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Top1. Introduction
The advent of Web 2.0 technologies parallels the growth trajectory of social networking sites (SNSs) (Muntinga et al., 2011). SNSs enable users to share their personal information via their profiles, link with other users in their social circles, upload, tag and distribute multimedia, link other members to a range of websites, and launch or join user groups founded on common interests and goals (Lockyer & Patterson, 2008). Given their usefulness, the use of SNSs has witnessed tremendous rates of adoption, particularly among young people (Abeele, 2016). Recent internet research by the Pew Research Center (2015) indicates that 90% of young American adults between the ages of 18 and 29, and 77% of adults between the ages of 30 and 49, use social media. In the Middle East, research (Mid East Media, 2015) shows that, in 2015, nearly eight in ten people (79%) reported using social media daily. In Africa, it is estimated that 9% of the population use social media (Kemp, 2016).
The growth in the use of SNSs has generated a rich stream of research. The majority of this research has been devoted to understanding the motivations of initial acceptance of SNSs (Abu-Shanab & Frehat, 2015; Dunne et al., 2010; Kwon & Wen, 2010; Lee et al., 2003; Park et al., 2009); but only a few studies have focused on continuance use intention (Chang & Zu, 2012; Oghuma et al., 2016), even though maintaining long-term user loyalty through the continued use of SNSs is beneficial to sustaining the business model of SNSs, and also serves as an important indicator of information systems (IS) success (Bhattacherjee, 2001).
Empirical research confirms that higher levels of perceived customer service translate into higher customer satisfaction, loyalty, and profitability levels (Alalwan et al., 2016; Swaminathan et al., 1999). Therefore, service quality on SNS platforms is central to users’ satisfaction and their continuance use intention. Moreover, as the use of SNSs increases, providing user-oriented, quality services on SNSs will become an important strategy for SNS providers to satisfy the needs of their users, leading to their retention (Van Riel et al., 2001; Yang et al., 2005). Nevertheless, recent studies have not particularly addressed the role of customer service in promoting user satisfaction with SNSs and continuance use intention, and so little research attention has been paid to the role of service quality and its impact on users’ satisfaction and continuance use intention of SNSs. This study therefore integrates service quality into the proposed model, and addresses the first research question (RQ):
SNSs have morphed into global media that are widely used by people from many cultures to communicate with one another. Therefore the cultural values held by a specific group of people are likely to affect its usage. Indeed, empirical research has heralded cultural values as important indicators of users’ innovation use behaviour (Carter & Weerakkody, 2008; Muk & Chung, 2015; Zhu & Kraemer, 2005). However, the role of culture in the use of SNSs across contexts is largely unclear. This study attempted to contribute towards addressing this knowledge gap by posing the second research question: