The impact of qualities of social network service on the continuance usage intention

Abstract

Purpose Although there are a number of studies on the factors affecting the continuance usage intention for social network services (SNS), the studies on the integrated model encompassing SNS qualities (information, system, and service quality, and hedonic value, which are gratifications for SNS usage), flow, relationship quality (which are trust and satisfaction), and continuance intention are almost non-existent. Based on Bagozzi’s self-regulation framework, the IS success model, uses and gratification theory, and flow theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the qualities and hedonic value of SNS, which have an influence on flow experience and relationship quality which are posited to affect the continuance usage intention. Design/methodology/approach This study used an e-mail survey method to collect 460 questionnaires for the final sample. The sample of the study includes college students or job workers who have experience in using SNS. Various user categories in terms of gender, school degree, occupation, usage years, and daily time of usage were included. Findings The study results show that system, service quality, and hedonic value have an impact on flow experience, information and service quality, and hedonic value influence the relationship quality of SNS. The flow experience and relationship quality while using SNS affect the continuance usage intention of SNS. This results show that the consideration of various SNS qualities, hedonic value, flow experience, and relationship quality is necessary to actively explore the factors for continuance usage intention for SNS. Practical implications IS managers trying to understand reuse intent can use surveys on information, system, and service quality, and hedonic value. Practitioners should constantly incorporate and develop various activities or useful applications to allow people to reach out to each other, to reinforce users’ attention, interaction, and increase social connections, trust, satisfaction, and further intensify users’ intention to use, increasing SNS value. The findings explain a mechanism through which SNS users’ continuance intention is built. Understanding this mechanism provides valuable information for practitioners to understand the qualities driving SNS users’ intention to revisit SNS. Originality/value This study sheds light on the existing literature on website usage that focuses on the design qualities as this paper has combined website quality perspective, i.e., information, system, and service quality, and hedonic value, and the flow and relationship perspective to investigate how these constructs would affect users’ intention to continuously use SNS. On the basis of four theories, Bagozzi’s self-regulation framework, IS success model, users and gratification theory, and flow theory, this study extended the previous studies on SNS by adding information, system, and service quality, hedonic value, flow and relationship quality as second-order constructs affecting continuance intention.

Examining Self-Disclosure on Social Networking Sites: A Flow Theory and Privacy Perspective

“…Whatever the cause, research supports the assertion that when consumers experience the environment where others are disclosing information about themselves, they are also motivated toward self-disclosure [9]. Indeed, users may become so engrossed by the content they are engaging with that they are inspired to respond or share their own experiences on the platform [3], thus engaging in self-disclosure. Moreover, where such focused attention and flow is perceived to be a result of the excellent design of the website, consumers are more inclined to believe in the performance quality of the service provider, and trust in its ability to safeguard their disclosure [39].…”

“…Online flow has been described by some researchers as a cognitive state enjoyed during interaction with websites, where there is a “seamless sequence of responses,” making it easy for the user to lose him/herself in the experience of interacting with the platform [3,35]. This helps in improving engagement with the site and its content, especially as it reduces self-consciousness and allows the user to focus his/her attention on the experience s/he is going through.…”

“…Social media and other web 2.0 tools have provided the platform for individuals to communicate simultaneously not only with their friends and acquaintances but also with relative strangers [1] with unprecedented ease. This has facilitated the ability of people to share more about themselves, their families, and their friends through a variety of media including text, photo, and video [2], thus developing and sustaining social and business relationships [3,4]. Ellison and Boyd [5] defined a social networking site as “a networked communication platform in which participants (1) have uniquely identifiable profiles that consist of user-supplied content, content provided by other users and/or system-level data, (2) can publicly articulate connections that can be viewed and traversed by others, and (3) can consume, produce, and/or interact with streams of user generated content provided by their connections on the site.” In the literature, this process of “making the self known to others,” described as self-disclosure [6] has been in existence at least since the late 1950s for example Jourard & Lasakow [7], and is a well-established phenomenon in the field of psychology [8].…”

“…While current research has weighed the costs and benefits of such self-disclosure on social networking sites, citing issues of privacy [4,11], and how much it should be controlled [12], as well as considered the qualities of various social networking sites which encourage self-disclosure [3,13], there is still a limited work on the antecedents and motivators of self-disclosure from the perspective of privacy and flow. Extant studies on the topic include research by Cheung et al [9], Krasnova et al [11], and Walrave et al [14]; however, these have each studied only a few variables limited to a particular social networking site like Facebook.…”

Analysis and Evaluation of the Largest 500 Family Firms’ Websites through PLS-SEM Technique

“…Customers have access to social knowledge and experiences in making more informed and accurate purchase decisions to better understand their online purchase purposes [47].…”