi, R. P., & Yi, Y. (1988) · Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science · doi:10.1007/bf02723327 · Cited by 26,163 · see citing works
Venkatesh, V. (2000) · Information Systems Research · doi:10.1287/isre.11.4.342.11872 · Cited by 6,664 · see citing works
Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation to Use Computers in the Workplace <sup>1</sup>
Davis, F. D., Bagozzi, R. P., & Warshaw, P. R. (1992) · Journal of Applied Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1992.tb00945.x · Cited by 6,231 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Second, the hedonic value is associated with the fun or pleasure derived from using the application (Davis et al. 1992).”
Bem, D. J. (1972) · Advances in Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60024-6 · Cited by 5,241 · cited 2× · see citing works
“Because of this self-perception process (Bem 1972), the unique influence of evaluations on usage intention is expected to decrease as past use increases.”
Ouellette, J. A., & Wood, W. (1998) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.124.1.54 · Cited by 3,480 · see citing works
Residual Effects of Past on Later Behavior: Habituation and Reasoned Action Perspectives
Ajzen, I. (2002) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr0602_02 · Cited by 1,249 · see citing works
Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., & Ackerman, P. L. (2000) · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · doi:10.1006/obhd.2000.2896 · Cited by 1,237 · see citing works
Davis, F. D., & Venkatesh, V. (2004) · IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management · doi:10.1109/tem.2003.822468 · Cited by 582 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Venkatesh, V., Thong, J. Y. L., & Xu, X. (2012) · MIS Quarterly · doi:10.2307/41410412 · Cited by 15,756 · see citing works
Fang, Y., Qureshi, I., Sun, H., McCole, P., Ramsey, E., & Lim, K. H. (2014) · MIS Quarterly · doi:10.25300/misq/2014/38.2.04 · Cited by 770 · see citing works
Polites, G. L., & Karahanna, E. (2012) · MIS Quarterly · doi:10.2307/41410404 · Cited by 679 · see citing works
A Longitudinal Study of Herd Behavior in the Adoption and Continued Use of Technology1
Sun, H. (2013) · MIS Quarterly · doi:10.25300/misq/2013/37.4.02 · Cited by 375 · see citing works
Kim, S. S., & Son, J.-Y. (2009) · MIS Quarterly · doi:10.2307/20650278 · Cited by 339 · see citing works
Self-citationCasting the Net: A Multimodal Network Perspective on User–System Interactions
Kane, G. C., & Alavi, M. (2008) · Information Systems Research · doi:10.1287/isre.1070.0158 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
Kim, B. (2012) · Telecommunications Policy · doi:10.1016/j.telpol.2011.11.011 · Cited by 133 · see citing works
Pan, J., Ding, S., Wu, D., Yang, S., & Yang, J. (2019) · International Journal of Production Research · doi:10.1080/00207543.2018.1550272 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
Exploring the inhibitors of online health service use intention: A status quo bias perspective
Zhang, X., Guo, X., Wu, Y., Lai, K.-H., & Vogel, D. (2017) · Information & Management · doi:10.1016/j.im.2017.02.001 · Cited by 126 · see citing works
The impact of age on website usability
Wagner, N., Hassanein, K., & Head, M. (2014) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.05.003 · Cited by 109 · see citing works
Lee, K., Lee, K. Y., & Sheehan, L. (2020) · Information Systems Frontiers · doi:10.1007/s10796-019-09975-1 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Lee, K., & Joshi, K. (2017) · Information Systems Journal · doi:10.1111/isj.12118 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
Chen, Y., Zahedi, F. M., Abbasi, A., & Dobolyi, D. (2021) · Information & Management · doi:10.1016/j.im.2020.103394 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Bile Hassan, I., Murad, M. A. A., El-Shekeil, I., & Liu, J. (2022) · Informatics · doi:10.3390/informatics9020031 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
- Authors
- Kim, S. S., Malhotra, N. K., & Narasimhan, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Georgia Institute of Technology (US)
- Venue
- Information Systems Research
- Published
- 2005-12
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 418-432
- ISSN
- 1047-7047 (ISSN-L)
- 1526-5536
- OpenAlex
- W2160594261
- Cited by
- 381
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 19.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Information Systems Research (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Georgia State University
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Technology Adoption and User Behaviour
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Keywords
- habit, automaticity, news websites, user behavior, moderating effect
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
