University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Industrial and Management Systems Engineering -- Dissertations and Student Industrial and Management Systems Research Engineering 12-2010 Information Quality on the World Wide Web: A User Perspective Jaikrit Kandari University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/imsediss Part of the Library and Information Science Commons, Management Information Systems Commons, Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons, and the Other Engineering Commons Kandari, Jaikrit, "Information Quality on the World Wide Web: A User Perspective" (2010). Industrial and Management Systems Engineering -- Dissertations and Student Research. 16. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/imsediss/16 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Industrial and Management Systems Engineering at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering -- Dissertations and Student Research by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. INFORMATION QUALITY ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB: A USER PERSPECTIVE by Jaikrit Singh Kandari A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Science Major: Industrial and Management Systems Engineering Under the Supervision of Professor Ramaratnam Ram Bishu Lincoln, Nebraska December, 2010 INFORMATION QUALITY ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB: A USER PERSPECTIVE Jaikrit Singh Kandari, M.S. University of Nebraska, 2010 Advisor: Ramaratnam Ram Bishu Information Quality has emerged as an important measure for the success of Information Systems. At the same time the World Wide Web has established itself as the key infrastructure for information administration, exchange, and publication. Users are getting information from the web at the click of a button however they must filter sub- standard information before they can use quality content. Researchers have aimed to address this problem by suggesting various information quality frameworks. Research till date has seen twenty important Information Quality (IQ) frameworks emerge. These models though varied in their approach and application share a number of characteristics regarding their classifications of the attributes of quality. A new framework for the measurement of information quality is developed and twenty two information quality dimensions are identified for measuring information quality in context of the web from a user perspective. An online survey instrument is used for data collection. The research argues that WWW is not a homogeneous entity and should be understood from individual aspects of three independent variables of web domain, type of website and end user nationality to arrive at its conclusion. Results highlight nine IQ dimensions which are important across the whole web environment, while thirteen dimensions have contextual importance and vary across web domain and national culture. Keywords: Information Quality (IQ), IQ Frameworks, survey instrument, reliability iii To Ma and Papa iv ACKNOWEDGEMENTS To my principal advisor, Professor Ram Bishu. You have a sign on your door reading “If you torture the data long enough it will confess to anything”. Thank you for showing me that data is meant to be understood and not tortured to arrive at a result. To my beautiful wife. For being the sanity of my world. For being the better half in our marriage. For being the patient one. For being the strong one and for being herself! Thank you for sharing this journey with me. To my committee members Dr. Erick C. Jones and Dr. Fiona Nah. For your patient ear. For extending those deadlines and for telling me that it will all come together at the end. Thank you for agreeing to be a part of this work and for your encouragement. To my family. Ma and papa for keeping the faith in your son. To my sister, for saying I could do it. To my in-laws for being patient and encouraging. To my lab – RfSCL and Ergonomics, for just being there whenever needed and finally to the survey participants….what would I do without you! v Table of Contents Abstract List of Tables ……………………………………………………………... viii List of Figures ……………………………………………………………... ix Chapter 1 Introduction………………………………………………… 1 Chapter 2 Information Quality on the World Wide Web: Development of a Framework (Paper 1)………………........ 4 Abstract……………………………………………….......... 6 Introduction…………………………………………............ 7 Information systems………………………………………... 8 . Overview………………………………………….......... 8 . History………………………………………………….. 10 . The Complexity…………………………………………. 11 Information Quality………………………………………... 13 . Information Quality Frameworks……………………...... 13 Research Objective……………………………………….... 20 Development of Framework……………………………….. 21 . Finding Common Dimensions…………………………... 21 . Finalize and Define Dimensions in context of WWW……. 23 . Development of the Survey Instrument…………………. 24 Cognitive Interviews………………………………... 25 Reliability Testing …………………………..……… 28 Conclusion…………………………………………………. 28 vi References………………………………………………….. 30 Appendix I…………………………………………………. 36 Chapter 3 Information Quality on the World Wide Web: A Framework for Measurement and its Validation (Paper 2) 39 Abstract…………………………………………………….. 41 Introduction………………………………………………… 42 Theoretical Background and Research Objectives………… 43 . Information Quality…………………………………….. 43 . Information Quality Frameworks……………………….. 43 . Development of Framework…………………………….. 45 . Research Questions……………………………………... 46 Research Methodology…………………………………….. 48 . Experimental Design……………………………………. 48 . Model…………………………………………………… 49 . Data Collection………………………………………….. 50 Instrument Development…………………………… 50 Sample……………………………………………… 50 Online Survey Hosting…………………………….. 51 Results……………………………………………………. 51 . Demographics…………………………………………. 51 . Analysis……………………………………………….. 52 Description of Survey Questions…………………... 52 Results for Importance Aspect…………………….. 53 vii Interpretation of Importance Results……………... 59 One WAY ANOVA………………………………….. 63 Discussion………………………………………………… 66 References………………………………………………... 70 Chapter 4 Discussion………………………………………………… 74 Appendix viii List of Tables Chapter 2 Journal Paper 1 Figure 1: The Socio-Technical System (watson 2007) Figure 2: DeLone and McLean IS Success Model (1992) Figure 3: Snapshot of a page from Actual Survey Hosted on surveymonkey.com Chapter 3 Journal Paper 2 Figure 1: Snapshot of www.amazon.com vs. www.planetonline.com Figure 2: Snapshot of a page from the actual survey hosted on surveymonkey.com Figure 3: Accessibility mean vs. Web Domain Figure 4: Reputation mean vs. Web Domain Figure 5: Relevancy mean vs. Web Domain Figure 6: Authority mean vs. Nationality Figure 7: Timeliness mean vs. Nationality Figure 8a: Value added mean vs. Web Domain Figure 8b: Value added mean vs. Nationality Figure 9a: Availability mean vs. Web Domain Figure 9b: Availability mean vs. Nationality Figure 10a: Ease of Operation mean vs. Web Domain Figure 10b: Ease of Operation mean vs. Nationality Figure 11: Interaction Effect of Domain*Nation vs. Security Figure 12: Interaction Effect of Domain*Nation vs. Efficiency Figure 13: Interpretability mean vs. Nationality Figure 14: 2X2 results quadrant Figure 15: Mean values of twenty two IQ dimensions Figure 16: Summary Results Divided into Results Quadrant ix List of Figures Chapter 2 Journal Paper 1 Table 1: Chronological List of IQ Framework - Adapted from Knight(2008) Table 2: Tracing IQ Dimensional Commonality in Existing Frameworks Table 3: IQ Dimensions used in the Research - Definitions Table 4: Initial Survey Questionnaire Table 5: Number of Constructs and Cronbach's Alpha values for IQ Dimensions Chapter 3 Journal Paper 2 Table 1: Tracing IQ Dimensional commonality in existing frameworks Table 2: IQ Dimensions used in the research with Definitions Table 3: The between-subject research model Table 4: Website selection within each domain Table 5: Data Distribution -Balanced Cell Table 6: Demographic Data Table 7: ANOVA Summary for Importance Levels Table 8: Relative rankings of IQ dimensions within 2 levels of same factor Table 9: One –Way ANOVA Summary for e-commerce Table 10: One –Way ANOVA Summary for e-commerce Table 11: Relative Rankings of IQ Dimensions 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Information Systems (IS) field has seen exponential growth both in terms of scope and complexity. Much of this can be attributed to the numerous disruptive technology innovations that have skewed IS‟s progress graph unlike any known field. One invention in information systems that has contributed hugely to its tremendous growth is the World Wide Web. The internet provides users easy means of interactive communication which was not possible before. Anyone can publish information on the web by simply acquiring space on a website and creating an electronic document (Herrera-Viedma et al. 2006). The scale and reach of published information on the Web dwarfs that of the print world. In the process the internet has become the largest available repository of data with the largest number of visitors searching for information (Herrera-Viedma et al. 2006). People who need information to accomplish their tasks are finally being provided with easy online access to relevant information (Strong et al. 1997b). However, these information consumers must take