When Updates Make a User Stick: Software Feature Updates and their Differential Effects on Users' Continuance Intentions

Although software updates are extensively used to enhance software while already being used, their impact on users’ post-adoption beliefs and attitudes has received little attention. Drawing on expectation-confirmation-theory and the IS continuance model, we investigate if and how feature updates affect users’ continuance intentions (CI) and what role initial feature endowment and update size play. In an online experiment, we find a positive effect of feature updates on users’ CI. According to this effect, software vendors can increase users’ CI by delivering features later, through updates instead of providing them right with the first release. While this positive effect persists despite a small update size and high initial feature endowment, the latter diminishes the effect. We also unveil positive disconfirmation of previous expectations regarding the updated software as crucial mediating mechanism between feature updates and CI. Implications for research and practice as well as directions for future research are discussed.