Users’ groups Interpreted Through the Lens of the Users’ Needs and Motivation

This article proposes a users’ typology grounded in the users’ needs and motivation. We apply cluster analysis, a multivariate technique seldom applied in IS research, to the data obtained from a purposely diversified population of 247 respondents. The three-stage research design is carefully laid out and justified: different procedures are detailed and applied in order to limit possible bias and maximize the stability and reproducibility of the resulting IT-users’ typology. Through this validation-oriented design, the proposed typology is inferred from our quantitative results which confirm and refine a users’ taxonomy previously brought to light through qualitative methods. Our results open the way to the investigation of a new second order formative construct which may be an antecedent of two well established constructs in IS research: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. They also lead to corporate applications involving the customization of IT-training depending on users’ profiles in order to facilitate new IT implementation.