Although numerous studies have examined information technology (IT) worker turnover, researchers have not used utility approaches to explain the failure of firms to retain IT employees. Utility approaches are important because they explain how comparisons of the present job to alternatives or future opportunities influence behavior (Mobley et al. 1979). Hence, the purpose of this paper is to integrate utility estimates with existing research on IT worker turnover. To do so, we draw on expectancy and utility approaches that explain the cognitive processes leading to turnover. First, we define the dependent variables.