Building on recent unique, yet potentially complementary, approaches to understanding the formation of user perceptions about technology (Venkatesh, 1999; Venkatesh & Speier, 1999), the present work reanalyzes the data from both studies to develop an integrated model of technology acceptance. The integrated model specifically examines the influence of pre-training and training environment interventions (termed user acceptance enablers) to understand how user perceptions are formed prior to system implementation. The model is then further extended and tested using longitudinal data in a field setting. The results indicate that the integrated model emerged as a better predictor of user behavior when compared to the existing models.

Interruptions are a common aspect of the work environment of most organizations. Yet little is known about how interruptions and their characteristics, such as frequency of occurrence, influence decision-making performance of individuals. Consequently, this paper reports the results of two experiments investigating the influence of interruptions on individual decision making. Interruptions were found to improve decision-making performance on simple tasks and to lower performance on complex tasks. For complex tasks, the frequency of intemptions and the dissimilarity of content between the primary and interruption tasks was found to exacerbate this effect. The implications of these results for future research and practice are discussed.

Sales force automation technologies are increasingly used to support customer relationship management strategies; however, commentary in the practitioner press suggests high failure rates. The authors use identity theory as a lens to better understand salesperson perceptions associated with technology rejection. They collected survey data from 454 salespeople across two firms that had implemented sales force automation tools. The results indicate that immediately after training, salespeople had positive perceptions of the technology. However, six months after implementation, the technology had been widely rejected, and salesperson absenteeism and voluntary turnover had significantly increased. There were also significant decreases in perceptions of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, person-organization fit, and person-job fit across both firms. Finally, salespeople with stronger professional commitment indicated more negative job-related perceptions as experience with the technology increased.There have been few times in the history of information technology where the mathematics of using [sales force automation] have been so compelling. Economic returns are immediate.-Siebel and Malone (1996) 61% of all sales force automation projects fail to show measurable benefit.-Block and colleagues (1996) S ales force automation (SFA) tools are frequently implemented to facilitate customer relationship management (CRM) processes as part of a relationship marketing philosophy. By improving the speed and quality of information flow among the salesperson, customer, and organization, SFA tools support the sales process. Although it is intuitive to believe that increases in salesperson effectiveness and efficiency will result in successful SFA technology adoption, commentary in the practitioner press suggests high failure rates (Block et al. 1996;Petersen 1997). Difficulties associated with implementing information technology (IT), including technologies supporting the sales function (Sviokla 1996), have been well documented since the 1980s (e.g., Ginzberg 1981; Robey and Boudreau 1999). However, there are only a few examples of systematic research on knowledge workers' acceptance of technology in a field setting (e.g., Sviokla 1996). This limits the understanding of the factors that might lead to successful technology adoption instead of failure.Given the proliferation of SFA tools, the magnitude of implementation failures, and the unique job function of a salesperson, an in-depth investigation of SFA implementation failures will contribute to the science and practice in marketing and IT. By collecting data from salespeople employed in two different firms where SFA tools were rejected after implementation, this research specifically investigates salespeople's perceptions and behaviors that result in rejection of SFA tools. We collected perceptual data immediately after SFA training and three months after implementation; we also gauged subjective outcomes soon after those points in time and assessed objective measu...

Interruptions are a frequent occurrence in the work life of most decision makers. This paper investigated the influence of interruptions on different types of decision-making tasks and the ability of information presentation formats, an aspect of information systems design, to alleviate them. Results from the experimental study indicate that interruptions facilitate performance on simple tasks, while inhibiting performance on more complex tasks. Interruptions also influenced the relationship between information presentation format and the type of task performed: spatial presentation formats were able to mitigate the effects of interruptions while symbolic formats were not. The paper presents a broad conceptualization of interruptions and interprets the ramifications of the experimental findings within this conceptualization to develop a program for future research.

Many firms are increasing their focus on sustainability. However, this focus has primarily emphasized environmentalism and ethics. Enterprise value chains must develop and support a broader sustainability perspective to ensure that its consumer, business, supply chain, community and environmental relationships and interactions remain viable. Using public documents and Internet sites of major global firms, this article suggests a framework to define the dimensions of sustainability and the categories of initiatives within each dimension. The article then offers examples regarding how major firms are implementing each sustainability dimension to enhance their competitiveness. Building on the framework, the article illustrates the sustainability initiatives applied by different categories of sustainability leaders.