‘Mind the gap’: An empirical study of the gap between intention and actual usage of corporate e-learning programmes in the financial industry

While numerous previous studies have focused on the use of some corporate e-learning programmes (CELP), little is known about the difference between users’ pre-installation reactions to CELP and user’s post-installation reactions to CELP. This study narrows the above gap with two investigations into a financial company’s CELP. In the pre-installation phase, we surveyed users’ need for cognition, attitudes towards corporate e-learning and intentions for the use of corporate e-learning (INT) in relation to the CELP. Ten months after the installation, we conducted a second investigation to examine learning outcomes on the basis of users’ perceptions of CELP utility, CELP satisfaction, affective reaction to CELP and the actual CELP usage (UGE).We examined the proposed model with multiple regression analyses and found a gap between INT and UGE. The second investigation identified potential factors that contributed to the differences in UGE between two groups of high-INT learners. Results indicated that time management and technical problems were the two critical factors that led to UGE differences. Findings of this study can illuminate relationships among learners’ attitudes, usage and reaction towards the CELP.