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Why discontinue Facebook usage? An empirical investigation based on a push–pull–mooring framework

Shaoxiong Fu (College of Information Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China)
Hongxiu Li (Department of Information and Knowledge Management, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland)
Yong Liu (School of Business, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland)

Industrial Management & Data Systems

ISSN: 0263-5577

Article publication date: 3 August 2021

Issue publication date: 2 November 2021

1348

Abstract

Purpose

Social media platforms are currently facing the challenge of declining user activity. Building on the push–pull–mooring (PPM) framework, the current study developed a research model to evaluate factors that affect Facebook discontinuance.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed research model assessed how push factors (e.g. Facebook fatigue and dissatisfaction), a pull factor (e.g. alternative attractiveness) and mooring factors (e.g. personal norms and habit of using Facebook) affected the discontinued usage behavior regarding Facebook. The proposed research model was validated using empirical data (n = 412) collected from Facebook users.

Findings

Facebook fatigue, dissatisfaction and alternative attractiveness significantly and positively affected discontinued Facebook usage. Personal norms and habit of using Facebook had a converse influence in this regard. Dissatisfaction had a stronger positive impact than Facebook fatigue and alternative attractiveness on the discontinued usage behavior regarding Facebook. Habits of using Facebook had a greater negative effect than personal norms of using Facebook on the discontinued usage behavior regarding Facebook by users.

Originality/value

This study extends extant literature on social media discontinuance to identify the antecedents of discontinuous usage behavior in social media. This study enriches the literature on social media discontinuance by shedding light on the different degrees of effect of the push, pull and mooring factors on discontinuous social media usage behavior.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The work described in this paper was supported by the grants from 2021 General Projects of Philosophy and Social Science Research in Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province: “Research on developing the model of social media service quality based on big data mining of user generated content”, the Fundamental Research Funds of Humanities and Social Science Research for the Central Universities of China (Project No. SKYC2021023) and 2021 Shuang Chuang Doctoral Program in Jiangsu Province.

Citation

Fu, S., Li, H. and Liu, Y. (2021), "Why discontinue Facebook usage? An empirical investigation based on a push–pull–mooring framework", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 121 No. 11, pp. 2318-2337. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-12-2020-0709

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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