Understanding undergraduates’ problems from determinants of Facebook continuance intention

ABSTRACT

As social networks’ popularity has increased, so have the attendant problems. The purpose of this study is to identify the important problems by exploring the determinants of Facebook continuance intention from a negative perspective. A questionnaire survey and interview method is used to provide a deep understanding of both the problems and their causes. The research hypotheses are empirically evaluated using the responses from a field survey of 555 undergraduates. The results indicate that previous usage behaviour is the most important determinate of continuance intention. There is a positive causal relationship between perceived privacy self-protection and usage behaviour. In addition to a common privacy issue, this study discovers some problems such as underestimating the potential risks, having misconceptions and lacking legal and information security knowledge. Moreover, this study presents a diagnostic system that administrators can use to detect students’ key problems and understand the reasons behind students’ behaviour.

KEYWORDS:

• Social network service
• fatigue
• perceived risk
• perceived behavioural control
• perceived privacy self-protection
• continuance intention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

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