Topic1 - Why are People attracted towards Social Networking Sites (SNS)?

Let's have a look at the evolution of the Social Networking Sites in this video below

Social Networking World

It’s mind blowing to look back at the history of Facebook, found just 10 years ago. However, it has changed our lives a lot. Social networking sites not only has influenced us in communication, but also in travel, tourism, business, relationships, food, etc.

Why?

Take a look at the 10 Years of Social Media Evolution here

Our Theory:

In this post, lets see some research papers which would better explain us how entertainment have a significant impact on user's perception of continued use of Social Networking Sites.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Research Paper 1

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ellahi, A. (2013). "Key quality factors affecting users' perception of social networking websites." Journal of retailing and consumer services 20(1): 120.

Research Paper Theory:

Effect of social networking websites on user's perception and evaluating the quality factors of those websites.

Independent Constructs:

Navigabiity

Privacy

Community Driven

Efficiency

Website Appearance

Entertainment

User - Friendliness

                                       


Dependent Construct:

User perception

Brief Description of the Theory:

Researchers wanted to find out whether the key quality factors such as Efficiency, Entertainment and Community drivenness, Privacy, User-friendliness and Navigability improved the quality of the existing social networking websites (like increase in number of users and any additional benefits to the company) and effects of these factors on user's perception.

Summary of the Paper Including:

The paper's objective was to determine the effect of quality factors on existing social networking websites and on perception of user.

Two tests were carried out in the paper namely Conceptual Model test and Emperical Test. Conceptual framework was carried out to test the conceptual model to evaluate quality and Emperical test was carried out by means of hypothesis.

Once descriptive analysis is performed, based on the demographic profile of the respondents, theoretical constructs were measured statistically.

What the paper is about:

The research explores the effect of the seven quality factors on existing social networking websites and on user's perception about quality.

As per conceptual framework testing, responses from 300 participants were segregated based on the seven quality factors and its outcome was used to test the conceptual model. Coming to Empirical testing based on hypothesis, specifying the domain & factors, validating the content & face, pre-testing, surveying instruments, data collection & sampling and data analysis were carried out.

Regardless of the tests carried out, all results were found to be same. It was noted that six major quality factors namely Efficiency, Entertainment, Community drivenness, Privacy, User-friendliness and Navigability had a greater impact on service quality of the social networking websites and users. Only the web appearance quality factor was found to have a lesser impact on website and users.

Thus Quality was found to have a significant influence on all.

To conclude with, developers can improve the quality of the existing social networking websites based on the essential and desired quality.

Factors from this research which in turn increases the user numbers and brings a larger benefits to the company. In addition, this research shows the degree to which the preserved quality has a direct and profound impact on user's perception about the quality of the website.

How it uses the theory:

This research theory classifies the seven major quality factors namely efficiency, User-friendliness, Entertainment, Privacy, Community drivenness, Navigability & Web appearance and its degree of effect on user's perception about the social networking website.

Research Methods used in the paper:

The first research method employed in this paper was framing a Conceptual Model.

    

300 people were asked to provide responses regarding their perception on social networking website quality. Seven quality factors were applied on their responses and a finalized data were sampled. This sampled data was then used to frame the conceptual model.

The second research method employed was Empirical model based on Hypothesis. It followed the below steps:

•  According to existing literature, website’s service quality factors were specified.
• The specified service quality factors were then categorized into eight groups so as to carry out the hypothesis testing.
• Delphi process was employed in this paper, where a total of 24 items were selected by the panel experts that ensured face and content validity.
• Comments on wordings and questions were provided by 20 social networking users during pre-testing.
• Survey was carried out in two stages. The first stage recorded the visit and frequency of visit by the respondents whereas the second stage recorded the rating given to the corresponding social networking website.
• Under sampling and data collection, purposive sampling technique was implemented based on specific characteristics and situations.
• Sample profile was created based on Descriptive statistics. Regression analysis was performed to test the hypothesis ans confirmatory factor analysis was conducted by LISREL.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Research Paper 2

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lin, K.-Y. and H.-P. Lu (2011). "Why people use social networking sites: An empirical study integrating network externalities and motivation theory." Computers in Human Behavior 27(3): 1152-1161.

Research Paper Theory: 

How network externalities and motivation theory affects user’s perception of continued intention to use Social Networking Sites?

Independent Constructs: 

Number of Members

Number of Peers

Perceived Complimentary

Dependent Constructs: 

Entertainment

Continued Intention to use SNS

Usefulness

Brief Description of theory:

With the help of experiments, researchers would like to analyse if the integration of network externalities and motivation theory affects user’s perception of continued intention to use Social Networking Sites.

The Hypotheses which explains the dependencies are:

H1. Usefulness will have a positive effect on continued intention to use of a social network service.

H2. Enjoyment will have a positive effect on continued intention to use of a social network service.

H3a. Number of members will have a positive effect on continued intention to use of a social network service.

H3b. Number of members will have a positive effect on usefulness of a social network service.

H3c. Number of members will have a positive effect on enjoyment of a social network service.

H4a. Number of peers will have a positive effect on continued intention to use of a social network service.

H4b. Number of peers will have a positive effect on usefulness of a social network service.

H4c. Number of peers will have a positive effect on enjoyment of a social network service.

H5a. Perceived complementarity will have a positive effect on continued intention to use of a social network service.

H5b. Perceived complementarity will have a positive effect on usefulness of a social network service.

H5c. Perceived complementarity will have a positive effect on enjoyment of a social network service.

Summary of the paper including:

The paper introduced network externalities and motivation theory as the two key factors affecting the user’s perception of continued intention to use SNS.

Data analysis tested the validity of the measurement model followed by testing the research hypotheses and structural model framework. The study proposes an integrated theoretical framework for academic researchers by combining motivation theory and network externalities to investigate the attitudes and factors of user’s using SNS, and proposes possible factors of effects to understand why users continue to use.

What the paper is about?

The paper is to study the factors affecting people’s continual use of social networking sites by integrating the network externalities and the motivation theory, as the fast developing SNS have become the major media in recent years, for the people to develop their personal network online.

Researchers have used an online questionnaire to conduct empirical research, and collected and analyzed data of 402 samples of Taiwan Facebook users by structural equation modeling (SEM) approach.

The findings show that enjoyment is the most influential factor in people’s continued use of SNS, followed by number of peers, and usefulness which can be inferred from the below figure.

The Findings suggest that gender difference also produces different influences.

How it uses the theory:

In the context of a pleasure-oriented information system, enjoyment plays an important role. Users are also tend to essentially connect with old friends on Facebook, thereby increasing their enjoyment.

Research methods used in the paper:

Online questionnaires was prepared to analyze the user’s perception of using Facebook. Taiwan Facebook users were randomly made to fill up the questionnaire. Researchers attracted the users by complimenting them with gifts. Also advertisements regarding the questionnaire were posted in the websites and the most popular bulletin board systems. Respondents’ identity were checked by their e-mail and IP address, when the questionnaires were received, to avoid replications. 402 usable responses were received.

Of the three types of services that Facebook provides,

• Communication (i.e., comment and e-mail) 
• Contents (i.e., games and news) 
• Commerce (i.e., advertisement)