Is more always better? Investigating the task-technology fit theory in an online user context Muhammad Aljukhadar a,1 , Sylvain Senecal b, *, Jacques Nantel b a King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia b HEC Montreal, 3000 Ch. Cote Ste-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3T 2A7 1. Introduction Recent reports suggest that there are low conversion rates of commercial websites (below 4% in 2012) and large cart abandon- ment rates (60% in 2012). 2 Academic research has also noted the low rates of successful completion of online tasks (e.g., below 60% for shopping tasks [8]). It is therefore necessary to investigate the factors that affect users’ achievement of their online tasks. By identifying the IT characteristics that drive the success of online tasks, this research could contribute to efficient website design and its management. Task-Technology Fit theory (TTF) [6] has been applied mainly at the organizational rather than the end user level [7]. Researchers however indicate the potential implications of TTF at the individual level. Recent work on the behavior of online users suggests that the site characteristics or the site quality dimensions positively influence the user task completion and behavioral intentions [10]. An unanswered question nonetheless is whether enhancing the IT characteristics has comparable and positive effect on performance; in other words, is more always better? According to TTF, some technology characteristics exert positive effects on performance, subject to the task at hand and environmental factors. Thus, only a subset of the site character- istics may significantly improve outcomes. We therefore decided to study the application of TTF to an individual user context in order to pinpoint the technology factors that facilitate users’ successful completion of online tasks and to show the relative importance of these factors in predicting task completion and then compare these results with actual user characteristics as captured in a survey. Our second objective was to investigate the effects of task completion and website character- istics on the user behavioral intentions. 2. Literature review 2.1. The user online task Tasks are user actions causing system outputs. Subordinate (concrete and specific) tasks closely affect superordinate (abstract and value-laden) tasks and jointly affect user decision making and outcome [1]. The significance of studying subordinate tasks results from the fact that users focus more on the task at hand (involving proximal and concrete goals) in order to solve more abstract tasks. For instance, users have been seen to abandon their shopping carts Information & Management 51 (2014) 391–397 A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 9 December 2009 Received in revised form 9 October 2011 Accepted 25 October 2013 Available online 15 March 2014 Keywords: Task-Technology Fit Website characteristics Task completion Performance Intention User characteristics A B S T R A C T We used Task-Technology Fit (TTF) theory to examine the drivers and consequences of successful task completion by a user in an online context. The theory suggests that the fit between characteristics of the task and those of the website predicts user performance and behavioral intentions. Our hypotheses were tested using the input of two large scale studies performed in twelve industries and involving 13,135 participants. Results, which were replicated in a proximate culture, lend support to the predictions of Task-Technology Fit theory. The site information quality and ease of use were the only technology factors that significantly drove the users to a successful completion of their information tasks, rather than the site’s graphical attractiveness, interactivity, security and privacy factors. The findings further suggested that focusing on the enhancement of site characteristics that have low fit with the task is not effective as it resulted in slowing the successful completion of the online task. ß 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 514 340 6980; fax: +1 514 340 5631. E-mail addresses: maljukhadar@kau.edu.sa (M. Aljukhadar), ss@hec.ca (S. Senecal). 1 Tel.: +966 543 147242. 2 eMarketer, Shopping Cart Abandonment: New Ways of Looking at the Purchase Path, 2013 (last accessed Nov. 2013) [http://www.emarketer.com/Reports/View- er.aspx?R=2001048]. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Information & Management jo u rn al h om ep ag e: ww w.els evier.c o m/lo c ate/im http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2013.10.003 0378-7206/ß 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.