An empirical investigation of the salient characteristics of IS-Success models

This paper investigates four salient characteristics of IS-success models that are largely ignored in prior literature. Using data gathered from 600 responses, this study establishes the importance of (1) completeness of the model dimensions and measures, (2) mutual exclusivity of the model dimensions and measures, (3) model parsimony, and the (4) additivity of the model dimensions to yield an overarching score. These characteristics are rarely established and are seldom reported in academic literature that spans over three decades. Lack of discussion and little consensus on the aforementioned issues has led to incomparable results and a compromised cumulative research tradition. The paper demonstrates the importance of these issues and provides prescriptive guidelines for future research.