The personal usage of online information services: theory and empirical investigation

In this paper we develop a conceptual framework around the attitudes and intentions towards using online information service, and we theorise about the differences in relationships between regular information systems and online information services, Specifically we hypothesize (1) that affect and perceived ease of use are more important than perceived usefulness. and (2) that gender and experience will make a significant differente in people's evaluation to use the service. These hypotheses are then tested with a quantitative study, using 1144 respondents of a real-life online information service. The results effectively demonstrate how the cognitive-affective pattern of user evaluations develops when users start becoming more experienced with an online information service.