Modeling of Causes of Sina Weibo Continuance Intention with Mediation of Gender Effects.

Lingyu Wang,Rui Zheng,Xianghong Sun,Weina Qu,Wenguo Zhao

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00619

Abstract

Sina Weibo is a Twitter-like social networking site and one of the most popular microblogging services in China. This study aims to examine the factors that influence the intentions of users to continue using this site. This paper synthesizes the expectation confirmation model, constructs of habit and perceived critical mass, and the gender effect to construct a theoretical model to explain and predict these user intentions. The model is then tested via an online survey of 498 Sina Weibo users and partial least squares (PLS) modeling. The results indicate that the continuance intention of users is directly predicted by their perceived usefulness of the service (β = 0.299), their satisfaction (β = 0.208), and their habits (β = 0.389), which jointly explain 65.9% of the variance in intention. In addition to the effects of these predictors on the continuance intentions of Sina Weibo users, an assessment of the moderating effect of gender suggests that habit plays a more important role for females than for males in continuance intention, but perceived usefulness seems to be more important for males than for females. The implications of these findings are then discussed.

Highlights

With the rapid development of Internet technology, we have entered the web 2.0 era
The users’ intentions to continue using the system were directly predicted by perceived usefulness (β = 0.299), satisfaction (β = 0.208), and habit (β = 0.389), which jointly explained 65.9% of the variance in intention
The results showed that the users’ continuance intentions were determined by their perceptions of the usefulness of the system and their satisfaction and habits, and the proposed extended expectation confirmation model (ECM) explained 65.9% of the total variance in the users’ continuance intentions

Summary

Introduction

With the rapid development of Internet technology, we have entered the web 2.0 era. Social media and especially social networking sites (SNSs) have become essential parts of personal life. Millions of people worldwide are using SNSs for commenting, sharing photos, and interacting with others. MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter are examples of popular SNSs. In China, Sina Weibo (“weibo” means “microblog” in Chinese), which is a Twitter-like microblogging service, is one of the most popular SNSs. As a microblogging platform, Sina Weibo allows users to post short messages that are limited to 140 characters, to comment on each other’s updates, and to share music, videos, and photos. Users can share their daily activities, interests, and opinions, build new relationships and maintain their existing relationships with family and friends. This is an interesting social activity which allows individuals interact with each and feel connected with a family, a peer group, or a society. Sina Weibo provides opportunities for satisfying this need.

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