April 2012 Volume 15 Number 2 - Educational Technology & Society

(DeLone & McLean, 2003) added “service quality” measure as a new dimension of the IS success model and
grouped both the individual and organization impact measures into a single impact or benefit category called “net
benefit”.
Expectation-Confirmation Model
Figure 2. DeLone and McLean information system success model (2003)
The Expectation-Confirmation Theory (ECT) asserts that consumers’ intention to repurchase a product or service is
significantly influenced by their prior experience with that product or service (Anderson & Sullivan 1993; Oliver
1980). Lower expectation and/or higher perceived performance may lead to a greater confirmation, which results in
positive influences to customer satisfaction and continuance intention. Reversing the relationship would cause
disconfirmation, dissatisfaction, and discontinuance intention. Confirmation refers to the expectation-performance
discrepancy (Hayashi, Chen, Ryan & Wu, 2004). Bhattacherjee (2001) suggests that the IS users’ continuance
decision is similar to consumers’ repurchase decision because both decisions (1) follow an initial (acceptance or
purchase) decision, (2) are influenced by the initial use (of IS or product) experience, and (3) can potentially lead to
an ex-post reversal of the initial decision.
Figure 3. Expectation-Confirmation Model (ECM)
The advancement of the theoretical framework for the present study is based on TAM (Davis, 1989), Updated
Delone and Mclean’s information system success model (2003) and Expectation-Confirmation Model
(Bhattacherjee, 2001). Based on the integrative review of the literature, six factors that are believed to be most
significant to influence user satisfaction in using e-training are chosen to be included in this study. These factors are
categorized into three distinct dimensions: (1) trainee (computer self-efficacy and motivation to learn), (2) course
(ease of use and contents of training), and (3) organization (management support and organizational support). The
effect of user satisfaction on e-training effectiveness in terms of continuance intention and net benefits to individual
are then investigated.
Trainee dimension: Computer self-efficacy and motivation to learn
According to Compeau and Higgins (1995), computer self-efficacy is an individual’s belief in his or her ability to
perform specific computer tasks. It is believed that individuals having high level of computer self-efficacy are more
likely to engage in computer tasks and demonstrate persistence in completing computer tasks despite difficulties
(Johnson, Lester & Ferguson, 2001). Likewise, Lim et al. (2007) found that the higher the trainee’s computer self-
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