Behavioral Drivers Behind Shadow IT Twenty-second Americas Conference on Information Systems, San Diego, 2016 1 Behavioral Drivers Behind Shadow IT and Its Outcomes in Terms of Individual Performance Emergent Research Forum Papers Gabriela Labres Mallmann Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul gabriela.mallmann@ufrgs.br Antonio Carlos Gastaud Maçada Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul acgmacada@ea.ufrgs.br Abstract Given the increasing use of unauthorized technologies by employees in organizations, called Shadow IT, the traditional way to manage technology is changing. This research aims to verify the behavioral drivers behind Shadow IT usage and its outcomes in terms of individual performance. We developed a conceptual model based on literature on Human-Computer Interaction and Shadow IT. To evaluate this model, we will perform a Survey research with IT users of companies. The preliminary results are presented at the end of this research-in-progress. Keywords Shadow IT, IT usage behavior, IT Management, Individual Performance. Introduction Business unit employees who provide their own technological solutions, called Shadow Information Technology (Shadow IT), are changing the IT department’s role in its support of these professionals in what relates to choice and use of technological tools to perform work tasks. Shadow IT is any IT solution used by employees to perform work tasks with no approval or support from the company's IT department (Györy et al. 2012; Rentrop and Zimmermann 2012; Silic and Back 2014; Walters 2013). Thus, Shadow IT is a behavioral phenomenon since it is derived from the employee's behavior in using unauthorized or unknown technologies. Although Shadow IT is not a new phenomenon, it is currently misunderstood and relatively unexplored (Silic and Back 2014). Moreover, Haag and Eckhardt (2015) note the difficulty of finding research that explicitly and empirically investigates the antecedents of Shadow IT usage and the behavior related to it. Accordingly, our objective is to answer these two questions: 1) Which behavioral factors drive individuals to use Shadow IT and 2) what is the relation of Shadow IT and individual performance? Based on literature on Human-Computer Interaction and Shadow IT, we developed a conceptual model that aids to verify the behavioral drivers behind Shadow IT usage and its outcomes in terms of individual performance. The contribution of this research to the academic community is in developing a scale of Shadow IT usage and a model that links this behavior with individual performance. For companies, it is important to understand the behavior related to Shadow IT usage so as to develop more effective IT polices. In addition, Silic and Back (2014) argue that if these Shadow Systems improves employee productivity and innovation, they could be an important decision-making factor with regard to a firm's future strategic directions. This paper opens with the conceptual development of the research-in-progress. Subsequently, the research model and hypotheses are proposed. Finally, the method and the preliminary results and proceeding steps are described.