IT and Individuals

Abstract

Research of the individual use of IT and the effects of IT on individual behavior and outcomes constitutes the most voluminous IS research area. This area can be broadly subdivided into research on factors in individual adoption and use, and research on personal computing environments. Identification of critical success factors related to the individual use and adoption of IT has been among the prominent research topics. Notably, much of the critical success factors (CSF) research is also concerned with organizational issues; however, because the individual focus is dominant, the CSF topic is reviewed in this chapter. Related to CSF is research on individual IS acceptance and use, research on learning and training, as well as research on privacy issues and trust. Individual level IS research is particularly concerned with three computing environments: end user computing, web-based systems and mobile computing. Finally, individual level IS research includes the topic of IT effect on jobs and that of IT careers.