To stick or not to stick: The social response theory in the development of continuance intention from organizational cross-level perspective

Abstract

The rapid growth of online social network sites (SNSs) has raised the research question of why people continue sticking to these sites. This study proposes a social network site stick model based on social response theory to answer this question. This study hypothesizes that group-level social capital (e.g., environmental prompt cues or social cues) positively influences arousal. Group-level social capital includes group-level social interaction, group-level social trust cues, and group-level social shared codes and language. Arousal subsequently induces users to engage in knowledge sharing and social support behaviors, which, in turn, leads to continuance intention. Empirical analysis using a survey of registered users from a popular social network site supports all of these hypothesized effects. Finally, this study discusses the managerial implications and limitations of these findings.