Assessing website performance in the line of the IS Impact model

This research proposal presents a novel study that aims to contribute to the understanding of factors that impact on the performance of Australian university business school websites. The proposed study addresses the current limitations of website performance measurement and incorporates a multilevel perspective that accounts for user and organisational perspectives on website performance. This study adopts the IS-Impact model, developed by Gable et al. (2008) as its primary theoretical foundation and applies Shannon & Weaver's (1949) Communication Theory to develop a conceptual model of website performance as a tool for understanding multilevel website usage as a measure of website performance. The study employs a two-phase quantitative survey research method incorporating an exploratory and confirmatory phase. The exploratory phase aims to test the completeness and the applicability of the IS-Impact model's dimensions and measures in the university website context. The confirmatory phase aims to further validate the model and instrument derived from the exploratory phase, as well as to reconfirm the model and measures using quantitative data.