A study of the continuous usage intention of social software in the context of instant messaging
| Pages | 692-710 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-08-2011-0144 |
| Published date | 23 September 2013 |
| Date | 23 September 2013 |
| Author | Jinwon Hong,One-Ki (Daniel) Lee,Woojong Suh |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval |
A study of the continuous usage
intention of social software in the
context of instant messaging
Jinwon Hong
Inha University, Incheon, Republic of Korea
One-Ki (Daniel) Lee
University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and
Woojong Suh
Inha University, Incheon, Republic of Korea
Abstract
Purpose – As social networking is becoming more popular, social software has achieved an
important position in the internet business industry. For social software to be successful, it is crucial to
understand how users form their continuous usage intentions toward social software. This paper aims
to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach – Drawing upon socio-technical and social cognitive perspectives,
this study proposes a theory-based model that investigates the interaction effects between social
(i.e. perceived user base and relationship commitment) and technical (i.e. perceived system quality)
factors of social software, in addition to their direct effects on continuous usage intentions. To
empirically validate the proposed research model, a structural equation modelling technique was used.
Findings – The results of our model test indicate that all relevant social and technical factors are
significant determinants of continuous usage intention. Moreover relationship commitment exhibits a
positive interaction effect with perceived system quality on continuous usage intention, while
perceived user base does not.
Practical implications – Service designers or providers of social software should make an effort to
nurture social relationships among users, expand users’ social networks, and reinforce users’
relationship commitment to their friends.
Originality/value – Given the lack of investigations into socio-technical interactions in prior social
software studies, the theoretical perspectives and empirical findings of this study are useful to both
academics and practitioners. The findings also raise new implications regarding the various types of
interactions (e.g. enhancing or suppressing) between the social and technical factors around social
software.
Keywords Continuous usageintention, Instant messenger, Interactioneffects,
Social cognitiveperspective, Social software, Socio-technical perspective
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
With the extensive diffusion of the World Wide Web, various types of social software
have spread rapidly and increasingly influence both businesses and individuals’ daily
lives. Social software can be defined as “tools and environments that support activities
in digital social networks” (Klamma et al., 2007, p. 72). Social software typically
includes instant messages, blogs, social networks, media-sharing services, and
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
OIR
37,5
692
Received 31 August 2011
First revision accepted 9 July
2012
Online Information Review
Vol. 37 No. 5, 2013
pp. 692-710
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-08-2011-0144
social-bookmarking services. Such social software is becoming more popular, because
it provides flexible social connectivity with functionalities that enable people to
communicate, collaborate, and share various contents, and has thus achieved an
important position in the internet business industry (Parameswaran and Whinston,
2007).
For social software to be successful, it is crucial to make sure that current users
continue to use it. In this regard users’ continuous usage has been discussed as a major
factor in the success of social software (Dron, 2007). For example, when I Love School
(www.iloveschool.co.kr) initiated its alumni search and community service in South
Korea in 1999, it reached seven million users within just one year, which was 15 per
cent of the population of South Korea at that time. At present, however, this service is
ranked only 976th among the most-visited websites in South Korea (Rankey.com,
2010). One of the main reasons for this marked failure is the lack of an ongoing
motivation to maintain relationships among alumni members. Although its users
experienced great pleasure from finding their old friends with its strong initial search
capability, their interactions gradually decreased over time, because they could not
maintain a strong motivation to maintain such nostalgic relationships. MySpace
(www.myspace.com) is another interesting example of such a failure. In 1997 MySpace
had five times more visitors than Facebook (Tancer, 2007), but now it is ranked only
159th in terms of global traffic while Facebook ranks 2nd (Alexa, 2012). For the evident
failure in the continuous use of this social software, industry experts have identified
several possible technical issues, including complex functionality for configuring a
personalised appearance (Wunker, 2011) and belated adoption of new features
(e.g. mobile technology) (Baer, 2010). These two examples clearly illustrate that both
social and technical factors are directly related to users’ continuou s usage of social
software. The importance of these social and technical factors has been discussed
throughout the social software literature. For example several studies have partly
emphasised reciprocal relationships among users, social environment, and technology
quality as critical factors to be considered for the successful use of social software
(Whitworth and Moor, 2003; Farkas, 2007).
In this study we focus on instant messaging, “an internet-based application that
provides close to real-time communication between people” (Lee et al., 2006, p. 103), as
the social software context. Instant messaging is used widely by many people for
various purposes, including recreation with friends or collaboration with colleague s in
the workplace (Huang and Yen, 2003). The number of instant-messaging users in the
world increased from 759 million in 2008 (Branch, 2009) to 3.1 billion in 2012 (Radicati,
2013). In this context, competition among instant-messaging service providers to
expand their market share is intensifying (Cutler, 2012). Branch (2009) and Radicati
(2013) investigated the number of users of instant messenger in 2008 and 2012 by
collecting information from vendors via interviews and surveys. Those methods are
generally accepted in research fields and the statistics are deemed appropriate to reflect
the actual numbers of IM users. Addressing this current business concern, this study
aims to investigate the manner in which users form their continuous usage intentions
toward instant messaging. In particular, to provide an integrated view of the two vital
aspects of social software (i.e. social and technical), this study adopts socio-technical
and social-cognitive perspectives.
Usage of social
software
693
To continue reading
Request your trial