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Understanding the facilitators and inhibitors of individuals’ social network site usage

Hsin-Yi Huang (Department of Computer Science and Information Management, Soochow University, Taipei City, Taiwan)
Po-Lin Chen (Department of Computer Science and Information Management, Soochow University, Taipei City, Taiwan)
Yu-Chen Kuo (Department of Computer Science and Information Management, Soochow University, Taipei City, Taiwan)

Online Information Review

ISSN: 1468-4527

Article publication date: 13 February 2017

976

Abstract

Purpose

Focusing on social network services (SNS), the purpose of this paper is to propose a research model to investigate individuals’ SNS usage facilitators and inhibitors from the perspective of individuals’ media system dependency (MSD) and privacy concerns.

Design/methodology/approach

The research model will be tested with data collected from online users of Facebook. The survey yielded a total of 403 responses for the data analysis which was conducted by measurement and structural models.

Findings

The findings indicate that SNSs members strive for understanding, orientation, and play dependencies which facilitate their satisfaction and social presence, and subsequently fosters their continuance intention toward the SNS. In addition, the members’ privacy concerns decrease satisfaction and social presence online.

Originality/value

First, this study has contributed to the authors’ understanding of an individual’s SNS facilitators and inhibitors from the theoretical perspective (i.e. MSD theory and privacy concerns). Second, satisfaction is a strong antecedent of continuance intention and would dilute the effect of social presence on an individual’s SNS continuance intention.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research and paper were supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, ROC (Grant No. MOST 103-2410-H-031-049-).

Citation

Huang, H.-Y., Chen, P.-L. and Kuo, Y.-C. (2017), "Understanding the facilitators and inhibitors of individuals’ social network site usage", Online Information Review, Vol. 41 No. 1, pp. 85-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-10-2015-0319

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

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