Relationship between Information Systems and Information Overload. A Preliminary Analysis

The aim of this research is to investigate the role of information system in supporting companies to face with information overload. Specifically, the study provides an empirical analysis aimed to examine whether the quality of information systems is able to abate the negative effects of information overload/underload inside a company. Through a survey we assess the managerial feelings about the information overload (and underload) and the managerial assessment of the Information System (IS) quality. Preliminary empirical findings of our survey confirm, by performing a factor analysis, previous literature and suggest the items to be monitored for assessing the information underload and information overload phenomena and the dimensions to take into account for evaluating the IS quality, namely, information processing capacity, technical equipment and communication. Furthermore, results show that when the information underload increases, the information processing capacity of IS decreases and vice versa. This relation suggests that the IS quality could affect the information overload/underload phenomena.