The user multifaceted expertise: Divergent effects of the website versus e-commerce expertise

• Site expertise and e-commerce expertise differently impact cognitive effort, site adaptation, and acceptance.
• Site expertise determined the user cognitive effort, while e-commerce expertise did not.
• Site expertise and e-commerce expertise had divergent effects on the site adaptation and acceptance.
• These results were replicated in a different culture.

Expertise is a key factor in user’s adaptation and evaluation of the IT artifact. To date however, research has widely disregarded the notion that expertise is multifaceted and, consequently, its effects should vary according to the facet measured. To address this gap, the present research shows the effects of a facet of expertise rarely studied – expertise with the artifact such as an e-commerce site (website expertise) – besides the effects of expertise with the artifact class (e-commerce expertise). It is stipulated that site expertise shapes the site use and acceptance differently and more profoundly than e-commerce expertise. The results show that users with low (vs. high) site expertise perceived the site as less easy to use, and their site acceptance was more (less) strongly influenced by the site information quality. Alternatively, e-commerce expertise played a different moderating role in the acceptance process, and users with low e-commerce expertise did not perceive the site as less easy to use. The results were replicated in a second study conducted in a different culture. The findings support the research main thesis that expertise is multifaceted and, therefore, considering the different facets is necessary to understand the process of user acceptance of the IT artifact.