Predicting Asian undergraduates’ intention to continue using social network services from negative perspectives

Abstract

With the maturity of the social network service (SNS) market, the increasing sophistication of its customer or user base, and the growing intensity of competition, SNS success has now become a pressing issue. Understanding the antecedents of continuance intention is the first step to assure the success of an SNS. This study proposed a model to examine the key drivers of users’ intention to continue using SNSs from negative standpoints. The developed research model was empirically validated using the responses from a field survey of 236 Asian undergraduates. The results revealed that normative pressure and fatigue are the main determinants of the users’ intention to continue using SNSs. Moreover, the findings showed that satisfaction is a major determinant of fatigue, whereas negative critical incidents are crucial predictors of satisfaction. The negative critical incidents experienced when undergraduates use services include rumour dissemination, advertising interference, and low ease of use. The implications of the present findings for research and managerial practice were analysed and discussed.

Keywords:

• social network service
• negative critical incidents
• satisfaction
• continuance intention
• fatigue

Conflict of interest disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

This research is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [project number NSC102-2511-S-275-002-MY2].