Understanding social networking sites continuance: The perspectives of gratifications, interactivity and network externalities

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model to investigate the determinants of continuance intention toward social networking sites (SNSs) by integrating the perspectives of the uses and gratifications theory, perceived interactivity and network externalities.

Design/methodology/approach

Data collected from 255 Facebook users in Taiwan were used to test the proposed model. The partial least squares method was used to test the measurement model and the structural model.

Findings

The findings reveal that emotional gratifications and social gratifications are the key predictors of users’ continuance intention toward SNSs. Further, the results indicate that perceived network size, perceived complementarity, machine interactivity and person interactivity influence information gratifications significantly, while perceived complementarity, machine interactivity and person interactivity exert positive effects on emotional gratifications. Finally, the results show that machine interactivity and person interactivity impact social gratifications positively, whereas perceived network size and perceived complementarity affect machine interactivity and person interactivity significantly.

Originality/value

This study is one of the earliest research inquiries to examine the effects of various types of gratifications on continuance intention. It is also one of the earliest studies to identify the antecedents of gratifications from social factors and technological attributes simultaneously.

Citation

Chang, C.-M. (2018), "Understanding social networking sites continuance: The perspectives of gratifications, interactivity and network externalities", Online Information Review, Vol. 42 No. 6, pp. 989-1006. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-03-2017-0088