REMAINING ON CURRENT SOCIAL NETWORK SITES: AN UNCONSCIOUS AND CONSCIOUS PERSPECTIVE

Focusing on social network services (SNSs), this research applies status quo bias (SQB) and proposes a research model for investigating why people continue to use their current SNSs and avoid switching to others. Specifically, this research examined the relationships between habit, interpersonal relationships, inertia, satisfaction, perceived value, and continuance intention. To develop a more efficient research model, this study utilizes conscious interpersonal relationships and unconscious habits as the antecedents of inertia. This study hypothesizes that interpersonal relationships and habit increase an individual's inertia regarding using an SNS, consequently increasing the individual's continuance intention. This study also examines whether satisfaction and perceived value moderate the impact of inertia on continuance intention. Data collected from 458 Facebook users provide support for most hypotheses. Our findings indicate that unconscious and conscious factors both affect individuals' inertia regarding SNS usage; however, unconscious factors are slightly more important than conscious factors. Further, inert users will continue to use their current SNS. In addition, regarding SNS usage, the cognitive evaluation is more important than the unconscious process. The result also indicated that the moderating effect of satisfaction is diminished when perceived value is taken into account. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.