Graduate Business Students as Surrogates for Executives in the Evaluation of Technology

Abstract

Manuscript originally submitted June 29, 1994; Revised November 29, 1994; Accepted January 11, 1995 for publication. There have been many technological improvements since the phenomenon of computer use by executives was first discussed by Rockart and Treacy (1982) in the Harvard Business Review. From those early attempts a growing number of top executives have come to rely on software that focuses, compresses, organizes, and delivers information in a format appropriate to strategic management functions. Even more than other levels of management, executives deal with a complex, uncertain, and unstructured world, and their decisions can have a significant impact on the entire organization. Creating new technologies to support senior executives is at the cutting edge of MIS research. The best way to test an information technology (IT) designed to support executives is to have executives use the system. However, executives are not readily available as subjects for research projects. They are typically very busy, highly-paid people who have no interest in spending hours in a laboratory trying out unproven technologies under controlled conditions. Thus, researchers frequently resort to testing new executive IT with student subjects. The use of students as surrogates for executives, or managers in general, has raised a controversy in social science research literature over the past decades (Remus, 1989; Copeland, Francia, and Strawser, 1973; Weick, 1967). Some authors have questioned the external validity of studies conducted with student subjects (Gordon, Slade, and Schmitt, 1986, Hughes & Gibson, 1991; Robinson, Huefner, & Hunt, 1991). They argue that social differences such as age, income, Graduate Business Students as Surrogates for Executives in The Evaluation of Technology