Incorporating trust-in-technology into Expectation Disconfirmation Theory

• We find support for integrating technology trust with the Complete EDT Model.
• Technology trust expectations affect performance but not disconfirmation.
• Disconfirmation influences satisfaction and technology trusting intention.
• Satisfaction and technology trust intention predict continuance intention.

Continued use of strategic information systems is not always a given. This study proposes that users’ trust in the system may influence their satisfaction and continuance intention. While trust has been found to have strategic implications for understanding consumers’ technology usage, relatively little research has examined how trust’s influence operates over time. To gain insight into trust’s influence on strategic system usage over time and to explain how trust relates to satisfaction and continuance intention, we integrate trust-related constructs with the Complete Expectation Disconfirmation Theory (EDT) Model. Our results demonstrate that trust plays a central role in the EDT process and that the EDT process helps explain trust’s role more completely. The study shows that technology trusting expectations influence trusting intention through performance, disconfirmation, and satisfaction. We also show that technology trusting intention adds predictive power to EDT’s satisfaction construct as together they predict usage continuance intention. For research, our results provide a strong combined EDT and trust theory base for future studies that examine expectation management and system development projects. For practice, our study informs systems implementation strategies for technologies that have fewer human-like characteristics and more technology-like characteristics. Our findings underscore that managers need to adopt an EDT process-based view when seeking to build trust, satisfaction, and continuance intention in strategically important information systems.