Antecedents of Continuance Intention of Social Networking Services (SNS): Utilitarian, Hedonic, and Social Contexts

Abstract

This study aims to identify the key factors that influence the continuance intentions of social network service (SNS) users through an integrative framework. It suggests a theoretical model that contains utilitarian, hedonic, and social contexts. Data were collected from 286 SNS users in South Korea. This study analyzed the data through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that both perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are not related to continuance intention. The findings show that perceived enjoyment has a strong and significant impact on continuance intention. The analysis results reveal that communication positively affects continuance intention. Moreover, system quality serves as the key factor of perceived ease of use, even though it has no significant effect on perceived usefulness. Information quality was found to have a significant impact on perceived usefulness but not on perceived ease of use. The results of the study intimated that service quality is significantly related to both perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Positive affect significantly affects both perceived enjoyment and communication. Negative affect significantly impacts perceived enjoyment while having no significant impact on communication. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are elaborated.