What Methodology Attributes Are Critical for Potential Users? Understanding the Effect of Human Needs - Advanced Information Systems Engineering - page 321

adapting the methodology to suit their own skills set and context of use. We therefore
propose that nAch will have a moderating effect on the strength of the effect of rela-
tive advantage Æ methodology use, complexity Æ methodology use, and reinvent-
ability Æ methodology use.
Need for cognition (nCog) is the desire for knowledge, reasoning [32,36] as well as
the need to explore and discover. Individuals high in nCog tend to naturally seek, ac-
quire, think about, and reflect on information by experimenting and exploring, to make
sense of a problem at hand [8]. Therefore, people high in nCog are more likely to want
to try out methodologies, to better understand for themselves how proposed benefits
are expected to be achieved, whether or not the promises are justified, and how their
way of doing things changes. The desire to try out, extract, and process information
by oneself , instead of simply “buying into” the anecdotes, demonstrations, reasoning
tactics, and rational appeals of peers or experts is what characterises cognitive behav-
iour. Consequently, we expect nCog to have a moderating effect on the strength of the
effect of triability Æ methodology use, and reinventability Æ methodology use.
Need for harm avoidance (nHav) is a personality trait characterised by excessive
worrying, pessimism, fearfulness, and doubtfulness. Harm-avoidant individuals are
biased in the direction of seeking to end behaviours that might involve worrying, fear
of uncertainty, and increased risk of anxiety [32]. As such, individuals high in nHav
attempt to pursue behaviour that helps them reduce any risk and uncertainty attached
to new methodology use. Methodologies that are considered complex and hard to
execute are avoided, since risk of failure increases with rising complexity. A method-
ology perceived to be compatible with old routines involves minimal change and is
therefore considered safe, because it corresponds to previous experience. Similarly,
individuals will seek to experiment and try out methodologies prior to making their
final choice, in order to identify those that might be potentially risky and carry a high
degree of outcome uncertainty. As a result, we propose that nHav will have a moder-
ating effect on the strength of the effect of complexity Æ methodology use, compati-
bility Æ methodology use, and triability Æ methodology use.
Empirical research has shown that the above-mentioned needs are largely uncorre-
lated with one another [36,45]. Although the list of needs in the literature is extensive,
we consider these four needs to be representative of the most fundamental high-level
primary needs in the context of influence tactics, in the sense of being innate or “hard-
wired” [45]. Other secondary needs can be derived from these high-level primary
needs. For example, Murray's need for play, need for curiosity , and need for under-
standing may be attributed to nCog , the need for contrarience , and the need for ac-
quisition may be derived from nAch . The need for family - as proposed by Reiss [36]
- and the need for social recognition may be attributed to nAffi , and the need to com-
pete or win can also be derived from nAch [45]. Another reason to study fewer needs,
rather than more, relates to the value of a parsimonious approach: as the list of needs
increases, the utility of the approach diminishes. A long, unwieldy list of needs is
precisely the reason why earlier needs-related theories fell out of favour [13].
The related research hypotheses are summarised in Table 1, which also provides an
overview of some studies that have used validated instruments to operationalize the
constructs of our conceptual model.