Responding to Information System Obsolescence: Should We Upgrade or Replace?

As information systems (IS) age, managers must determine whether to continue upgrading these systems or replace them with systems that have greater potential to offer organizational value. Given the widespread use of information systems and the challenges that IS replacement can present, understanding the forces that encourage managers to continue to upgrade existing systems is of considerable organizational importance. Hence, drawing on prior work we identify factors related to the value a system brings to an organization, the degree of organizational commitment to the system, and the evolvability of the system that influence managerial upgrade decisions. Data collected via a cross-sectional survey of IS managers was analyzed using Partial Least Squares. Analysis of this data indicates that IS managers have a preference for upgrading systems that provide greater organizational value, suffer from fewer shortcomings, are more complex, less customized, and for which support is readily available.