You are on page 1of 13

Journal of Business Research 167 (2023) 114190

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Business Research


journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres

The future is now but is it here to stay? Employees’ perspective on working


from home
Xiu-Ming Loh a, Voon-Hsien Lee a, Jun-Jie Hew a, Garry Wei-Han Tan b, c, d, e, Keng-Boon Ooi b, c, f, *
a
Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar, Malaysia
b
UCSI Graduate Business School, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
c
Faculty of Business, Design, and Arts, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Sarawak, Malaysia
d
College of Business Administration, Adamson University, Manila, Philippines
e
Department of Business Administration, IQRA University, Karachi, Pakistan
f
FORE School of Management, New Delhi, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled the implementation of work from home (WFH) on a global scale. While
Protection Motivation Theory initial responses to the WFH arrangement have been mixed, a majority of them are negative. However, much is
Transactional Theory of Stress still unknown about the antecedents of work productivity and continuance intention associated with WFH.
Status Quo Bias
Hence, this study developed a multi-dimensional research model that comprises of the Protection Motivation
Work from home
Theory, Transactional Theory of Stress, and Status Quo Bias to look into this matter. The responses were collected
COVID-19
Work productivity from employees with WFH experience and analyzed via the Structural Equation Modeling-Artificial Neural
Continuance intention Network (SEM-ANN). Interestingly, perceived vulnerability and perceived severity had no significant relation­
ship with continuance intention. Besides, self-efficacy to handle work tasks from home was found to facilitate
work productivity. In contrast, technostress was found as an inhibitor of work productivity and continuance
intention to WFH. Overall, the employees’ perspective on WFH captured in this study provides great value to
organizational stakeholders. This is because companies with good WFH arrangements have a powerful
competitive advantage in employee recruitment and retention.

1. Introduction the first time for many companies to execute such an arrangement
(Escudero & Kleinman, 2022). Unfortunately for many employees, WFH
In view of the rapid transmissibility of the COVID-19 virus, countries was not the dream experience that they were expecting. This is because
around the world have implemented varying degrees of lockdown re­ they had to deal with a variety of issues and challenges inherent to WFH.
strictions in efforts to curb its spread. As a result, it has undoubtedly More precisely, employees did not only find it difficult to balance be­
changed how all of humanity carry out a wide variety of activities. This tween home and work tasks but were also stressed by the excessive
is mainly attributed to the rapid digitalization that was forced upon the amount of time spent dealing with underlying technological complex­
general public when it came to conducting daily activities under the new ities (Saura et al., 2022). This can be attributed to the lack of resources,
normal (Dwivedi et al., 2020). One of which involves remote work, or knowledge, and skills when utilizing technology for work-related pur­
commonly referred to as work from home (WFH). Before the COVID-19 poses. Hence, many employees felt the pressure of needing to regularly
pandemic, WFH was merely an abstract concept to many employers and equip themselves to effectively WFH (Lund et al., 2020). It is therefore
employees as it was not widely practiced. However, this situation has not shocking that many employees complained about having to work
since changed since the COVID-19 pandemic as WFH quickly became the longer hours, attend more virtual meetings, as well as the blurring of
norm (Vyas & Butakhieo, 2021). lines between work and personal life (Laker, 2020). With that said, a
With that said, the implementation of WFH following the COVID-19 number of companies have decided to permanently adopt the WFH
pandemic garnered mixed responses (more negative ones) as this was arrangement (Stoller, 2021). Following the novelty of this situation,

* Corresponding author at: UCSI Graduate Business School, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
E-mail addresses: lohxiuming96@gmail.com (X.-M. Loh), leevoonhsien@gmail.com (V.-H. Lee), hew.jun.jie@gmail.com (J.-J. Hew), garrytanweihan@gmail.com
(G.W.-H. Tan), ooikengboon@gmail.com (K.-B. Ooi).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114190
Received 15 October 2021; Received in revised form 19 July 2023; Accepted 21 July 2023
Available online 5 August 2023
0148-2963/© 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
X.-M. Loh et al. Journal of Business Research 167 (2023) 114190

such companies will need to develop strategies to encourage their em­ with his/her environment (Ayyagari et al., 2011). More precisely, when
ployees to continue working from home. the pressures from the environment are considered to have surpassed a
Theoretically, the present study is closely related to several recent person’s abilities, he/she experiences stress. Thus, the formation of
studies. For example, George et al. (2022) looked into the perceived stress is highly contextual as it is dependent on both the individual’s
stress, health challenges, work productivity, and well-being of em­ abilities and environmental situation (Tarafdar et al., 2019). With that
ployees that have transitioned to WFH as a result of the COVID-19 said, the TTS has been utilized to conceptualize the stress experienced
pandemic. Moreover, Prodanova and Kocarev (2022) assessed the pro­ from technology usage known as technostress (Tarafdar et al., 2010).
ductivity, satisfaction, and intention to continue with remote work The term “technostress” is broadly defined as “a modern disease of
among employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the adaptation caused by an inability to cope with new information and
uniqueness of the present study is based on its situational contextuali­ communication technologies (ICTs) in a healthy manner” (Brod, 1984,
zation. More precisely, while recent studies were carried out during the p.16).
early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study was conducted during Technostress is more pervasive and amplified in today’s digital era
the preparational period of transitioning to the endemic stage (Bernama, given the rapid pace of technological advancements and diffusion. More
2021). Hence, this study is significant as it looks to capture the temporal recently, employees had to abruptly adopt WFH practices for extended
issues influencing the employees’ sentiments towards WFH (Venkatesh periods of time because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For many, this is
et al., 2021). aggravated by the fact that it is their first experience working from home
Overall, this study looks to ascertain the antecedents that affect and were offered minimal preparation (Yuen, 2021). As such, this situ­
employees’ continuance intention to WFH. In order to achieve this goal, ation has led to an increase in the level and severity of technostress as
a multi-dimensional model was developed by integrating the Protection employees would have to quickly upgrade their technical knowledge
Motivation Theory, Transactional Theory of Stress, and Status Quo Bias. and skills given the higher exposure to complicated systems. Therefore,
Overall, many companies have decided to implement the WFH technostress has been linked with numerous negative outcomes such as
arrangement permanently (Stoller, 2021) with even more considering decreased continuance commitment (Tarafdar et al., 2010), organiza­
implementing such an arrangement. Thus, the insights from this study tional performance (Tarafdar et al., 2015)and work productivity (Pirk­
will offer great value to the top management of these companies in kalainen et al., 2019).
developing effective WFH arrangements for their employees. In addi­
tion, this study serves as an extension to the existing literature on 2.3. Status Quo Bias (SQB)
organizational management as it looks into the effects of health risks,
self-efficacy, stress, and resistance to change on employees’ work pro­ The SQB provides a theoretically driven conceptualization in
ductivity and continuance intention to WFH. capturing the preference of individuals for the status quo instead of
trying new things. According to the SQB, when making an actual deci­
2. Literature review sion, people tend to keep with their current selection. This phenomenon
is more prevalent when someone is confronted with a decision that in­
2.1. Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) volves something new. In such a situation, the SQB postulates that in­
dividuals are likely to continue with their current behaviors and past
The PMT was established by Rogers (1975) which theorized that decisions (Samuelson & Zeckhauser, 1988). This has been confirmed by
when an individual is confronted with a threat, he/she carries out two several past studies which found that users tend to adhere to the status
appraisal processes. The first appraisal focuses on the threat itself while quo rather than consider the available alternatives (Li et al., 2021; Gong
the other emphasizes the ability to act against that threat (i.e., threat and et al., 2020; Polites & Karahanna, 2012; Kim & Kankanhalli, 2009).
coping appraisal respectively). Following both appraisals, the person With that said, SQB is frequently manifested in the form of inertia
will then decide whether to act in an adaptive or maladaptive manner. In which refers to “staying with the current course of action” (Samuelson &
particular, adaptive behaviours are responses intended to protect Zeckhauser, 1988, p.23). More precisely, it is the attachment to and
someone from a threat, whereas maladaptive responses include a variety persistence of established behaviors despite the availability of superior
of behaviours in which the threat recipient avoids conducting a rec­ options and incentives to change. In other words, inertia reflects the
ommended response (Verkoeyen & Nepal, 2019). During the threat unwillingness to shift to present or future alternatives that may be
appraisal stage, an individual will determine how serious the conse­ relatively advantageous when compared to the status quo. In this study,
quences of the threat are (i.e., perceived severity) as well as the prob­ although many employees have been compelled to WFH, most of them
ability of the threat materializing in a way that will directly affect them may be inertial towards the traditional work arrangement. This can be
(i.e., perceived vulnerability). attributed to longer working hours, more work-related meetings, as well
Consequently, individuals will assess their ability to deal with the as the blurring of lines between work and personal life following the
threat (van Bavel et al., 2019) as well as their level of confidence to carry WFH implementation (Laker, 2020). Therefore, this study incorporates
out the protective action (i.e., self-efficacy) during the coping appraisal the construct of inertia to account for the employees’ preference towards
(Shafiei & Maleksaeidi, 2020). This evaluation would result in a person’s the incumbent (i.e., traditional work arrangement) as a possible reason
decision to engage in protective or adaptive behaviours (Verkoeyen & for their aversion to continue working from home (see Fig. 1).
Nepal, 2019). The PMT has been utilized in several recent empirical
studies to investigate the relationships between PMT components on 3. Hypotheses development
attitude (Zhang et al., 2020) and protective behaviors (Wang et al.,
2019). As the PMT focuses on predicting how people will react to health 3.1. Perceived vulnerability (PV) and perceived severity (PS)
threats, it is suitable for this study in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thus, it is used to explain the salient behavioral beliefs and their influ­ According to Zhang et al. (2020), perceived vulnerability is defined
ence on employees’ intention to continue working from home. as the employees’ probability evaluation regarding their exposure to the
COVID-19 disease, whereas perceived severity is defined as the severity
2.2. Transactional Theory of stress (TTS) of consequences that arises from the infection of COVID-19 disease. With
regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, perceived vulnerability is based on
The TTS has been widely utilized to capture the procedural forma­ the high transmissibility of the virus which has infected over 217 million
tion of stress (Lazarus, 1966). Very simply, this approach posited that individuals whereas perceived severity is based on the 4.5 million lives
the development of stress is due to the interplay between an individual lost due to the virus as of 1 September 2021 (Myers, 2021). In view of

2
X.-M. Loh et al. Journal of Business Research 167 (2023) 114190

Fig. 1. Proposed Conceptual Model.

this, the general public has taken many preventive measures to prevent efficacy with WFH would experience lesser technostress. However,
getting infected by the virus such as hygienic behavior (Kim et al., 2022) studies in the COVID-19 context have scarcely looked into the effect of
and travel avoidance (Zheng et al., 2021). Particularly in the context of self-efficacy on continuance intention, work productivity, and techno­
the workforce, one of the main protective measures implemented is in stress (Loh et al., 2022a; Straus et al., 2022). Following the above-
the form of WFH arrangements. Overall, as employees are concerned mentioned, this study hypothesized that:
about the transmissibility of the COVID-19 virus and perceive it as a
serious health risk, they would have a higher intention to continue with H3: Self-efficacy has a positive relationship with continuance
WFH arrangements. This is based on the employees’ motive to eliminate intention.
physical contact with their colleagues and prevent the possibility of H4: Self-efficacy has a positive relationship with work productivity.
getting infected by others in the workplace. However, Sreelakshmi and H5: Self-efficacy has a negative relationship with technostress.
Prathap (2020) found no direct relationship between perceived health
threat from the COVID-19 pandemic with continuance intention. In an 3.3. Technostress (TS)
effort to further ascertain this, the following hypotheses were
developed: In addition, extant information systems literature suggests that when
individuals are experiencing technostress , they would have the inten­
H1: Perceived vulnerability has a significantly positive relationship tion to discontinue their technology use (Maier et al., 2015; Mak et al.,
with continuance intention. 2018). In the workplace, it was found that the technostress experienced
H2: Perceived severity has a positive relationship with continuance by employees would affect their intentions to extend the use of tech­
intention. nology (Fuglseth & Sørebø, 2014). Furthermore, past studies have found
that technostress has negative impacts on employees’ performance and
3.2. Self-Efficacy (SE) productivity (da Silva Cezar & Maçada, 2021; Tarafdar et al., 2007).
Besides, given the technostress experienced by employees, they may
This study defines self-efficacy as the level of confidence a person has prefer to maintain the status quo (i.e., traditional working arrangement)
in carrying out the relevant protective action for self-preservation instead of switching to the alternative (i.e., WFH) which would help in
(Fischer-Preßler et al., 2022). Self-efficacy was discovered to be an reducing the likelihood of contracting the COVID-19 virus from the
important factor that drives mitigation behavior (Shafiei & Maleksaeidi, workplace. There are many antecedents to inertia such as the external
2020). Therefore, if employees are highly confident in carrying out the pressure experienced by the individual (Polites & Karahanna, 2012).
protective action (i.e., WFH), they would have a higher tendency to Given that technostress is considered to be a form of pressure for em­
continuously perform the behavior (Fischer-Preßler et al., 2022; War­ ployees (Fuglseth & Sørebø, 2014), it is normal for employees experi­
kentin et al., 2016). Furthermore, Villotti et al. (2018) established that encing high levels of technostress to have inertia towards the status quo
self-efficacy is positively linked with work productivity. Similarly, if (i.e., traditional working arrangement). From the above-mentioned, the
employees are confident in handling their work-related tasks while following hypotheses were developed:
working from home, this would result in better work productivity.
However, a survey revealed that employees who WFH during the H6: Technostress has a negative relationship with work productivity.
pandemic have a desire to continue doing so since they had become H7: Technostress has a negative relationship with continuance
accustomed to the WFH lifestyle (Saad & Wigert, 2021). Besides, in the intention.
technological context, it was reported that a higher level of computer H8: Technostress has a positive relationship with inertia.
self-efficacy would reduce technostress to a certain extent (Shu et al.,
2011). This is especially true given that a higher level of self-efficacy will 3.4. Inertia (IN)
help individuals feel confident in executing their work-related tasks,
making them more adaptive even under stressful situations (Yener et al., Polites and Karahanna (2012) stated that inertia is the person’s un­
2021). Therefore, it is expected that employees with a high level of self- willingness to leave the status quo even if there are alternatives present.

3
X.-M. Loh et al. Journal of Business Research 167 (2023) 114190

It is synonymous with resistance to change which has been revealed to respondents were solicited for the pilot test. For the actual data collec­
be a significant determinant for the failure of change initiatives in the tion, a professional data collector was employed to assist with the data
organizational (Amarantou et al., 2018; Lenka et al., 2018) and personal collection due to the complex situation in Malaysia. Overall, 271 re­
(Loh et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2020) settings. This desire to continue sponses were collected but only 231 responses were valid after the
with the status quo has also been found to reduce employees’ intention filtering process. The descriptive statistics of the 231 respondents were
to use new technology (Sillic, 2019). Particularly with the WFH initia­ reported in Appendix B.
tives that were implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many In addition, a dual-stage Structural Equation Modeling-Artificial
employees across the board were affected. This is because working in the Neural Network (SEM-ANN) approach was utilized for the data anal­
office has been the norm for countless years. Furthermore, employees ysis. In particular, the Partial Least Squares-SEM (PLS-SEM) which has
were required to make technological and personal changes in order to been widely employed by past information systems research (e.g., Loh
optimize their WFH arrangements (Vyas & Butakhieo, 2021). Hence, et al., 2023; Tew et al., 2021) was utilized in this study given its suit­
employees may develop high levels of inertia towards traditional work ability to analyze complex models (Hair et al., 2022). Besides, the ANN
arrangements which would result in their unwillingness to continue was supplemented to capture the non-linear and non-compensatory re­
with WFH arrangements. With that said, the hypothesis below was lationships between predictors and target constructs which better re­
developed: flects the complex processes in human decision-making (Loh et al.,
2022b).
H9: Inertia has a negative relationship with continuance intention.
5. Data analysis
3.5. Work productivity (WP)
5.1. Common method bias (CMB)
Work productivity is a vital element to all companies as it affects
their overall business performance (Farooq & Sultana, 2022; Ooi et al., As this study only utilized the survey method to collect data, CMB
2007). More specifically, it denotes the employee’s ability to accomplish may be present. Therefore, this study adhered to the guidelines sug­
their work-related tasks (Yunus & Ernawati, 2018). With reference to gested by Podsakoff et al., (2003) to procedurally use brief and simple
George et al. (2022), they distinctly examined the productivity and language as well as assure respondents of confidentiality and anonym­
continuance intention of remote workers during the COVID-19 ity. In addition, the unmeasured latent constructed method by Liang
pandemic. In other words, they did not propose a relationship be­ et al. (2007) was also used to assess CMB. As most of the method factor
tween both constructs. In contrast, Prodanova and Kocarev (2022) hy­ loadings (Rb) shown in Table 1 are not significant with a majority of
pothesized that when employees are getting better work productivity them recording negative values, CMB is not a concern in this study.
when working from home, it is likely that they will develop the intention
to continue working from home even after the pandemic has ended. 5.2. Outer measurement model
However, the said hypothesis was not supported by the results. This is
surprising given that the study by Eom et al. (2016) found that increased Subsequently, the reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant
work productivity is one of the drivers for smart work usage among validity of all first-order constructs were ascertained. The thresholds for
public sector employees. Particularly in this study, the scope of work these assessments were based on Hair et al. (2019). As shown in Table 2,
productivity is in the context of working from home. In general, em­ reliability was determined from the values of Cronbach’s alpha, com­
ployees’ work productivity would be affected by the inherent differences posite reliability, and rho_A which were all above 0.7. Furthermore, all
between traditional and WFH arrangements. Hence, only employees outer loadings and average variance extracted were above 0.7 and 0.5
who are able to work productively from home would want to continue respectively, thereby verifying convergent validity. Besides, Table 3
with this arrangement. From the above-mentioned, this study looks to shows that discriminant validity was established by the values of the
further extend the discussion on the relationship between work pro­ HeteroTrait-MonoTrait which were all below 0.85 (Cham et al., 2023).
ductivity and continuance intention with the following hypothesis: As technostress is postulated as a second-order construct in this
study, multicollinearity was assessed at the first-order level. With
H10: Work productivity has a positive relationship with continuance regards to Table 4, multicollinearity was not an issue as the values of the
intention. Variance Inflation Factor for techno-complexity, techno-invasion, and
techno-overload were below 3.3 (Chong et al., 2014; Sarstedt et al.,
4. Research methodology 2019). Moreover, all outer weights for the first-order constructs were
significant except for techno-overload.
The target respondents were current employees with WFH experi­
ence in Malaysia. This is because the country was still in a nationwide 5.3. Inner Structural model
state of emergency with lockdown restrictions implemented in mid-
2021 (Lee, 2021). Besides, non-probability sampling was chosen as With regards to Table 5., H1, H2, and H3 were not supported as
there was no sampling frame available. In this case, purposive sampling perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, and self-efficacy have no
was selected as it would better ensure the right selection of participants significant relationship with continuance intention. Besides, self-
(Lew et al., 2020). In this study, the responses were filtered out if the efficacy has a significantly positive relationship with work productiv­
participants indicated that they were unemployed or had no experience ity; thereby providing support for H4. In contrast, H5 was not supported
with WFH when the responses were being collected. In line with recent as self-efficacy was found to have no significant relations with techno­
studies (e.g., Lau et al., 2021; Yan et al., 2021), G*Power was used to stress. Furthermore, the hypotheses with technostress as the antecedent
determine the minimum sample size. With the settings of 0.05 for (H6, H7, and H8) were supported. In particular, technostress was
margin error, 0.80 for statistical power, 0.15 for effect size, and 8 pre­ discovered to have a significantly negative relationship with both work
dictors, the minimum sample size was calculated to be 109 responses. productivity and continuance intention but a significantly positive one
Appendix A lists all questionnaire items that were gauged with a with inertia. Moreover, inertia was revealed to have a significantly
seven-point Likert scale together with the corresponding sources. A pre- negative relationship with continuance intention which supports H9.
test and pilot test were carried out prior to the actual data collection to Lastly, support was found for H10 as work productivity was revealed to
ensure content validity and reliability respectively. More specifically, have a significant relationship with continuance intention. Moreover, Q2
two academicians were approached for the pre-test whereas 30 was used to assess the model’s predictive relevance. As shown in

4
X.-M. Loh et al. Journal of Business Research 167 (2023) 114190

Table 1
Common Method Factor Analysis.
Latent Construct Indicators Substantive factor loading (Ra) Ra2 Method factor Rb2

loading (Rb)

Perceived Vulnerability PV1 0.816*** 0.666 − 0.085NS 0.007


PV2 0.847*** 0.717 0.014NS 0.000
PV3 0.831*** 0.691 0.070NS 0.005
Perceived Severity PS1 0.904*** 0.817 − 0.013NS 0.000
PS2 0.894*** 0.799 0.013NS 0.000
Self-Efficacy SE1 0.799*** 0.638 0.035NS 0.001
SE2 0.843*** 0.711 − 0.100** 0.010
SE3 0.843*** 0.711 0.068NS 0.005
Techno-Overload TO1 0.707*** 0.500 0.002NS 0.000
TO2 0.817*** 0.667 0.025NS 0.001
TO3 0.796*** 0.634 − 0.121NS 0.015
TO4 0.687*** 0.472 0.084NS 0.007
Techno-Invasion TI1 0.882*** 0.778 − 0.247* 0.061
TI2 1.047*** 1.096 − 0.332*** 0.110
TI3 0.561*** 0.315 0.282** 0.080
TI4 0.567*** 0.321 0.244* 0.060
Techno-Complexity TC1 0.913*** 0.834 − 0.015NS 0.000
TC2 0.891*** 0.794 0.027NS 0.001
TC3 0.924*** 0.854 − 0.012NS 0.000
Inertia IN1 0.707*** 0.500 0.162* 0.026
IN2 0.891*** 0.794 − 0.022 NS 0.000
IN3 0.956*** 0.914 − 0.105* 0.011
IN4 0.883*** 0.780 − 0.029 NS 0.001
Work Productivity WP1 0.802*** 0.643 − 0.023NS 0.001
WP2 0.844*** 0.712 − 0.012NS 0.000
WP3 0.828*** 0.686 0.033NS 0.001
Continuance Intention CI1 0.775*** 0.601 − 0.086NS 0.007
CI2 0.860*** 0.740 − 0.086* 0.007
CI3 0.847*** 0.717 0.038NS 0.001
CI4 0.845*** 0.714 0.126** 0.016
Average 0.827 0.694 ¡0.002 0.014
NS
Note: *** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05, insignificant.

Table 2
Outer Loadings, Reliability, and Convergent Validity.
Constructs Items Outer Loadings Cronbach’s Alpha Composite Reliability Average Variance Extracted

Perceived Vulnerability PV1 0.934 0.776 0.851 0.659


PV2 0.746
PV3 0.739
Perceived Severity PS1 0.777 0.763 0.873 0.777
PS2 0.975
Self-Efficacy SE1 0.827 0.771 0.865 0.682
SE2 0.803
SE3 0.846
Techno-Overload TO1 0.715 0.741 0.838 0.565
TO2 0.835
TO3 0.686
TO4 0.761
Techno-Invasion TI1 0.652 0.747 0.839 0.567
TI2 0.753
TI3 0.811
TI4 0.787
Techno-Complexity TC1 0.900 0.895 0.935 0.827
TC2 0.914
TC3 0.914
Inertia IN1 0.847 0.883 0.919 0.739
IN2 0.871
IN3 0.866
IN4 0.855
Work Productivity WP1 0.795 0.765 0.863 0.678
WP2 0.810
WP3 0.863
Continuance Intention CI1 0.786 0.851 0.900 0.692
CI2 0.855
CI3 0.839
CI4 0.845

5
X.-M. Loh et al. Journal of Business Research 167 (2023) 114190

Table 3
Discriminant Validity.
Latent Construct CI IN PS PV SE TC TI TO WP

CI
IN 0.213

[0.099,0.374]
PS 0.087 0.278

[0.047,0.257] [0.109,0.458]
PV 0.094 0.080 0.494

[0.056,0.274] [0.069, 0.259] [0.233, 0.671]


SE 0.273 0.212 0.101 0.478

[0.176, 0.425] [0.085,0.355] [0.068,0.249] [0.333,0.642]


TC 0.151 0.597 0.222 0.234 0.204

[0.091, 0.255] [0.461,0.709] [0.093,0.372] [0.095,0.439] [0.109,0.337]


TI 0.172 0.557 0.435 0.110 0.145 0.647

[0.110,0.313] [0.422,0.689] [0.265,0.599] [0.085,0.268] [0.108,0.300] [0.528,0.767]


TO 0.151 0.421 0.460 0.132 0.124 0.560 0.832

[0.092,0.336] [0.251,0.577] [0.268,0.659] [0.101,0.263] [0.079,0.313] [0.413,0.691] [0.723,0.933]


WP 0.400 0.265 0.180 0.090 0.326 0.262 0.299 0.223

[0.219,0.587] [0.111,0.457] [0.061,0.371] [0.059,0.275] [0.150,0.500] [0.116,0.444] [0.158,0.489] [0.121,0.457]

Notes: a. PV = Perceived Vulnerability; PS = Perceived Severity; SE = Self-Efficacy; TO = Techno-Overload; TI = Techno-Invasion; = TC = Techno-Complexity; IN =


Inertia; WP = Work Productivity; CI = Continuance Intention. b. The values in the brackets represent the lower and the upper bounds of the 95 % confidence interval.

work productivity.
Table 4
Assessing the Second-Order Construct (Technostress).
5.4.2. Moderation analysis
Indicators Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) Outer Weight Subsequently, a moderation analysis was carried out to obtain
Techno-Overload 1.681 0.005NS further in-depth findings. With regard to past studies, only the moder­
Techno-Invasion 1.906 0.434** ation effects of self-efficacy (Fan et al., 2020) and technostress (Verki­
Techno-Complexity 1.494 0.688***
jika, 2019) were assessed. As shown in Table 8, self-efficacy was found
Note: *** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05, NS
insignificant. to serve as a positive moderator between work productivity and
continuance intention as well as technostress and work productivity.
Table 6, the Q2 values for inertia, work productivity, and continuance However, it had no moderating effect between technostress and
intention are>0. This indicates that the research model is relevant for continuance intention. On the other hand, technostress was revealed to
assessing the three earlier-mentioned constructs (Hair et al., 2022). have no moderating effect between inertia and continuance intention as
well as work productivity and continuance intention.
5.4. Post-hoc analysis
Table 6
5.4.1. Mediation analysis Predictive Relevance.
A mediation analysis was conducted to further assess the dynamic Construct SSO SSE Q2
interactions among constructs. Based on Table 7, the relationship be­
Inertia 231.000 164.025 0.290
tween self-efficacy and continuance intention can be fully mediated by Work Productivity 231.000 205.260 0.111
work productivity. On the other hand, technostress has no mediating Continuance Intention 231.000 194.044 0.160
effect between self-efficacy with work productivity and continuance
Note: SSO = Sum of Squares of Observation, SSE = Sum of Squares of Error, Q2
intention. In addition, the relationship between technostress and
= 1 – (SSE/SSO).
continuance intention can be partially mediated by both inertia and

Table 5
Structural Model Analysis.
Hypothesis Relationship Original Sample Sample Mean Standard Deviation T Statistics (|O/ P Significant (t > 1.65 / p < Remark
(O) (M) (STDEV) STDEV|) Values 0.05)

H1 PV → CI 0.038 0.041 0.068 0.560 0.288 No Reject


H2 PS → CI 0.040 0.037 0.074 0.542 0.294 No Reject
H3 SE → CI 0.073 0.069 0.073 0.996 0.160 No Reject
H4 SE → WP 0.273 0.273 0.078 3.505 0.000 Yes Accept
H5 SE → TS − 0.036 − 0.032 0.075 0.479 0.316 No Reject
H6 TS → WP − 0.264 − 0.265 0.068 3.859 0.000 Yes Accept
H7 TS → CI − 0.190 − 0.191 0.091 2.080 0.019 Yes Accept
H8 TS → IN 0.552 0.551 0.054 10.274 0.000 Yes Accept
H9 IN → CI − 0.353 − 0.351 0.082 4.291 0.000 Yes Accept
H10 WP → CI 0.328 0.332 0.078 4.218 0.000 Yes Accept

Note: PV = Perceived Vulnerability; PS = Perceived Severity; SE = Self-Efficacy; TS = Technostress; IN = Inertia; WP = Work Productivity; CI = Continuance Intention.

6
X.-M. Loh et al. Journal of Business Research 167 (2023) 114190

Table 7
Mediation Analysis.
Direct t- p- Significant (t > 1.65 / Specific t- p- Significant (t > 1.65 / Mediation Type
Effect statistics value p < 0.05) Indirect Effect statistics value p < 0.05)

SE → CI 0.073 0.996 0.160 No 0.090 2.317 0.010 Yes Full Mediation (Indirect
via WP only)
SE → CI 0.073 0.996 0.160 No − 0.007 0.424 0.336 No No Mediation (Direct
via TS Only)
SE → WP 0.273 3.505 0.000 Yes − 0.009 0.468 0.320 No No Mediation (Direct
via TS Only)
TS → CI − 0.190 2.080 0.019 Yes − 0.195 3.630 0.000 Yes Partial Mediation
via IN (Complementary)
TS → CI − 0.190 2.080 0.019 Yes 0.087 2.741 0.003 Yes Partial Mediation
via WP (Competitive)

Note: SE = Self-Efficacy; TS = Technostress; IN = Inertia; WP = Work Productivity; CI = Continuance Intention.

Table 8
Moderation Analysis.
Relationship Original Sample (O) Sample Mean (M) Standard Deviation (STDEV) T Statistics (|O/STDEV|) P Values Significant (t > 1.65 / p < 0.05)

WP*SE → CI − 0.168 − 0.161 0.064 2.640 0.004 Yes


TS*SE → CI 0.074 0.068 0.082 0.905 0.183 No
TS*SE → WP − 0.127 − 0.126 0.076 1.665 0.048 Yes
IN*TS → CI − 0.010 − 0.004 0.081 0.123 0.451 No
WP*TS → CI − 0.023 − 0.028 0.085 0.277 0.391 No

Note: SE = Self-Efficacy; TS = Technostress; IN = Inertia; WP = Work Productivity; CI = Continuance Intention.

5.4.3. Robustness check: unobserved heterogeneity 6. Discussion


It is essential to look into the data structure when evaluating the PLS-
SEM results as failing to check for unobserved heterogeneity will lead to Overall, the key results from the PLS-SEM and ANN were compared
Type 1 and Type 2 errors (Sarstedt et al., 2022; Becker et al., 2013). in Table 14. There were minor differences that are attributed to the
Thus, this study adopted finite-mixture PLS (FIMIX-PLS) to check for capability of the ANN analysis to capture non-linear effects among
unobserved heterogeneity in the data. The results in Table 9 show that variables.
the 3-segment and 6-segment models have the greatest optimum solu­ More specifically, it was surprising that perceived vulnerability and
tions. With that said, this study adopted the 3-segment model as it perceived severity were found to have no relationship with continuance
represents a higher proportion of the data as shown in Table 10. In intention. These outcomes contradict the general belief that perceived
addition, since the weighted average R2 figures of the 3-segment model vulnerability and perceived severity are important for the adoption of
are all greater than the full dataset as shown in Table 11, heterogeneity technologies in view of health-related matters (Zhang et al., 2020). This
is not an issue in this study. indicates that employees’ continuance intentions to WFH are not based
on their perceived health threat arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, this is aligned with George et al. (2022) which indicated that
5.5. Artificial Neural Network (ANN)
WFH will continue in the future even though it will not be because of
health concerns. In other words, the intention to continue with WFH
Figs. 2 and 3 show the ANN models for work productivity and
arrangements will not be heavily linked with health concerns but with
continuance intention respectively whereby only significant antecedents
other factors instead. This can be attributed to the benefits that em­
from the PLS-SEM results were retained. A ten-fold cross-validation
ployees experienced while working from home such as flexible working
approach was applied in which 90% of the data was used for training
hours without any loss of productivity.
while the remaining 10% was allocated for testing to avoid over-fitting.
Besides, in contradiction with the proposed H3 and H5, self-efficacy
With reference to Table 12, the sensitivity analysis revealed that tech­
does not have a relationship with continuance intention and techno­
nostress was the most important predictor for work productivity fol­
stress. Nonetheless, self-efficacy is revealed as a facilitator of work
lowed by self-efficacy. In addition, work productivity was the most
productivity which offers support to H4. Moreover, it is noteworthy to
important predictor for continuance intention followed by inertia and
discover that work productivity has a positive relationship with
technostress. Moreover, Table 13 revealed that the ANN analysis
continuance intention, thereby confirming H10. Although the insignif­
calculated an R2 of 58.0% for work productivity and 65.5% for contin­
icant direct effect of self-efficacy is in contrast with the proposed
uance intention.

Table 9
FIMIX-PLS Results.
Fit indices Segment 1 Segment 2 Segment 3 Segment 4 Segment 5 Segment 6

AIC (Akaike’s Information Criterion) 2462.992 2360.578 2303.893 2288.182 2271.055 2248.533
AIC3 (Modified AIC with Factor 3) 2476.992 2389.578 2347.893 2347.182 2345.055 2337.533
AIC4 (Modified AIC with Factor 4) 2490.992 2418.578 2391.893 2406.182 2419.055 2426.533
BIC (Bayesian Information Criteria) 2511.185 2460.408 2455.359 2491.284 2525.794 2554.908
CAIC (Consistent AIC) 2525.185 2489.408 2499.359 2550.284 2599.794 2643.908
HQ (Hannan Quinn Criterion) 2482.430 2400.843 2364.984 2370.100 2373.800 2372.105
MDL5 (Minimum Description Length with Factor 5) 2815.961 3091.728 3413.225 3775.695 4136.750 4492.409
LnL (LogLikelihood) − 1217.496 − 1151.29 − 1107.95 − 1085.09 − 1061.530 ¡1035.270

7
X.-M. Loh et al. Journal of Business Research 167 (2023) 114190

Table 10
Relative Segment Size.
Number of Segments Segment 1 Segment 2 Segment 3 Segment 4 Segment 5 Segment 6

% 0.371 0.359 0.142 0.051 0.039 0.038

is also associated with continuance intention in a negative manner,


Table 11
thereby supporting H9. Although these results are consistent with the
R2 Values for the 3-Segment Solution.
proposed hypotheses, the post-hoc multiple mediation analysis has
Construct Full FIMX- FIMX-PLS FIMX- FIMIX-PLS discovered that inertia partially mediates the influence of technostress
Dataset PLS PLS
on continuance intention while work productivity suppresses the influ­
Segment2 Weighted
Segment Segment Average R2 ence of technostress on continuance intention. In other words, inertia
1 3 aids technostress in diminishing employees’ continuance intention
TS 0.009 0.005 0.072 0.060 0.204
whereas work productivity combats technostress by reducing its nega­
IN 0.333 0.317 0.284 0.418 0.374 tive effect on continuance intention. Such findings are reasonable since
WP 0.149 0.422 0.186 0.874 0.464 the technostress experienced by employees would cause them to think
CI 0.209 0.421 0.569 0.999 0.747 that the traditional work arrangement is better. Subsequently, their
Note: TS = Technostress; IN = Inertia; WP = Work Productivity; CI = Contin­ unwillingness to continue working from home would be increased .
uance Intention. Conversely, when employees achieve better work productivity while
working from home, they would be more willing to continue to do so in
hypothesis, it is in agreement with the recent study by Loh et al. (2022c) the future (George et al., 2022).
which found self-efficacy to be a significant antecedent to users’ inten­
tion in the presence of a mediator. This is corroborated in this study
6.1. Managerial implications
which ascertained the full mediating effect of work productivity be­
tween self-efficacy and continuance intention. As such, it reveals the
Based on the findings, the enhancement of employees’ work pro­
crucial role of work productivity in encouraging WFH over the long run.
ductivity is crucial as it encourages their continuance intention to WFH.
Sensibly, even if employees are confident in executing their work-
Particularly in this study, work productivity is influenced by one facil­
related tasks while working from home, they would not continue WFH
itator (i.e., self-efficacy) and one inhibitor (i.e., technostress). As such,
if there is a decrease in work productivity. In other words, employees
practitioners (e.g., top management and policymakers) who wish to
would only continue to WFH if they were to experience high work
implement WFH over the long run should strive to improve their em­
productivity (Prodanova & Kocarev, 2022). With that said, self-efficacy
ployees’ self-efficacy in addition to minimizing their technostress.
in the WFH setting is crucial when it comes to executing work-related
Furthermore, minimizing technostress would lead employees out of
tasks and being productive (Villotti et al., 2018). Moving on, the lack
their inertial state towards traditional work arrangements and eventu­
of association between self-efficacy and technostress can be attributed to
ally embrace WFH as a new norm.
the novel technical issues (Sutarto et al., 2022) that are beyond the
When it comes to increasing employees’ competence with working
employees’ proficiencies while working from home. As the integration
from home, top management should focus on the aspects of knowledge
of industry-specific skills and technology utilized for WFH is inherently
and resource. Firstly, it is undeniable that employees would need to have
complex and invades the employees’ personal lives, the proposed miti­
certain skills in order to competently handle the digital aspect of WFH
gating effect of self-efficacy on technostress could be greatly minimized.
compared to traditional work arrangements. This includes the technical
Furthermore, the results have confirmed that technostress serves as a
aspects of online collaborations, virtual meetings, and other digitalized
deterrent for work productivity and continuance intention but a facili­
industry-specific tasks. Hence, it is vital for top management to provide
tator for inertia, thereby confirming H6, H7, and H8 respectively. Inertia
training for employees who struggle to learn this new set of skills rather

Fig. 2. ANN Model A Note: SE = Self-Efficacy; TS = Technostress; WP = Work Productivity.

8
X.-M. Loh et al. Journal of Business Research 167 (2023) 114190

Fig. 3. ANN Model B. Note: IN = Inertia; TS = Technostress; WP = Work Productivity; CI = Continuance Intention.

Table 12 Table 14
Sensitivity Analysis. Comparison between PLS-SEM and ANN results.
Neural network Model A Model B Path Path Normalised relative Ranking Ranking
Coefficient importance (%) (PLS-SEM) (ANN)
SE TS IN TS WP
(PLS-SEM) (ANN)
ANN1 0.533 0.467 0.279 0.259 0.462
SE → 0.273 95.313 1 2
ANN2 0.528 0.472 0.325 0.264 0.412
WP
ANN3 0.465 0.535 0.318 0.289 0.393
TS → − 0.264 100.000 2 1
ANN4 0.610 0.390 0.294 0.259 0.447
WP
ANN5 0.429 0.571 0.258 0.113 0.629
TS → − 0.190 51.521 3 3
ANN6 0.552 0.448 0.290 0.207 0.502
CI
ANN7 0.385 0.615 0.334 0.243 0.422
IN → − 0.353 56.813 1 2
ANN8 0.444 0.556 0.283 0.239 0.479
CI
ANN9 0.525 0.475 0.027 0.390 0.583
WP 0.328 100.000 2 1
ANN10 0.409 0.591 0.319 0.210 0.471

Average relative 0.488 0.512 0.273 0.247 0.480
CI
importance
Normalized relative 95.313 100.000 56.813 51.521 100.000 Note: SE = Self-Efficacy; TS = Technostress; IN = Inertia; WP = Work Produc­
importance (%) tivity; CI = Continuance Intention.

with telecommunication companies to offer better internet connectivity


Table 13 (e.g., 5G). Besides, policymakers should allow employees to claim tax
Predictive Power. deductions for expenses on WFH-related training and resources. This
Model A (WP) Model B (CI) would motivate employees to increase their overall self-efficacy to WFH
SSE 0.037 0.040
which is in line with human capital development initiatives.
RMSE 0.088 0.116
R2 0.580 0.655

Note: SSE = Sum of Squares of Error, RMSE = Root Mean Square Error, R2 = 1 – 6.2. Theoretical implications
(SSE/RMSE).
Following the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, the concept of WFH
has become a reality for many. Although the concept of WFH is not
than merely leaving them to figure it out on their own. Secondly, em­
something new, literature on WFH has been limited, especially on em­
ployees also need to be equipped with the relevant resources (e.g.,
ployees’ continuance intention towards it. Therefore, this study con­
hardware, software) to complement their skills and knowledge. Without
tributes to the literature on WFH and COVID-19 by ascertaining the
the right equipment present, employees cannot competently execute
antecedents that influence employees’ continuance intention to WFH. In
their tasks when working from home. Thus, to ensure that employees are
spite of increasing research on employees’ work productivity and
better equipped, top management should provide relevant allowances
continuance intention, past studies have generally examined them
for the purchase of relevant WFH resources.
separately (e.g., Bai et al., 2019; Villotti et al., 2018). In other words,
Moreover, governmental agencies can support employees who WFH
they would have also overlooked the possible association between both
by enhancing the digital infrastructure. This can include collaborating
of them. As such, this study serves to further the understanding of this

9
X.-M. Loh et al. Journal of Business Research 167 (2023) 114190

relationship by providing empirical support for the significant impact of should be conducted multiple countries. This can be done by including
work productivity on continuance intention to WFH. Besides, the cur­ emerging and developing countries or high and low-context cultures
rent study also looked into the antecedents of work productivity and (Hall, 1976). In addition, the type of responses collected can be
continuance intention to WFH. In particular, this study utilized a multi- expanded to include qualitative data such as text analytics (Sharma
dimensional research model with factors from the health, resistance, and et al., 2020). These recommendations would allow future studies to
personal facets. This was achieved by integrating the Protection Moti­ attain more in-depth insights into the subject matter. Moreover, not all
vation Theory, Transactional Theory of Stress, and Status Quo Bias. the variances for work productivity and continuance intention were
Hence, this study is positioned to fill the existing gaps by extending the captured in the current study. In other words, this indicates the presence
literature on WFH and broadening the applicability of the above- of other significant variables. Thus, future studies can further extend the
mentioned theories. research model with other variables such as satisfaction (Loh et al.,
Furthermore, the results of this study imply that the Protection 2022d; Ooi et al., 2018) and task-technology fit (Howard & Rose, 2019).
Motivation Theory might not be able to predict protective or adaptive
behaviours at different stages of a threat especially when individuals are CRediT authorship contribution statement
getting used to the threat itself. Therefore, as suggested by Venkatesh
et al. (2021) further studies should be carried out to establish the effect Xiu-Ming Loh: Writing – original draft, Project administration,
of time on this matter. In addition, this study advances the Transactional Methodology, Investigation, Data curation, Conceptualization. Voon-
Theory of Stress by revealing that the negative effect of technostress Hsien Lee: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Super­
could be suppressed by other factors in play. Following this, it is posited vision, Project administration, Investigation, Data curation, Conceptu­
that scholars should put more emphasis on the mitigators to advance the alization. Jun-Jie Hew: Visualization, Validation, Supervision,
current understanding of technostress. Finally, given that past studies Investigation, Conceptualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - re­
utilizing the Status Quo Bias tend to be focused on the direct or view & editing. Garry Wei-Han Tan: Writing – review & editing,
moderating effect of inertia (e.g., Balakrishnan et al., 2021; Gong et al., Validation, Supervision, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation,
2020), the current study enriches the literature on Status Quo Bias by Conceptualization. Keng-Boon Ooi: Writing – review & editing, Vali­
highlighting the mediating role of inertia when it comes to facilitating dation, Supervision, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation,
the negative effect of technostress. Conceptualization.

6.3. Limitations and future directions Declaration of Competing Interest

The current study has its own set of limitations which includes the The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
generalizability of findings. This is because of the dissimilar situations in interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
different countries. In view of this, the data collection of future studies the work reported in this paper.

Appendix A:. Questionnaire items

Perceived vulnerability (Zhang et al., 2020)

• Anyone can get infected by the COVID-19 virus.


• It is possible for me to get infected by the COVID-19 virus.
• There is the risk that I might get infected by the COVID-19 virus.

Perceived severity (Zhang et al., 2020)

• If I get infected by the COVID-19 virus, then it would be severe.


• If I get infected by the COVID-19 virus, then it could cause me to die.

Self-Efficacy (Thompson et al., 2017)

• I am confident in my abilities to work from home.


• I have the resources (e.g., computer, smartphone) needed to work from home.
• I have the skills (e.g., communication, task management) needed to work from home.

Technostress (Califf & Brooks, 2020)

Techno-Overload

• I am forced by technology to do more work than I can handle when working from home.
• I am forced by technology to work with very tight time schedules when working from home.
• I am forced to change my work habits to adapt to new technologies when working from home.
• I have a higher workload because of increased technology complexity when working from home.

Techno-Invasion

• I have to be in touch with my work even after office hours due to technology when working from home.
• I have to be in touch with my work even during my off days (e.g., holidays, weekends) due to technology when working from home.

10
X.-M. Loh et al. Journal of Business Research 167 (2023) 114190

• I spend less time with my family due to technology when working from home.
• I feel my personal life is being invaded by technology when working from home.

Techno-Complexity

• I need a long time to understand and use new technologies.


• I cannot find enough time to study and upgrade my technology skills.
• I often find it too complex for me to understand and use new technologies.

Inertia (Polites & Karahanna, 2012)

• I prefer traditional work arrangements (e.g., work in office) because working from home is more stressful.
• I prefer traditional work arrangements (e.g., work in office) because it is more comfortable for me.
• I prefer traditional work arrangements (e.g., work in office) because it is how I have been working for so long.
• I prefer traditional work arrangements (e.g., work in office) because I’ve done it so regularly in the past.

Work productivity (Palvalin, 2017)

• I am capable of handling my work-related tasks while working from home.


• I can satisfactorily achieve my work-related goals while working from home.
• The work-related tasks I complete while working from home are of high quality.

Continuance intention (Bai et al., 2019)

• I would like to work from home on a regular basis.


• I would like to continue working from home in the near future.
• I expect to continue working from home in the near future.
• It is likely that I will continue to work from home in the near future.

Appendix B:. Descriptive statistics

Demographic Characteristics Count Percentage (%)

Gender
Male 106 45.89
Female 125 54.11
Age
16 to 20 years 4 1.73
21 to 25 years 60 25.97
26 to 30 years 68 29.44
31 to 35 years 55 23.81
36 to 40 years 24 10.39
41 to 45 years 9 3.90
46 to 50 years 5 2.16
51 years and above 6 2.60
Level of Education
Primary/ Secondary Education 18 7.79
Diploma / Advanced Diploma 59 25.54
Bachelor Degree / Professional Qualification 127 55.00
Postgraduate (e.g., Master, Ph.D.) 27 11.69
Personal income (per month)
Less than RM2,000 45 19.48
RM2,001 to RM4,000 90 38.96
RM4,001 to RM6,000 66 28.57
RM6,001 to RM8,000 16 13.25
RM8,001 to RM10,000 8 6.93
RM10,001 and above 6 2.60
Employment Status
Part-time employee 17 7.36
Full-time employee 194 83.98
Self-employed 20 8.66
Working Experience
5 years and below 103 44.59
6 to 10 years 78 33.77
11 to 15 years 29 12.55
16 to 20 years 8 3.46
>20 years 13 5.63

11
X.-M. Loh et al. Journal of Business Research 167 (2023) 114190

References Lenka, S., Parida, V., Sjödin, D. R., & Wincent, J. (2018). Exploring the microfoundations
of servitization: How individual actions overcome organizational resistance. Journal
of Business Research, 88, 328–336.
Amarantou, V., Kazakopoulou, S., Chatzoudes, D., & Chatzoglou, P. (2018). Resistance to
Lew, S., Tan, G. W. H., Loh, X. M., Hew, J. J., & Ooi, K. B. (2020). The disruptive mobile
change: An empirical investigation of its antecedents. Journal of Organizational
wallet in the hospitality industry: An extended mobile technology acceptance model.
Change Management, 31(2), 426–450.
Technology in Society, 63, Article 101430.
Ayyagari, R., Grover, V., & Purvis, R. (2011). Technostress: Technological antecedents
Li, A., Sun, Y., Guo, X., Guo, F., & Guo, J. (2021). Understanding how and when user
and implications. MIS Quarterly, 35(4), 831–858.
inertia matters in fitness app exploration: A moderated mediation model. Information
Bai, B., Wang, J., & Chai, C. S. (2019). Understanding Hong Kong primary school English
Processing & Management, 58(2), Article 102458.
teachers’ continuance intention to teach with ICT. Computer Assisted Language
Liang, H., Saraf, N., Hu, Q., & Xue, Y. (2007). Assimilation of enterprise systems: The
Learning, 34, 528–551.
effect of institutional pressures and the mediating role of top management. MIS
Balakrishnan, J., Dwivedi, Y. K., Hughes, L., & Boy, F. (2021). Enablers and inhibitors of
Quarterly, 31(1), 59–87.
AI-powered voice assistants: a dual-factor approach by integrating the status quo
Loh, X. M., Lee, V. H., Leong, L. Y., Aw, E. C. X., Cham, T. H., Tang, Y. C., & Hew, J. J.
bias and technology acceptance model. Information Systems Frontiers. https://doi.
(2023). Understanding consumers’ resistance to pay with cryptocurrency in the
org/10.1007/s10796-021-10203-y
sharing economy: A hybrid SEM-fsQCA approach. Journal of Business Research, 159,
Becker, J. M., Rai, A., Ringle, C. M., & Völckner, F. (2013). Discovering unobserved
Article 113726.
heterogeneity in structural equation models to avert validity threats. MIS Quarterly,
Loh, X. M., Lee, V. H., Tan, G. W. H., Ooi, K. B., & Wamba, S. F. (2022a). Embracing
37(3), 665–694.
mobile shopping: What matters most in the midst of a pandemic? Industrial
Bernama. (2021). Malaysia to move to Covid-19 endemic in October: Khairy. Retrieved from
Management & Data Systems, 122(7), 1645–1664.
https://www.thesundaily.my/home/malaysia-to-move-to-covid-19-endemic-in-
Loh, X. M., Lee, V. H., & Leong, L. Y. (2022b). Mobile-lizing continuance intention with
october-khairy-DK8279027.
the Mobile Expectation-Confirmation Model: An SEM-ANN-NCA approach. Expert
Brod, C. (1984). Technostress: The human cost of the computer revolution. Addison-Wesley.
Systems with Applications, 205, Article 117659.
Califf, C. B., & Brooks, S. (2020). An empirical study of techno-stressors, literacy
Loh, X. M., Lee, V. H., Tan, G. W. H., Hew, J. J., & Ooi, K. B. (2022c). Towards a cashless
facilitation, burnout, and turnover intention as experienced by K-12 teachers.
society: The imminent role of wearable technology. Journal of Computer Information
Computers & Education, 157, Article 103971.
Systems, 62(1), 39–49.
Cham, T. H., Cheng, B. L., Aw, E. C. X., Tan, G. W. H., Loh, X. M., & Ooi, K. B. (2023).
Loh, X. M., Lee, V. H., & Leong, L. Y. (2022d). A multi-dimensional nomological network
Counteracting the impact of online fake news on brands. Journal of Computer
of mobile payment continuance. Journal of Computer Information Systems. https://
Information Systems. https://doi.org/10.1080/08874417.2023.2191350
doi.org/10.1080/08874417.2022.2125102
Chong, A. Y. L., Ooi, K. B., Bao, H., & Lin, B. (2014). Can e-business adoption be
Loh, X. M., Lee, V. H., Tan, G. W. H., Ooi, K. B., & Dwivedi, Y. K. (2021). Switching from
influenced by knowledge management? An empirical analysis of Malaysian SMEs.
cash to mobile payment: What’s the hold-up? Internet Research, 31(1), 376–399.
Journal of Knowledge Management, 18(1), 121–136.
Maier, C., Laumer, S., Weinert, C., & Weitzel, T. (2015). The effects of technostress and
da Silva Cezar, B. G., & Maçada, A. C. G. (2021). Data literacy and the cognitive
switching stress on discontinued use of social networking services: A study of
challenges of a data-rich business environment: An analysis of perceived data
Facebook use. Information Systems Journal, 25(3), 275–308.
overload, technostress and their relationship to individual performance. Aslib Journal
Mak, B., Nickerson, R. C., & Sim, J. (2018). Mobile technology dependence and mobile
of Information Management, 73(5), 618–638.
technostress. International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, 15(4),
Dwivedi, Y. K., Hughes, D. L., Coombs, C., Constantiou, I., Duan, Y., Edwards, J. S., …
1–17.
Upadhyay, N. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on information management
Myers, J. (2021). COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on
research and practice: Transforming education, work and life. International Journal of
1 September. World Economic Forum. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/
Information Management, 55, Article 102211.
agenda/2021/09/covid19-coronavirus-pandemic-1-september-2021/.
Eom, S. J., Choi, N., & Sung, W. (2016). The use of smart work in government: Empirical
Ooi, K. B., Arumugam, V., Safa, M. S., & Bakar, N. A. (2007). HRM and TQM: Association
analysis of Korean experiences. Government Information Quarterly, 33(3), 562–571.
with job involvement. Personnel Review, 36(6), 939–962.
Escudero, C., & Kleinman, M. (2022). How did working from home during COVID-19
Ooi, K. B., Hew, J. J., & Lee, V. H. (2018). Could the mobile and social perspectives of
impact productivity? A literature review. Work/Place, April 2022, 1-20.
mobile social learning platforms motivate learners to learn continuously? Computers
Fan, A., Wu, L., Miao, L., & Mattila, A. S. (2020). When does technology
and Education, 120, 127–145.
anthropomorphism help alleviate customer dissatisfaction after a service failure? –
Palvalin, M. (2017). How to measure impacts of work environment changes on
The moderating role of consumer technology self-efficacy and interdependent self-
knowledge work productivity–validation and improvement of the SmartWoW tool.
construal. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 29(3), 269–290.
Measuring Business Excellence, 21(2), 175–190.
Farooq, R., & Sultana, A. (2022). The potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on
Pirkkalainen, H., Salo, M., Tarafdar, M., & Makkonen, M. (2019). Deliberate or
work from home and employee productivity. Measuring Business Excellence, 26(3),
instinctive? Proactive and reactive coping for technostress. Journal of Management
308–325.
Information Systems, 36(4), 1179–1212.
Fischer-Preßler, D., Bonaretti, D., & Fischbach, K. (2022). A Protection-Motivation
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method
Perspective to explain intention to use and continue to use mobile warning systems.
biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended
Business & Information Systems Engineering, 64, 167–182.
remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903.
Fuglseth, A. M., & Sørebø, Ø. (2014). The effects of technostress within the context of
Polites, G. L., & Karahanna, E. (2012). Shackled to the status quo: The inhibiting effects
employee use of ICT. Computers in Human Behavior, 40, 161–170.
of incumbent system habit, switching costs, and inertia on new system acceptance.
George, T. J., Atwater, L. E., Maneethai, D., & Madera, J. M. (2022). Supporting the
MIS Quarterly, 36(1), 21–42.
productivity and wellbeing of remote workers: Lessons from COVID-19.
Prodanova, J., & Kocarev, L. (2022). Employees’ dedication to working from home in
Organizational Dynamics, 51(2), Article 100869.
times of COVID-19 crisis. Management Decision, 60(3), 509–530.
Gong, X., Zhang, K. Z., Chen, C., Cheung, C. M., & Lee, M. K. (2020). Transition from web
Rogers, R. W. (1975). A protection motivation theory of fear appeals and attitude change.
to mobile payment services: The triple effects of status quo inertia. International
The Journal of Psychology, 91(1), 93–114.
Journal of Information Management, 50, 310–324.
Saad, L., & Wigert, B. (2021). Remote work persisting and trending permanent. Retrieved
Hair, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2022). A primer on Partial Least
from https://news.gallup.com/poll/355907/remote-work-persisting-trending-
Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) (3rd ed.). Sage: Thousand Oaks.
permanent.aspx.
Hair, J. F., Risher, J. J., Sarstedt, M., & Ringle, C. M. (2019). When to use and how to
Samuelson, W., & Zeckhauser, R. (1988). Status quo bias in decision making. Journal of
report the results of PLS-SEM. European Business Review, 31(1), 2–24.
Risk and Uncertainty, 1(1), 7–59.
Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond culture. Anchor Press.
Sarstedt, M., Radomir, L., Moisescu, O. I., & Ringle, C. M. (2022). Latent class analysis in
Howard, M. C., & Rose, J. C. (2019). Refining and extending task–technology fit theory:
PLS-SEM: A review and recommendations for future applications. Journal of Business
Creation of two task–technology fit scales and empirical clarification of the
Research, 138, 398–407.
construct. Information & Management, 56(6), Article 103134.
Sarstedt, M., Hair, J. F., Jr, Cheah, J. H., Becker, J. M., & Ringle, C. M. (2019). How to
Kim, J., Yang, K., Min, J., & White, B. (2022). Hope, fear, and consumer behavioral
specify, estimate, and validate higher-order constructs in PLS-SEM. Australasian
change amid COVID-19: Application of protection motivation theory. International
Marketing Journal, 27(3), 197–211.
Journal of Consumer Studies, 46(2), 558–574.
Saura, J. R., Ribeiro-Soriano, D., & Saldaña, P. Z. (2022). Exploring the challenges of
Kim, H. W., & Kankanhalli, A. (2009). Investigating user resistance to information
remote work on Twitter users’ sentiments: From digital technology development to a
systems implementation: A status quo bias perspective. MIS Quarterly, 33(3),
post-pandemic era. Journal of Business Research, 142, 242–254.
567–582.
Shafiei, A., & Maleksaeidi, H. (2020). Pro-environmental behavior of university students:
Laker, B. (2020). Working from home is disliked by and bad for most employees, say
Application of protection motivation theory. Global Ecology and Conservation, 22,
researchers. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminlaker/
e00908.
2020/08/24/working-from-home-is-disliked-by-and-bad-for-most-employees/.
Sharma, A., Adhikary, A., & Borah, S. B. (2020). Covid-19′ s impact on supply chain
Lau, A. J., Tan, G. W. H., Loh, X. M., Leong, L. Y., Lee, V. H., & Ooi, K. B. (2021). On the
decisions: Strategic insights from NASDAQ 100 firms using Twitter data. Journal of
way: Hailing a taxi with a smartphone? A hybrid SEM-neural network approach.
Business Research, 117, 443–449.
Machine Learning with Applications, 4, Article 100034.
Shu, Q., Tu, Q., & Wang, K. (2011). The impact of computer self-efficacy and technology
Lazarus, R. S. (1966). Psychological stress and the coping process. McGraw-Hill.
dependence on computer-related technostress: A social cognitive theory perspective.
Lee, Y. N. (2021). Malaysia’s daily new Covid cases per million people is now one of the
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 27(10), 923–939.
highest globally. CNBC. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/30/covid-
Sillic, M. (2019). Critical impact of organizational and individual inertia in explaining
malaysia-daily-cases-per-million-people-among-highest-globally.html.
non-compliant security behavior in the Shadow IT context. Computers and Security,
80, 108–119.

12
X.-M. Loh et al. Journal of Business Research 167 (2023) 114190

Sreelakshmi, C. C., & Prathap, S. K. (2020). Continuance adoption of mobile-based Yuen, M. (2021). Making it work from home. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.
payments in Covid-19 context: An integrated framework of health belief model and my/news/focus/2021/03/28/making-it-work-from-home.
expectation confirmation model. International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Yunus, E. N., & Ernawati, E. (2018). Productivity paradox? The impact of office redesign
Communications, 16(4), 351–369. on employee productivity. International Journal of Productivity and Performance
K. Stoller Never want to go back to the office? Here’s where you should work 2021 Management, 67(9), 1918–1939.
Forbes Retrieved from. Zhang, X., Liu, S., Wang, L., Zhang, Y., & Wang, J. (2020). Mobile health service adoption
Straus, E., Uhlig, L., Kühnel, J., & Korunka, C. (2022). Remote workers’ well-being, in China: Integration of theory of planned behavior, protection motivation theory
perceived productivity, and engagement: Which resources should HRM improve and personal health differences. Online Information Review, 44(1), 1–23.
during COVID-19? A longitudinal diary study. The. International Journal of Human Zheng, D., Luo, Q., & Ritchie, B. W. (2021). Afraid to travel after COVID-19? Self-
Resource Management.. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2022.2075235 protection, coping and resilience against pandemic ‘travel fear’. Tourism
Sutarto, A. P., Wardaningsih, S., & Putri, W. H. (2022). Factors and challenges Management, 83, Article 104261.
influencing work-related outcomes of the enforced work from home during the Lund, S., Madgavkar, A., Manyika, J., & Smit, S. (2020). What’s next for remote work: An
COVID-19 pandemic: Preliminary evidence from Indonesia. Global Business and analysis of 2,000 tasks, 800 jobs, and nine countries. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved
Organizational Excellence, 41(5), 14–28. from https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/whats-next-for-
Tarafdar, M., Cooper, C. L., & Stich, J. F. (2019). The technostress trifecta-techno remote-work-an-analysis-of-2000-tasks-800-jobs-and-nine-countries.
eustress, techno distress and design: Theoretical directions and an agenda for
research. Information Systems Journal, 29(1), 6–42.
Xiu-Ming Loh is a Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti
Tarafdar, M., Pullins, E. B., & Ragu-Nathan, T. S. (2015). Technostress: Negative effect on
Tunku Abdul Rahman. His research interests include the impacts of innovative technol­
performance and possible mitigations. Information Systems Journal, 25(2), 103–132.
ogies and services to consumers as well as specific applications of digital and mobile
Tarafdar, M., Tu, Q., & Ragu-Nathan, T. S. (2010). Impact of technostress on end-user
technology in the business sector. His work has been published in international refereed
satisfaction and performance. Journal of Management Information Systems, 27(3),
journals such as Internet Research, Journal of Computer Information Systems, Journal of
303–334.
Retailing and Consumer Services, Technology in Society, etc.
Tarafdar, M., Tu, Q., Ragu-Nathan, B. S., & Ragu-Nathan, T. S. (2007). The impact of
technostress on role stress and productivity. Journal of Management Information
Systems, 24(1), 301–328. Voon-Hsien Lee is an Associate Professor and a Chairperson of the Center for Business and
Tew, H. T., Tan, G. W. H., Loh, X. M., Lee, V. H., Lim, W. L., & Ooi, K. B. (2021). Tapping Management at the Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. Her
the next purchase: Embracing the wave of mobile payment. Journal of Computer research interest includes quality management, supply chain management, mobile, and
Information Systems, 62(3), 527–535. social commerce. To date, she has published her work in leading academic journals such as
Thompson, N., McGill, T. J., & Wang, X. (2017). “Security begins at home”: Determinants Business Strategy and the Environment, Information & Management, International Journal of
of home computer and mobile device security behavior. Computers & Security, 70, Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Internet Research, Supply
376–391. Chain Management: An International Journal, Technological Forecasting & Social Change,
van Bavel, R., Rodríguez-Priego, N., Vila, J., & Briggs, P. (2019). Using protection Tourism Management, etc.
motivation theory in the design of nudges to improve online security behavior.
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 123, 29–39.
Jun-Jie Hew is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Business and Finance, Uni­
Venkatesh, V., Sykes, T. A., Aljafari, R., & Poole, M. S. (2021). The future is now: Calling
versiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia. His research areas include mobile commerce,
for a focus on temporal issues in information system research. Industrial Management
social commerce, information technology adoption and continuance. For the single years
& Data Systems, 121(1), 30–47.
of 2020 and 2021, he was named among the world’s Top 2% Scientists in a report pub­
Verkijika, S. F. (2019). Digital textbooks are useful but not everyone wants them: The
lished by the Stanford University. To date, he has published some of his works in several
role of technostress. Computers & Education, 140, Article 103591.
renowned journals, such as International Journal of Information Management, Expert Systems
Verkoeyen, S., & Nepal, S. K. (2019). Understanding scuba divers’ response to coral
with Applications, Tourism Management, Computers in Human Behavior, Industrial Manage­
bleaching: An application of Protection Motivation Theory. Journal of Environmental
ment & Data Systems, Journal of Computer Information Systems, Behavior & Information
Management, 231, 869–877.
Technology, and Computers & Education.
Villotti, P., Corbière, M., Dewa, C. S., Fraccaroli, F., Sultan-Taïeb, H., Zaniboni, S., &
Lecomte, T. (2018). A serial mediation model of workplace social support on work
productivity: The role of self-stigma and job tenure self-efficacy in people with Garry Wei-Han Tan is a Professor at the Graduate Business School, UCSI University. He
severe mental disorders. Disability and Rehabilitation, 40(26), 3113–3119. has been acknowledged as one of the World’s Most Productive Authors in Social Com­
Vyas, L., & Butakhieo, N. (2021). The impact of working from home during COVID-19 on merce and Mobile Commerce in 2018 and 2019 respectively. His current research interests
work and life domains: An exploratory study on Hong Kong. Policy Design and are in tourism, mobile commerce, consumer behavior, and supply chain management. To
Practice, 4(1), 59–76. date, he has published over 50 refereed papers in leading academic journals such as
Wang, J., Zheng, B., Liu, H., & Yu, L. (2020). A two-factor theoretical model of social Computers in Human Behavior, Expert Systems with Applications, International Journal of In­
media discontinuance: Role of regret, inertia, and their antecedents. Information formation and Management, Journal of Computer Information Systems, Technological Fore­
Technology & People, 34(1), 1–24. casting and Social Change, Telematics and Informatics, Tourism Management, etc.
Wang, J., Liu-Lastres, B., Ritchie, B. W., & Mills, D. J. (2019). Travellers’ self-protections
against health risks: An application of the full Protection Motivation Theory. Annals Keng-Boon Ooi is a Distinguished Professor of Information Systems and Industrial Man­
of Tourism Research, 78, Article 102743. agement. He is Dean of the Graduate Business School, UCSI University. He has published
Warkentin, M., Johnston, A. C., Shropshire, J., & Barnett, W. D. (2016). Continuance of over 100 papers in international refereed journals such as Business Strategy and the Envi­
protective security behavior: A longitudinal study. Decision Support Systems, 92, ronment, Decision Support Systems, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Informa­
25–35. tion and Management, International Journal of Information Management, International Journal
Yan, L. Y., Tan, G. W. H., Loh, X. M., Hew, J. J., & Ooi, K. B. (2021). QR code and mobile of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Internet Research,
payment: The disruptive forces in retail. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Journal of Business Research, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Techno­
58, Article 102300. logical Forecasting & Social Change, Tourism Management, etc.
Yener, S., Arslan, A., & Kilinç, S. (2021). The moderating roles of technological self-
efficacy and time management in the technostress and employee performance
relationship through burnout. Information Technology & People, 34(7), 1809–1919.

13

You might also like