Social virtual world continuance among teens: uncovering the moderating role of perceived aggregate network exposure

Engagement in virtual worlds has become pervasive, particularly among the young. At the same time, the number of virtual environments has increased rapidly. Due to intensifying competition, promoting sustained usage, i.e. continuance, has become a top priority for virtual world operators. Prior research has shown that network externalities play a key role in the adoption of communication technologies. However, a small amount of research has examined the role of network externalities in continued IT usage in general or with respect to the virtual world participation in particular. To fill in this gap, we examine how perceived network externalities affect the continuance of social virtual worlds. To this end, we introduce the concept of perceived aggregate network exposure (PANE). We extend the original information systems (IS) continuance model with perceived enjoyment and position PANE as a moderator. We test the model with data collected from 2134 Finnish Habbo Hotel users and employ structural equation modelling in the analysis. The results demonstrate that PANE moderates the influence of motivational factors on continued use intention and satisfaction.     

The impact of personality type on purchasing decisions in virtual stores

Despite the proliferation of virtual stores, research into the consumer personality characteristics that influence consumer interactions with virtual stores has been lagging. In this paper we propose and test a model linking consumer personality type with a decision to purchase from a virtual store. The results indicate that a consumer’s personality type has an effect on perceived ease of use and peer influence; and those two variables, together with perceived usefulness, have an effect on a consumer’s eventual decision to purchase from a virtual store. The practical implications of the findings are that consumer perceptions and attitudes towards virtual stores can be altered by personalizing virtual stores in a manner which will increase their likelihood of making a purchase.     

Examining mobile instant messaging user loyalty from the perspectives of network externalities and flow experience

Due to the intense competition and low switching cost, building user loyalty is critical for mobile instant messaging (IM) service providers. Integrating both perspectives of network externalities and flow experience, this research identified the factors affecting mobile IM user loyalty. Network externalities include referent network size and perceived complementarity. Flow experience includes perceived enjoyment and attention focus. We conducted data analysis with structural equation modeling (SEM). The results show that both network externalities and flow experience significantly affect perceived usefulness and satisfaction, further determining user loyalty. Thus mobile service providers need to improve their IM platforms, and deliver positive network externalities and good usage experience to users. Then they can facilitate users’ loyalty.     

Understanding use continuance in virtual worlds: Empirical test of a research model

We decided to examine why people continue to use virtual worlds by studying a real example: the popular virtual world of Second Life. This involved building and testing a model of virtual worlds based on habit from both the habit/automaticity and instant automaticity perspectives, the latter based on utilitarian and hedonic goals. The results (for a sample of 339 users) suggested that continuance intention for the virtual world was driven by perceived usefulness, enjoyment, and both perspectives of automatic behavior, which together provide considerable explanatory power for both habit and continuance intention. We conclude with implications for practice in this new area of inquiry.     

Exploring factors affecting Chinese consumers' usage of short message service for personal communication

Abstract. Short message service (SMS) is very popular in China. While many reports indicate that the SMS market has great potential, little is known about why people adopt SMS. This study uses the technology acceptance model and network externalities to examine the factors influencing the adoption of SMS for personal communication in China. Using data collected from 262 mobile phone users, we find that perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and perceived service cost affect SMS use. Perceived network externalities also contribute to higher perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use and affect SMS adoption. The results provide insight to SMS marketing strategies.     

Predicting the adoption of mobile financial services: The impacts of perceived mobility and personal habit

Mobile financial services (MFS) have become a critical issue in the financial sectors. An expanding application of mobile commerce, MFS play an important role in managing customer relationships. Thus, we proposed a model that incorporates three external variables—perceived enjoyment, perceived mobility, and personal habit—into the technology acceptance model (TAM) to assess the antecedents that influence continued usage intention in MFS. In addition, we examined the moderating effect of gender on customer relationships. Structural equation modeling was used, and 368 MFS users were investigated. The findings revealed that perceived mobility, personal habit, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use are the major antecedents that influence continued usage intention in MFS. However, perceived enjoyment is not significantly associated with intention. Moreover, gender moderates the relationships between the variables in the proposed model. Perceived mobility affecting usage intention will be stronger for men than for women, whereas personal habit affecting usage intention will be stronger for women than for men.     

The role of perceived enjoyment and social norm in the adoption of technology with network externalities

The emergence of highly interactive media and the increased connectivity among people call for an investigation of usage behaviour of those media. People tend to rely heavily on peer-to-peer interaction influencing the adoption of new media formats that enhance this interactivity. The first explorative phase of this research consists of interviews with experts and focus groups and builds the basis of the proposed framework and measurement model. Then, a Structural Equation Modelling approach is used to assess the relative importance and the strength between different constructs, including perceived enjoyment, social norm, usefulness, ease of use and intention to use. The results indicate that perceived enjoyment and social norm are important antecedents for the adoption of technology with network externalities.     

3D Social Virtual Worlds: Research Issues and Challenges

Today's social virtual worlds (SVW) are beginning to realize Stephenson's vision of the metaverse: a future massive network of interconnected digital worlds. Tens of millions of people already use these kinds of environments to communicate, collaborate, and do business. Big companies are also moving into these digital realms. Thus, in a context in which the Web is becoming increasingly social, we believe that SVWs are beginning to shape the knowledge-based and glo balized societies and economies of tomorrow. Obviously, an urgent need exists to further understand SVWs and their implications for theory and practice. This article constitutes a first attempt to bring researchers into some of the business, social, technical, legal, and ethical issues related to SVWs. We anticipate that researchers will need to build new theories and concepts for SVWs, to explore the frontiers between reality and virtuality.     

Factors influencing continuance intention to use social network sites: The Facebook case

Social networking sites (SNS) have become one of the most popular means of online social interaction. However, few studies have examined SNS from the context of post-adoption. This study focuses on continuance usage intention toward Facebook, a popular SNS, among university students in the United Arab Emirates. We have extended the expectation–confirmation model by investigating the influence of enjoyment and subjective norms as critical factors that directly influence continuance usage intention, and added habit as a mediator between satisfaction and continuance intention. We used structural equation modeling to validate the proposed model and hypotheses. We find that perceived usefulness, satisfaction, habit, enjoyment, and subjective norms explain 54.8% of the variance in continuance intention. Furthermore, our study shows that the effect of satisfaction on continuance intention is both direct and mediated by habit. Thus, practitioners should focus on all of these factors to encourage continuance usage intention in their site’s users.     

Why do individuals use computer technology? A Finnish case study

Here we discuss the motivators for computer usage in Finland. IS and non-IS researchers have reported that perceived usefulness is a major determinant in a United States workplace. This study focuses on two aspects of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic. Perceived usefulness is an example of extrinsic motivation, whereas perceived enjoyment is intrinsic. We found that extrinsic motivation plays a greater role in individuals' behavior and that perceived ease of use affects both perceived enjoyment and usefulness, as well as usage. Moreover, they were found to mediate fully the relationship between perceived ease of use and computer usage.     

Exploring Factors Affecting the Adoption of Internet of Things Services

The Internet of things (IoT) is seen as a potentially effective means of integrating multiple technologies to improve the quality of life. However, little attention has been paid to factors that may have a significant effect on a user’s intention to use the IoT services. This study applies the value-based adoption model to examine the influences of benefits (i.e. perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment) and sacrifices (i.e. perceived privacy risk and perceived costs) on the user’s perceived value of and intention to use the IoT services. A structural equation modeling approach is applied to a survey of 489 IoT users, with results indicating that perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment significantly affect behavioral intention through perceived value. Moreover, perceived privacy risk also plays a key factor in determining IoT adoption. The implications of this study are discussed.     

Perceived derived attributes of online customer reviews

The influence of online customer reviews (OCRs) on customers' purchase intention has recently gained considerable attention, in both academic and business communities. Technology allows customers to freely and easily post their comments and opinions online about any product or service; this type of customer review can have a significant effect on customers' purchase decisions. Previous studies, however, have mainly focused on the influence of the virtual attributes of OCRs such as volume and valence on consumers' intentions, while limited attention has been paid to understanding the effects of the derived attributes. This study, thus, aims to understand the impact of the perceived derived attributes of OCRs on customer trust and intention. This study develops a – Perceived Derived Attributes (PDA) - model, based on the inclusion of perceived control from the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), in order to investigate the effects of OCRs on customers’ purchasing intention. A total of 489 responses to a survey were collected from users of amazon.com. The findings from this study suggest that customer trust in an e-vendor and their intention to shop online are significantly affected by perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment of OCRs. Furthermore, the sense of control derived from OCRs significantly affects customer intention and significantly affects customer trust in e-vendors, particularly for customers who frequently check OCRs before making a purchase. Clearly, those attributes of OCRs are linked to the development of the shopping environment, which consequently can affect sales.     

A two-staged SEM-neural network approach for understanding and predicting the determinants of m-commerce adoption

The advancement in wireless and mobile technologies has presented tremendous business opportunity for mobile-commerce (m-commerce). This research aims to examine the factors that influence consumers’ m-commerce adoption intention. Variables such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, trust, cost, network influence, and variety of services were used to examine the adoption intentions of consumers. Data was collected from 376 m-commerce users. A multi-analytic approach was proposed whereby the research model was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM), and the results from SEM were used as inputs for a neural network model to predict m-commerce adoption. The result showed that perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, trust, cost, network influence, and trust have significant influence on consumers’ m-commerce adoption intentions. However, the neural network model developed in this research showed that the best predictors of m-commerce adoption are network influence, trust, perceived usefulness, variety of service, and perceived enjoyment. This research proposed an innovative new approach to understand m-commerce adoption, and the result for this study will be useful for telecommunication and m-commerce companies in formulating strategies to attract more consumers.     

Continuance usage of corporate SNS pages: A communicative ecology perspective

This study develops a research model that explains the continuance of corporate social network service (SNS) pages. In order to find antecedents that influence end users’ continuance intention, this study adopts communicative ecology theory from media and communication studies. Results indicate that the quality of social interaction is the most salient feature, as indicated by the fact that it has the highest impact on perceived usefulness and enjoyment. Moreover, content quality also increases both perceived usefulness and enjoyment, while SNS platform quality and service quality increase perceived usefulness only. In addition, perceived network size moderates the impact of social interaction quality on perceived enjoyment.     

Understanding Chinese users’ continuance intention toward online social networks: an integrative theoretical model

This study explores users’ continuance intention in online social networks by synthesizing Bhattacherjee’s IS continuance theory with flow theory, social capital theory, and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to consider the special hedonic, social and utilitarian factors in the online social network environment. The integrated model was empirically tested with 320 online social network users in China. The results indicated that continuance intention was explained substantially by all hypothesized antecedents including perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, usage satisfaction, effort expectancy, social influence, tie strength, shared norms and trust. Based on the research findings, we offer discussions of both theoretical and practical implications.     

Acceptance of Internet-based learning medium: the role of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation

This study is one of the few attempts to investigate students’ acceptance of an Internet-based learning medium (ILM). By integrating a motivational perspective into the technology acceptance model, our model captured both extrinsic (perceived usefulness and ease of use) and intrinsic (perceived enjoyment) motivators for explaining students’ intention to use the new learning medium. Data collected from 544 undergraduate students were examined through the LISREL VIII framework. The results showed that both perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment significantly and directly impacted their intention to use ILM. Surprisingly, perceive ease of use did not posit a significant impact on student attitude or intention towards ILM usage. Implications of this study are important for both researchers and practitioners.     

The influences of system usability and user satisfaction on continued Internet banking services usage intention: empirical evidence from Taiwan

This study proposes an extended technology acceptance model to investigate the effects of system usability and satisfaction on users’ intention to continue using Internet banking services. Based on a survey data from 304 respondents, structural equation modeling technique was employed to validate the model. The empirical results found that users’ continuance usage intention is jointly determined by perceived usefulness, perceived compatibility and satisfaction level. The hypothesized model explains 48.2 % of the variance in continuous usage intention. Results of multi-group analysis reveal that there are different concerns and priorities between skilled and less skilled users. Given that the sample of this study is collected from a particular industry in Taiwan, the generalizability of the findings may be limited. However, the comprehensiveness and representativeness of the research sample is a major strength of this study.     

Convergence adoption model (CAM) in the context of a smart car service

This study proposes the convergence adoption model (CAM) in the context of a smart car service. The unique characteristics of convergence technology demand the incorporation of compatibility judgment, task-technology-fit (TTF) and the effect of visual design to fully understand users' adoption intention. The results of our study indicate that the compatibility with past experiences with existing and comparable technologies is indeed a critical factor affecting perceived ease-of-use, usefulness, and enjoyment of convergence technology. TTF is found to directly influence the adoption intention and mediate the effect of perceived usefulness and enjoyment on the adoption intention. Finally, the results show that visual attractiveness of the interface design enhances the evaluation of the key constructs of our model, such as compatibility judgment, perceived enjoyment, and adoption intention of convergence technology.     

Examining continuous usage of location-based services from the perspective of perceived justice

Due to the privacy risk associated with using location-based services (LBS), users are often reluctant to adopt and use them. Drawing on the justice theory, this research identified the factors affecting continuous usage of LBS. Perceived justice reflects a set of fairness perceptions and involves three dimensions: distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice, which reflect outcome fairness, process fairness and treatment fairness, respectively. We conducted data analysis with structural equation modeling (SEM). The results show that procedural justice is the main factor affecting privacy risk, whereas distributive justice is the main factor affecting perceived usefulness. Privacy risk and perceived usefulness influence continuous usage. Thus mobile service providers need to improve users’ perceived justice to facilitate their usage of LBS.