Abstract

Online investment is an industry that utilizes the power and flexibility of the Internet and has enabled investors worldwide to break down the traditional barriers of time and physical location in addition to offering functionalities and opportunities considered unthinkable in the past. The importance of online investment, especially online brokerage, stems from the fact that the various research performed on this topic has demonstrated a rapid increase in the population of online investors, which has not been coupled with the appropriate technological advances providing advice given by professionals in traditional investment and brokerage firms. This lack of advice and recommendations especially in the domain of stock trading has in part motivated this research. The research question being investigated is "What are the effects of introducing collaborative filtering recommendation systems on user satisfaction, user's impression of usefulness of the system and the intention to use the system in the domain of online brokerage?" In essence, the study examines the user reactions to recommendations provided by technology in the online brokerage sector. Data was collected electronically via the use of two websites designed and coded specifically for the purpose of this research. Results indicate that on average investors using the recommendation system were significantly more satisfied than investors who had no recommendation system. The same investors also reported a higher intention to use the system once it is commercially available.