An empirical investigation of the older adults' continuance intention towards SNSs

Abstract

Although Social Network Services (SNSs) continuance usage has recently emerged as an important issue in information systems adaption, the research into older adults' continuance intention towards SNS is still very low, and the acceptance-discontinuance anomaly phenomenon (i.e. users discontinue using e-learning after initially accepting it) is a common occurrence. This study joins the perceived risk and perceived enjoyment to our prior research model which integrated the Expectation-Confirmation Model (ECM), the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to hypothesise a theoretical model to explain and predict the older adults' intentions to continue using SNSs. The hypothesised model is validated empirically using a sample collected from 320 older adults who had prior experience with SNSs and was tested against the proposed research model using structure equation modelling. The results demonstrate that satisfaction has the most significant effect on older adults' continuance intention, followed by perceived usefulness, perceived risk, subject norm and perceived behavioural control. The results of these findings for SNSs practitioners are discussed at the end of this work.