Extending the Concept of Control Beliefs: Integrating the Role of Advice Networks

Although control beliefs (CBs) can represent many different types of controls, information systems researchers have focused primarily on CBs related to technical compatibility, resource availability, and computer self-efficacy. More recent research has recognized that co-worker advice, which represents situated and improvised learning, can also be an important factor that can enable or impede system use. In addition, because advice from co-workers represents the social context by which the impacts of other traditional CBs are embedded, they may have the potential to alter the relationships between traditional CBs and system use. Against this backdrop, we examined the direct effects of CBs about advice from co-workers on system use as well as its ability to moderate the effects of other types of CBs on system use. To accomplish this, we conducted a three-month study of 112 employees in one business unit of an organization. Results supported our hypotheses that CBs about advice from co-workers directly influence system use and moderate the effects of other CBs on system use.