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risks. This is also reflected in their recognition of
the need for complementary approaches to risk
reduction.
There has been concern expressed in the lit-
erature about the ability of end users to recognise
what kinds of development tools are appropriate
for different sorts of applications (Alavi & Weiss,
1985-1986; Davis, 1988; O'Donnell & March,
1987). The comparative rankings of the perceived
benefits of Web development and spreadsheet
development suggest that end users are becom-
ing more sophisticated in matching tools to ap-
plications. For example, Web development was
rated very highly for improving accessibility of
information, but significantly less important than
spreadsheets for improving decision making ef-
fectiveness.
over Web page development. The most important
reason for not creating Web pages was lack of
knowledge, and the majority of those who had
not yet created Web pages acknowledged the
possibility of doing so in the near future.
As can be seen from the discussion of the risks
and benefits of end-user development, although
end-user Web page development has many char-
acteristics in common with traditional end-user
development, there are many areas in which Web
page development differs and it is important that
research into these areas continue. It seems that
end-user Web development is here to stay, and will
have far-reaching consequences. Management of
its risks will therefore be of increasing importance
to organizations. The results of this study have
practical implications for the management of end-
user Web development in organizations. End-user
developers are aware of both the benefits and
risks of end-user Web development, and it will
be essential to ensure their involvement in the
development of approaches to control risks.
Previous research suggests that end-user
developers respond better to approaches that
emphasise support for development of high
quality and appropriate applications rather than
control of development (Bergeron & Berube,
1988; Bowman, 1988). The results of this study
support this, with training being seen as the most
important approach to the reduction of the risks
of end-user Web development. Self training was
found to be the most prevalent type of training,
but it is unclear from this study whether this is
because end-user developers prefer self training or
because other forms of training are not available.
Simmers and Anandarajan (2001, p. 55) recom-
mended that 'formal training should be planned
and implemented so that the positive attributes
of self training (flexibility, moving at one's own
pace, freedom and autonomy) can be blended
with organizational requirements, creating a
better training experience for both the individual
and the organization.' This advice appears sound
and meshes with the need to explore the role of
ConClusion
Despite early concerns about its risks (e.g., Alavi
& Weiss, 1985-1986; Davis, 1988), end-user
development has become an integral part of
organizational information provision (Downey,
2004; McLean, Kappelman, & Thompson,
1993; Shayo et al., 1999). End-user developers
may now take advantage of user-friendly Web
development tools to create Web applications,
and the prevalence of these applications will only
increase (Ouellette, 1999). The study reported on
in this chapter investigated the extent of Web page
development amongst end users and compared
end-user perceptions of the benefits and risks of
end-user Web development with their perceptions
of those associated with spreadsheet development.
Almost half of the sample of spreadsheet users
studied had created Web pages, yet they had
received little prior training in Web development.
Microsoft Frontpage was the most common tool
used for Web development; however, almost half
had previously used Notepad indicating some
familiarity with HTML code. This suggests a
desire to 'understand' and have more control
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