Understanding Continuance Use in Social Networking Services

Continuance, in the information technology context, refers to sustained use of a technology by individual users over the longterm after their initial acceptance. In this research, we explore the role of enjoyment and subjective norms in continuance use of social networking services. A research model based on the IS continuance model was developed, and empirically analyzed using data from social networking service users in South Korea. The results indicated that enjoyment had a significant influence on user satisfaction and continuance use behaviors in social networks; however, enjoyment did not have a direct impact on continuance intention to use. Also, subjective norm had a significant influence on perceived usefulness as well as continuance intention to use. Our findings imply that users’ continuance use of social networking service may arise not only from reasoned actions, but also from automatic behaviors, and enjoyment directly leads to these automatic behaviors.