Exploration and Exploitation of Information Systems Usage and Individual Performance

Abstract

Recent Information Systems (IS) publications reveal an emerging interest in studying post-acceptance system usage behaviors. This paper extends the exploitation versus exploration construct to define a new typology of post-acceptance usage behaviors and defines ambidexterity as the capacity to simultaneously achieve exploitative usage and explorative usage. This study examines the relation between exploitation and exploration in IS usage and how the two types of usages can jointly influence individual performance in the post-acceptance stage. Based on a sample of 215 employees, this study finds that exploitative usage and explorative usage have different effects on individual performance, and shows that the interaction between exploitative usage and explorative usage is positively related to individual performance.