Construct measurement in management information systems: A review and critique of user satisfaction and user involvement instruments

Construct measurement in management information systems (MIS) is still very much in its infancy and has not yet produced instruments of adequate reliability and validity, thereby raising questions about the robustness of substantive findings. User satisfaction (US) and user involvement (UI) are two central MIS constructs which have been conceptualized and operationalized in a number of different ways and from divergent theoretical perspectives. The most commonly used measures of US and UI are critically evaluated here against a set of traditional psychometric criteria. Based on this evaluation, a number of psychometric and substantive problems regarding the scales are identified which are categorized as scale, sample, reliability, methodological and reporting problems. A variety of methods and techniques designed to overcome the measurement problems analyzed in this research are discussed to increase the quality of construct measurement in MIS and recommendations for an ongoing program of construct validation are presented.