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The purpose of this paper is to understand music sharing behaviour on social networking services (SNS). This study suggests and examines a research model which focuses on the influences of user motivations, such as self‐expression, ingratiation, altruism, and interactivity, on music sharing behaviour in SNS through social motivation factors.

Data were collected from 153 Korean SNS (i.e. Cyworld, Naver Blog, Daum Blog, and Tistory) users, who have experience in purchasing music and legally sharing it on SNS. The partial least squares method was used to analyse the measurement and structural models.

The study shows that interactivity, perceived ease of use, self‐expression, social presence, and social identity are significant positive predictors of music sharing intention on SNS.

This research is significant in light of recent interest in user activities in SNS. Better understanding of the music sharing behaviour on SNS can be prompted by reflecting cultural differences in selecting the SNS for validation with a larger sample size.

The findings emphasise the importance of providing users with interactive, self‐expressive, and easily manageable services in order to increase their intention to share music through SNS. Service providers need to focus on improving the user experience of the systems.

SNS based online music services have been increasing and are a new business model of music content distribution. However no academic research has examined music related services on SNS. This study is the first empirical study analysing music sharing behaviour on SNS.

Based on social conformity and social value perspectives, the authors aim to empirically examine the critical role of social influences on Twitter user behaviour.

An integrative structural model is developed to explain how social influences, which are divided into social conformity and social values, work with other salient factors such as the utilitarian and hedonic values to affect the use of Twitter. The partial least square method was used to verify the proposed model with usable data from 204 adult Korean Twitter users.

Social conformity positively affects the frequent use of Twitter and it is mediated through perceived values such as the hedonic, utilitarian and social appearance values associated with Twitter use. While social appearance negatively affected the trustworthiness of information shared on Twitter, the social capital effect on Twitter use was insignificant.

This study has some limitations for general applicability of the results: the samples include only adult users in Korea, and it is a cross-sectional study for a specific social networking service. This study theoretically disentangles the complicated nature of social influences by proposing two distinct constructs (social conformity and social values) and empirically verifying their significant roles in Twitter use.

Practitioners should recognise that the hedonic value of Twitter is the key factor that affects both the quantity and quality of information shared on Twitter. In addition user motivations for pursuing social appearance in SNSs might cause a user to distort the information that they produce.

This study provides unique implications related to the role of social conformity, social values and user behaviour on Twitter.