Proposal of a psychometric measurement scale for the individual appropriation of a computer tool

Abstract

Appropriation is defined as being at once a psychological state and a behavior. However,till now research dealing with appropriation of technologies has mainly focused on toolusage, referring to the behavioral aspects of the concept. Therefore, there is a lack of mea-surement instruments assessing appropriation as user feeling. Our research objective is topropose a psychometric measurement of individual appropriation of a technology. We con-sider that the study of user perceptions of appropriation would allow a better understand-ing of the process of appropriation and especially of non appropriation. A twofold research design was deployed within a bank a year after a technology changeimplementation. Firstly, an exploratory study was conducted containing 13 semi-directiveinterviews with technology users. Its objective was to understand the way users define ap-propriation. User discourse has been coded and regrouped in relevant themes. Secondly,the identified themes were used to generate items for a quantitative survey assessing indi-vidual appropriation. In total, 332 complete surveys were collected. The statistical analysisidentified (PCA) and validated (CFA) two dimensions of individual appropriation of atechnology: the Preference for the technology, with regard to other alternatives, and theMastery of the technology. Preference and Mastery have straight forward implications for managers during tech-nology change implementation. They invite managers to deal with both psychological andbehavioral aspects of user technology appropriation. Whereas Mastery is necessary to effi-ciently use the technology, Preference refers to user personal interest in the technology. Webelieve that considering at once psychometric and behavioral indicators of appropriationwould allow a better comprehension and assessment of the concept. In particular in newtechnology post implementation contexts, knowing individual perceptions of appropriationwould help managers to better chose accompaniment means and assess their impact on in-dividual appropriation.