Exploring the Choice for Default Systems

Abstract

This paper investigates the role the default effect plays in choosing IT systems. This paper presents two studies concerning the acceptance of Gmail (vs. a self-hosted mailing system) and of legal (vs. illegal) movie downloading. Classic factors such as the perceived usefulness and ease of use of a system hardly explain the intent to use default systems. Including the perception of an alternative system in the model significantly increases the R2 of the intent to use the default system. Social influence plays a much bigger role in explaining the intent to use default systems than in the intent to use alternative systems.