Continuance Usage of Localized Social Networking Services: A Conceptual Model and Lessons from China

Abstract

Social networking services (SNS) providers around the world, and those localized SNS in particular, face imminent challenges of maintaining user base, sustaining active usage, and achieving long-term viability. In order to understand users' continuance intention of using SNS, a conceptual model is proposed, which is adapted from the expectation-confirmation theory of IS continuance and integrates SNS-relevant constructs. The model is tested by a survey dataset collected from the users of a major Chinese SNS website. Findings show that the users' continuance intention is directly motivated by 1) users' satisfaction with their usage, 2) usefulness of the SNS perceived by users after their usage, and 3) users' structural embeddedness in the SNS site. Also found are the indirect effects of users' confirmation of initial expectation of the SNS and perceived enjoyment on continuance intention. This is one of the first studies that extend the expectation-confirmation theory into the context of SNS. It offers researchers and practitioners empirical insights into cognitive and affective factors of users' continuance intention from the Chinese user perspective.

Keywords:

• Social networking services
• continuance intention
• expectation-confirmation theory
• user perception
• social capital
• privacy

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Guopeng Yin

Guopeng Yin is an Associate Professor of Information Systems in the School of Information Technology and Management at University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, China. Yin received his Ph.D. degree in Management Information Systems from Renmin University of China. His research interests include IT adoption and post-adoption in online social networking services, the impact of user-generated content on electronic commerce, IT outsourcing and offshoring, and social media. He has published in Service Science, and Tsinghua Science and Technology, and presented papers at ICIS, HICSS, and PACIS.

Ling Zhu

Ling Zhu is an Assistant Professor of MIS in the College of Management at Long Island University Post Campus in New York, USA. He holds a Ph.D. in MIS from, and is currently a J.D. candidate at, the University of Arizona. Dr. Zhu has extensive research experience in global IT policy, working with the U.S. National Academies, National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of State. He has published in journals such as Electronic Commerce Research & Applications, Journal of Global Information Management, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, and Journal of Information Privacy & Security. His research interests include national institutional environment for IT diffusion, IT policy and economic development, intellectual property in IT industry, information privacy, and cyber-law.

Xusen Cheng

Xusen Cheng is an assistant professor at the University of International Business and Economics in China. He received his Ph.D. in Informatics from Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester. His research interest focuses on facilitation and collaboration, service science and engineering, trust development in computer supported teams, and social and organizational issues of IS. His research has been appeared in journals such as Group Decision and Negotiation, and Computers in Human Behavior, and presented in international conferences such as ICIS, HICSS, and GDN.