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The effects of habit and attitude on Facebook usage
Author(s)
Date Issued
2019
ISBN
9780877570059
Citation
Proceedings of 2019 AMA Summer Academic Conference (Marketing on fire: Burning questions, hot new methods, and practical ideas worth spreading), 2019, 30, DWO-72
Description
This study proposes a model for examining (in relation to Facebook) continued intention to use, socialinformation seeking and self-disclosure with habitual usage and attitude.
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Research Question
This study addresses one research question: Do habitual usage and attitude have different impacts on continued intention to use, self-disclosure and social-information seeking? This research recommends a model to examine the associations between habitual usage and attitude, along with those factors. The findings furnish implications about the significance of habitual usage and attitude for Facebook usage intention, as well as related behaviors, and provide researchers and practitioners with new insights.
Method and Data
This study involved a group of undergraduates, aged 20 to 25 years. Given that most of this study’s measurement items came from relevant prior studies, and that the questionnaire in English was prepared. Based on over 400 data points, all items were tested with structural equation modeling. Partial least squares (PLS) was employed to assess the proposed research model.
Summary of Findings
Referring to the research question, two major findings emerged: (1) both habitual usage and attitude toward using Facebook affect users’ continued intentions to use and selfdisclosure; and (2) habitual usage is the only factor that affects social-information seeking and does not relate to attitude and continued intention to use. Some scholars have shown that attitude is limited in its explanatory capacity of future behaviors, and they have therefore recommended that researchers extend research models to integrate habit-related factors (e.g., Law et al., 2016; Venkatesh et al., 2012). Honkanen and his coworkers (2005) explained that, if a strong habit develops, it would be that habit, and not attitude, guides behavior. This study shows that habitual ways of using Facebook affect users’ continuance usage intentions and related behaviors. Facebook was established in 2004, and some users may have a lot of experience using it. This may be one of the reasons that habitual usage exerts a greater impact than attitude does.
Moreover, some researchers have indicated that continued usage has been an important issue to Facebook as it represents its success (e.g., Basak and Calisir, 2015). The research finding supports the claim that continued intention to use is still one of the important factors affecting self-disclosure. Key Contributions
This research may be the first paper to investigate the impacts of these factors in one study. This study not only enriches the extent to which prior studies identified and acknowledged the roles played by attitude and continued intention to use, but it also illustrates the influence of habitual usage. All of these research findings serve to enlarge the significance of the previous research as it bears on attaining a clearer understanding of the effects of these factors.
On the other hand, marketers should be more careful in formulating social media strategies. This study suggests that online marketers should avoid treating all Facebook users as if they were identical, and should prepare diverse kinds of strategies, particularly to understand different behaviors of their fan pages’ followers. More specific online targeting strategies should be used.
This study addresses one research question: Do habitual usage and attitude have different impacts on continued intention to use, self-disclosure and social-information seeking? This research recommends a model to examine the associations between habitual usage and attitude, along with those factors. The findings furnish implications about the significance of habitual usage and attitude for Facebook usage intention, as well as related behaviors, and provide researchers and practitioners with new insights.
Method and Data
This study involved a group of undergraduates, aged 20 to 25 years. Given that most of this study’s measurement items came from relevant prior studies, and that the questionnaire in English was prepared. Based on over 400 data points, all items were tested with structural equation modeling. Partial least squares (PLS) was employed to assess the proposed research model.
Summary of Findings
Referring to the research question, two major findings emerged: (1) both habitual usage and attitude toward using Facebook affect users’ continued intentions to use and selfdisclosure; and (2) habitual usage is the only factor that affects social-information seeking and does not relate to attitude and continued intention to use. Some scholars have shown that attitude is limited in its explanatory capacity of future behaviors, and they have therefore recommended that researchers extend research models to integrate habit-related factors (e.g., Law et al., 2016; Venkatesh et al., 2012). Honkanen and his coworkers (2005) explained that, if a strong habit develops, it would be that habit, and not attitude, guides behavior. This study shows that habitual ways of using Facebook affect users’ continuance usage intentions and related behaviors. Facebook was established in 2004, and some users may have a lot of experience using it. This may be one of the reasons that habitual usage exerts a greater impact than attitude does.
Moreover, some researchers have indicated that continued usage has been an important issue to Facebook as it represents its success (e.g., Basak and Calisir, 2015). The research finding supports the claim that continued intention to use is still one of the important factors affecting self-disclosure. Key Contributions
This research may be the first paper to investigate the impacts of these factors in one study. This study not only enriches the extent to which prior studies identified and acknowledged the roles played by attitude and continued intention to use, but it also illustrates the influence of habitual usage. All of these research findings serve to enlarge the significance of the previous research as it bears on attaining a clearer understanding of the effects of these factors.
On the other hand, marketers should be more careful in formulating social media strategies. This study suggests that online marketers should avoid treating all Facebook users as if they were identical, and should prepare diverse kinds of strategies, particularly to understand different behaviors of their fan pages’ followers. More specific online targeting strategies should be used.
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