Social network fatigue affecting continuance intention of social networking services. The case of WeChat users in China’s universities
| Date | 04 February 2019 |
| Pages | 123-139 |
| Published date | 04 February 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DTA-06-2018-0054 |
| Author | Wen Zong,Jing Yang,Zheshi Bao |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Social network fatigue affecting
continuance intention of social
networking services
The case of WeChat users in
China’s universities
Wen Zong, Jing Yang and Zheshi Bao
School of Business Administration,
Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nanjing, China
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore how social network fatigue affects continuance intention of
social networking services (SNSs) from a more comprehensive perspective.
Design/methodology/approach –A research model was proposed by integrating uses and gratification
theory (UGT), social network fatigue and continuance intention. The relationships between the three
dimensions of UGT and continuance intention were examined, as well as the direct and moderating effects of
social network fatigue. To collect data, an online survey was adopted, and 227 valid responses were analyzed
by structural equation modeling.
Findings –The empirical findings demonstrate that utilitarian gratification (information seeking),
social gratificatio n (social interaction ) and hedonic gratific ation (perceived enjo yment) are positively
associated with SNS users’continuance intention. Me anwhile, social netwo rk fatigue can directly and
negatively affect cont inuance intention. Furtherm ore, the relationships betwe en the two dimensions of UGT
(information seeking, perceived enjoyment) and continuance intention are also negatively moderated by
social network fatig ue.
Originality/value –This study contributes to the understanding about the relationship between
continuance intention and social network fatigue. The authors indicate that social network fatigue will not
only directly weaken SNS users’continuance intention, but also negatively influence the formation process of
the continuance intention. Some other theoretical and practical implications are also provided.
Keywords Continuance intention, Social networking services, SNS users, Social network fatigue,
Uses and gratification theory
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Social networking services (SNSs) have become one of the routine channels to extend or
maintain individuals’social connections, and they enable millions of users to sociallyinteract
with one another by overcoming time and geographic differences in a cyber-environment
(Chai and Kim, 2012; Hsuet al., 2014). A variety of SNS providers,such as Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram and WeChat, provide userswith more easy-accessible approaches to communicate
with each other. In recent years, the rapid development of mobile internet further promotes
this trend. Many applications (App) of SNS especially designed for mobile devices are
continuously emerging. As the functions and features of many SNSs have becomemore and
more similar, competitions among those SNS providers inevitably exist. For any SNS, its
durable viability and prosperitydepend on users’continuoususage behavior rather than their
first adoption of it. Therefore, exploring how to facilitate users’continuance intention is
necessary.But on the other hand, as users are always encouragedto pay continuous attention Data Technologies and
Applications
Vol. 53 No. 1, 2019
pp. 123-139
© Emerald PublishingLimited
2514-9288
DOI 10.1108/DTA-06-2018-0054
Received 8 June 2018
Revised 1 December 2018
Accepted 1 March 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2514-9288.htm
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71702068) and the MOE
(Ministry of Education in China) Youth project of Humanities and Social Sciences (No. 16YJC630186).
123
Continuance
intention
of SNSs
to SNSs and sometimes have to respond an overwhelming volume of social demands timely
(Lee et al., 2016),more and more energy and time are required. Theseusers are more likely to
suffer tiredness, boredom and strain. Some scholars named this phenomenon as social
network fatigue.
Recently, many studies have paid attention to this kind of fatigue. Among them,
Bright et al. (2015) examined the proposed antecedents of social network fatigue and
empirically shown that social media confidence and privacy concerns have the
greatest predictive value for social network fatigue. Lee et al. (2016) employed the
transactional theory of stress and coping to indicate that overload (e.g. information
overload, communication overload and system feature overload) can be regard as a core
determinantofsocialnetworkfatigue. These studies mainly focus on the determinants of
social network fatigue, but do not discuss too much about whether it will influence
individuals’usage intentions. Unlike them, Ravindran et al. (2014) not only showed five
generic antecedents of social network fatigue, but also further indicated that users would
take short rest breaks, moderate their activities downward or suspend their social
network activities altogether as a result of fatigue experiences. Zhang et al. (2016)
revealed that perceived overloads are stressors which induce social network fatigue and
dissatisfaction, and besides both of social network fatigue and dissatisfaction would then
lead to discontinuous usage behavior. From these literature, it can be found that although
some researchers have found that social network fatigue would negatively affect users’
continuance intention, most of them only paid attention to the direct and negative
relationship between social network fatigue and continuance intention. Actually, fatigue
can be classified as acute or chronic based on the duration for which the experience
persists, and the chronic fatigue is a longer lasting form (Shen et al.,2006).Therefore,if
social network fatigue is chronic, it may not only work when continuance intention forms,
but also take effects during the formation process of continuance intention. In other
words, it may play a role in directly weakening users’continuance intention and
meanwhile negatively moderating the relationships between some contributing factors
and continuance intention. However, to the best of our knowledge, almost all existing
studies neglect examining whether formation processes of continuance intention can be
negatively influenced by social network fatigue.
This study tried to explore the relationship between social network fatigue and SNS
users’continuance intention from a more comprehensive perspective. In particular, we
focused on WeChat that is one of the most popular SNS applications in China. As of the
third quarter of 2018, monthly active users of WeChat were around 1.08bn (Statista, 2018).
WeChat is not only an instant message tool, but also provides users with an SNS called
“WeChat Moments”which is similar to mobile Facebook and Instagram. Besides, students
and faculty members are more likely to try new methods of communication, and they are
active users of the internet and social networking sites (Kirkpatrick, 2011). Therefore, the
target respondents of this research are invited from members in China’s universities.
During the research process, some contributing factors of SNS users’continuance
intention would be first examined, and then more attentions would be paid to analyze how
the continuance intention will be influenced by social network fatigue. We would examine
the direct effect of social network fatigue on continuance intention, and meanwhile explore
whether social network fatigue will moderate the relationships between contributing
factors and continuance intention. The rest of this paper is structured as follows. In the
next section, theoretical background of this research is provided, and then hypotheses and
research model are developed. Section 3 indicates the research methodology of this study,
followed by data analysis and results in Section 4. After that the findings of this study are
discussed in Section 5. Finally, this paper concludes the research with implications,
limitations and future suggestions.
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