Exploring the Measurement of End User Computing Success

Abstract

As end user computing (EUC) becomes more pervasive in organizations, a need arises to measure and understand the factors that make EUC successful. EUC success is viewed as a subclass of organizational information system (IS) success, having distinct characteristics that distinguish it from other sources of organizational computing success. Namely, the success of applications developed by the information systems department (ISD), software vendors, or outsourcing companies. The literature shows that despite the volitional nature of end user computing, end user satisfaction is the most popular measure EUC success. Moreover, despite known limitations reported in the literature, self-reported scales are the instruments of choice by most researchers. This paper explores the literature on EUC success measurement and discusses the main issues and concerns researchers face. While alluding to the difficulty of devising economic and quantitative measures of EUC success, recommendations are made including the use of unobtrusive measures of success, take into account contextual factors, use well-defined concepts and measures and seek a comprehensive integrated model that incorporates a global view.