Understanding the facilitators and inhibitors of individuals’ social network site usage
| Date | 13 February 2017 |
| Published date | 13 February 2017 |
| Pages | 85-101 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-10-2015-0319 |
| Author | Hsin-Yi Huang,Po-Lin Chen,Yu-Chen Kuo |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management |
Understanding the facilitators and
inhibitors of individuals’social
network site usage
Hsin-Yi Huang, Po-Lin Chen and Yu-Chen Kuo
Department of Computer Science and Information Management,
Soochow University, Taipei City, Taiwan
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 Privacy concerns, Social presence, Continuance intention, Media system dependency theory
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Hundreds of millions of people use social networking services (SNS) to participate in the
relational components of the internet. For marketers and business owners, it is essential to
comprehend how and why potential consumers are using SNS in order to determine the best
way to communicate with them. Thus, it is critical for researchers and practitioners to
understand the factors that can facilitate or inhibit individuals’SNS usage behaviors for
better knowing users’continuance intentions and building strong relationships with them.
Media system dependency (MSD) can be defined as a relationship wherein the capacity of
individuals to attain or satisfy their goals and needs is contingent upon the information
resources of the media system (Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur, 1976). Therefore, individuals’
MSD relations should be a function not only of their goals but also of the resources of the
media system (Ball-Rokeach et al., 1984), or more specifically, of the individuals’perceptions
of the goal-related utility (benefit) of media resources. Therefore, individuals’MSD relations
can be seen as the facilitators of SNS usage.
Beyond understanding the facilitators of using SNS, knowing the inhibitors is also
important for the SNS owners in retaining their customers. Today, customer data are an
important form of marketing capital for businesses to improve their customer service and
competitive advantage. Therefore, gaining the customer’s data and information can also
enable SNS providers to build and retain relationships with them. According to the Wall
Street Journal (Rosenbush, 2013), Facebook begins collecting detailed data on minutes user
interactions with its content. Ken Rubin, the Facebook analytics chief, also admitted that Online Information Review
Vol. 41 No. 1, 2017
pp. 85-101
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-10-2015-0319
Received 4 October 2015
Revised 23 June 2016
Accepted 2 September 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
This research and paper were supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, ROC (Grant No.
MOST 103-2410-H-031-049-).
85
Social network
site usage
Facebook collects user data, which comprises user behavior patterns such as “how long a
user’s cursor hovers over a certain part of its website”or “whether a user’s newsfeed is
visible at a given moment on the screen of his or her mobile phone,”are used to develop
products and services for better targeting advertising (Rosenbush, 2013). However,
collecting the private information from people may increase their privacy concerns. In fact,
privacy concerns are the top reason why people quit Facebook (Woollaston, 2013).
Therefore, privacy concerns are treated as the SNS inhibitors.
While the above-mentioned have shown that individuals’MSD relations and privacy
concerns have different impacts on individuals’SNS usage, few studies have been
conducted to examine the facilitators and inhibitors in the SNS context from the perspective
of individuals’MSD relations and privacy concerns. For filling the knowledge gap, this
study developed a theoretical model to examine the facilitators and inhibitors of individuals’
continuance intention toward the SNS. Specifically, the research questions are as follows:
RQ1. How does individuals’MSD relations impact satisfaction (H1a-H3a) and social
presence (H1b-H3b) in the SNS context?
RQ2. To what extent do individuals’privacy concernsdecrease the satisfaction (H4a)and
impede the feeling of human contact (i.e. social presence) (H4b) in the SNS context?
RQ3. Does individuals’satisfaction (H5) and perceived social presence increase their
continuance intention toward the SNS? (H6)
2. Theoretical background
2.1 The facilitators and inhibitors on the SNS
The facilitators and inhibitors of the SNS can either continue or restrain to the SNS usage.
According to Levy (1999), individuals are “value-driven.”People who are facilitated to
use the SNS may because they experience some benefits which outweigh the possible
negative impacts. Individual’s behavioral inhibitors can refer to any factors that operate to
restrain or deter a performance of a sequence of behaviors. Previous studies have already
examined the facilitators and inhibitors of the SNS usage. For instance, Ko and Chen (2009)
proposed that self-esteem, social life, and positive effect can be seen as the benefits which
facilitate bloggers to disclose themselves on the blogs. However, they also indicated that loss
of face, privacy, and other negative effects would inhibit people to use the blogs. Posey et al.
(2010) also proposed that reciprocity and privacy risk are the facilitator and inhibitor in the
online community context, respectively.
However, unliketraditional research contexts, the nature of interaction and user-generated
content of the SNSmay offer not only personal but also social (interpersonal) benefitsor value,
such as gaining the latest school or business news by reading posted information shared by
“friends,”obtaining suggestions to deal with problems by interacting or discussing with
“friends,”andhavingfunwith“friends.”Thus, previous research less focused on the social
(interpersonal) concepts from a theoretical perspective. For filling the knowledge gap, this
study uses individual’s MSD relations and privacy concerns to represent the facilitators and
inhibitors of the SNS usage, respectively.
2.2 MSD theory
MSD theory assumes that individuals are rational problem solvers and gaining information
is one of the important motivating factors for them. Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur (1976)
discussed individual-level MSD as “a relationship in which the capacity of individuals to
attain their goals is contingent upon the information resources of the media system (p. 6).”
MSD theory proposes that individuals depend on media resources to learn the latest news
around themselves (understanding dependency), gain advice to deal with their personal
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OIR
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