Antecedents of SMMA continuance intention in two culturally diverse countries: An empirical examination

ABSTRACT

The use of social media mobile applications (SMMA) in Asian countries has increased remarkably in the last decade, which demands a better understanding of differences in the adoption of SMMA across cultures, beyond the west. Against this backdrop, the present study developed a research model that incorporates Schwartz’s individual-level values, individual contextual factors, perceived risk and perceived value, and applied it to settings China and Pakistan to better understand continuance intention regarding SMMA in Asian countries. This study specifically examines the role of individual-level values and individual contextual factors in explaining users’ risk perception; the effects of risk perception on perceived value; and, finally, the impact of perceived value on continuance intention regarding SMMA. Our research model holds true for both China and Pakistan. The majority of the proposed relationships were supported by our findings, and we also observed some noteworthy differences during model comparison between both samples. The findings offer suggestions to information system (IS) practitioners and social media marketers considering cross-cultural differences through SMMA use. The authors acknowledge limitations and suggest further research directions to IS scholars.

KEYWORDS:

• Continuance intention
• cross-cultural
• perceived risk
• personality factors
• social media applications

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71372004, 71772040) and also supported by the Program for Excellent Talents in UIBE.

Notes on contributors

Wasim Ahmad

Wasim Ahmad is doctoral candidate at School of Business, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing 100029, P. R. China ([email protected]). His research interests covers a range of topics across several disciplines such as consumer travel behaviors, hospitality management/marketing, marketing ethics, cross-cultural behavior, and application of technologies in tourism. He has published in premier marketing journals including International Journal of Hospitality Management, Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics and others.

Jin Sun

Jin Sun (PhD) is Professor of Marketing at Business School, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing 100029, P. R. China ([email protected]). Her research interests focus on services marketing and consumer behavior. Her publications have appeared in well-known and referred journals including Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of International Marketing, International Journal of Hospitality Management, European Journal of Marketing, and other top-tier journals.