User satisfaction with portals: testing for factorial validity and invariance across age groups
| Published date | 23 September 2013 |
| Pages | 804-820 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-06-2012-0099 |
| Date | 23 September 2013 |
| Author | Misook Heo |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval |
User satisfaction with portals:
testing for factorial validity and
invariance across age groups
Misook Heo
Instructional Technology Program, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The goals of this study are to evaluate the factorial validity of a measurement model of
cultural heritage portals and to test the model’s invariance as it relates to user satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach – A measurement model was created by adapting multiple
existing scales with the hypothesis that overall user satisfaction with a cultural heritage portal
consists of satisfaction with data quality, satisfaction with service quality and users’ technology
acceptance. The validity of the indicator variables of each of the adapted scales was tested, then a
combined measurement model was tested, via confirmatory factor analysis. The re-specified
measurement model was then tested for invariance between two age groups with increasingly
stringent criteria.
Findings – The analyses indicated that the three frameworks complement each other in assessing
the factors influencing user satisfaction, especially in cultural heritage portals, and that the factor
structure is the same across age groups, confirming the findings of the recent online trend: some of the
key internet activities such as information consumption are becoming uniformly popular across
different age groups.
Originality/value – Considering that it is not usual for non-profit organisations to assess customer
satisfaction, and there exists limited literature examining factors influencing user satisfaction with
cultural heritage portals, especially with different age populations, the findings of the current study
provide a valuable contribution to the literature. The study also benefits practitioners in the field by
providing a framework to assess user satisfaction with existing cultural heritage portals and/or to
build cultural heritage portals in a way that increases users’ satisfaction, regardless of age group.
Keywords User satisfaction,Cultural heritage portals, Portalmeasurement model,
Measurement invar iance
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
With the advancement and proliferation of internet technology, people have been
increasingly engaging in more activities over the internet, and numerous innovative
web services have been introduced in recent years. As people spent more time data
mining on the internet, new services were needed to provide users with integrated
access to content that could be tailored to their information retrieval needs. This
service, the web portal, quickly became one of the most promising web services.
While various definitions exist, a general consensus describes web portals as a
personalised, internet-based, single access point for varying, divergent sources
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea and is grant funded by
the Korean Government (NRF-
2
010-330-H00006).
OIR
37,5
804
Received 1 June 2012
First revision accepted
4 August 2012
Online Information Review
Vol. 37 No. 5, 2013
pp. 804-820
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-06-2012-0099
(Al-Mudimigh et al., 2011; Liu et al., 2009; Presley and Presley, 2009; Telang and
Mukhopadhyay, 2005; Yang et al., 2005; Watson and Fenner, 2000). With improved
web-based technologies, web portals have become constantly updated services that
allow users to consume, remix and multiply data, and function as an authenticated
access-point to a single user interface. Individuals perform the gatekeeper role by
customising their information preferences (Sundar and Nass, 2001). With the
personalisation feature, each user becomes a unique audience of their own distinct
content (Gilmore and Pine, 2000; Kobsa et al., 2001) and experiences a greater sense of
ownership of portal content (Kalyanaraman and Sundar, 2006).
As more web portal services became available, factors that influence user
satisfaction started to receive more scholarly attention (e.g. Lee and Cho, 2007; Liao
et al., 2011; Lin et al., 2005; Liu et al., 2009; Presley and Presley, 2009; Telang and
Mukhopadhyay, 2005; Tojib et al., 2008). With the high cost of portal implementation
and management (Bannan, 2002), studies on user satisfaction have become more
critical. Since web portal users are a heterogeneous population, they access web portals
with differentiated interests and needs (Bao, 2010). It is thus possible that dissimilar
factors would contribute to user satisfaction for different web portals.
As with many other information organisations, cultural heritage institutions have
become increasingly more digital. Their portals now provide users with distributed
digital artefacts via multi-institution collaborations (Cha and Kim, 2010; Concordia
et al., 2010; Gibson et al., 2007; Tanackoviæ and Badurina, 2008), the ability to
personalise experiences (Giaccardi, 2006; Yoshida et al., 2010), and allow users to
participate in resource management (Cox, 2007; Giaccardi, 2006; Farber and Radensky,
2008; Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt and Aljas, 2009; Timcke, 2008; Yakel, 2006). Portals
exhibiting these features include Europeana, Picture Australia, Moving Here, and The
Commons. Users of cultural heritage archives have also changed from mainly
researchers to include non-researchers (Adams, 2007; Huvila, 2008). Accordingly,
discussions on strategies to engage users are proliferating (Cox, 2007; Durbin, 2008;
Farber and Radensky, 2008; Huvila, 2008; Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt and Aljas, 2009),
and understanding user needs is recognised as a critical factor of cultural heritage
portals (Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt and Aljas, 2009). Unfortunately it is not usual for
non-profit organisations to assess service quality and customer satisfaction (Bruce,
1995; Sargeant et al., 2002).
While there is a wealth of information about users’ general internet-based
interactions, few studies have examined the factors influencing user satisfaction,
especially with different age groups, possibly due to the contemporary nature of
cultural heritage portals. It is reported that younger generations (e.g. Millennials who
were born in 1980 or later) exhibit more active participation in internet activities that
involve interaction (e.g. social networking), information production (e.g. blogging), and
multimedia (e.g. music and online games) than older generations (Zickuhr, 2010). They
express their opinions and reactions; they are the actors of their online person ae, have
control of their thoughts, actions, and others’ accessibility to their online identities.
This awareness of themselves and of one another over the internet has changed
(Turkle, 2004). It is also reported that certain internet activities, such as visiting
government websites or retrieving online financial information, are more popular
among pre-Millennials; moreover, it is documented that certain key internet activities
such as e-mail, information consumption (e.g. searching and downloading), and online
User satisfaction
with portals
805
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