Career commitment of information technology professionals: The investment model perspective

•IT professional's career commitment is primarily determined by career satisfaction.•The threat of professional obsolescence exerted more influence on individuals with low professional self-efficacy.•Career satisfaction appeared the most important antecedent for individuals with positive valence.•The career commitment for individuals with negative valence was largely driven by non-voluntary dependence.

This research applied an investment model to investigate the career commitment of IT professionals. We explore why some unfavorable careers persist and why some favorable careers end. Self-reported data from MIS departments of Taiwan's top-1000 large-scale companies were collected to test our hypotheses. The results suggested that an IT professional's career commitment is primarily determined by career satisfaction. In addition, the threat of professional obsolescence exerted more influence on individuals with low professional self-efficacy. Finally, career satisfaction appeared the most important antecedent for individuals with positive valence. In contrast, the career commitment for individuals with negative valence was largely driven by non-voluntary dependence. The implications for practitioners and scholars are discussed.