Getting in the Flow Together: The Role of Social Presence, Perceived Enjoyment and Concentration on Sustainable Use Intention of Mobile Social Network Game

Huimin Wang,Kyungtag Lee

doi:10.3390/su12176853

Abstract

Mobile Social Network Games (MSNGs) are defined as a product that combines games and social network services (SNSs). Compared with games played individually, MSNGs offer additional enjoyment to users through competition or cooperation. Mobile phone games, which rely on SNS platforms, can develop a strong social presence for users. This study focuses on factors affecting the sustainable use intention of MSNGs. In our study, we chose social presence as our dependent variable and proved that the social presence perceived by players in MSNGs has a positive impact on the sustainable use intention through a series of mediator variables. Second, the game product itself can easily lead to player addiction; therefore, in this study, we use the flow theory—perceived enjoyment and concentration—as our mediator variables. The results showed that perceived enjoyment and concentration are important factors driving the attitude towards MSNGs and that attitude presents a significant positive effect on sustainable use intention. This study enhances the current understanding of sustainable use intention of MSNGs and provides practical implication for MSNG development strategies and the theoretical implication.

Highlights

Along with the dramatic improvement of mobile devices, smartphone-based social network service (SNS) enables users to interact electronically with others anytime and everywhere, and allows people to maintain intimate and close relationships [1,2]
It allows us to understand the important role of perceived social presence in playing mobile social network games (MSNGs), and from a theoretical perspective we examined how perceived social presence can lead to sustainable use intention, that is, social presence can activate a state of flow through perceived enjoyment and concentration
We operationalized the concept of flow with two dimensions: perceiver enjoyment and concentration, which are the main mediator variables in our research model

Summary

Introduction

Along with the dramatic improvement of mobile devices, smartphone-based social network service (SNS) enables users to interact electronically with others anytime and everywhere, and allows people to maintain intimate and close relationships [1,2]. For this reason, mobile game providers have begun to design and provide mobile social network games (MSNGs), which constitute a new kind of mobile game that combines SNS and mobile game features [2,3]. It has 272 million monthly active players and in 2018, this game reportedly had its highest grossing 12 months since launch, raking in an estimated $930 million of revenue [5]

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion