Understanding factors affecting users’ social networking site continuance: A gender difference perspective

Social networking sites (SNSs) have attracted more and more people to interact on line. Because of their popularity, firms and organizations are now marketing their business on SNS pages. It is essential for both SNS providers and firms to retain their current members. Consequently, use continuity of SNSs has gained the attention of both practitioners and researchers. However, few studies have systematically examined gender differences in such a context. To address this gap, we have developed an advanced framework to explain and analyze gender differences in users’ SNS continuance decisions. We propose an SNS continuance model by integrating SNS-oriented constructs (perceived privacy risk, perceived enjoyment, perceived reputation, and community identification) into the established ECM-ISC model and introduce gender as a key moderator. Our research results indicate that all the added SNS-oriented constructs influence users’ SNS continuance directly and indirectly. Furthermore, the impact of each factor on SNS continuance varies by gender. Each gender bases SNS continuance decisions on a different set of factors and/or different weights of the same factors. This study provides evidence that gender effects should be considered in understanding the continued usage of SNSs. It also provides an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of gender differences in SNS continuance and fills the research gap regarding this. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.