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How social influence and personality affect users’ social network fatigue and discontinuance behavior

Sajad Shokouyar (Department of Information Management, Management and Accounting Faculty, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran)
Seyed Hossein Siadat (Department of Information Management, Management and Accounting Faculty, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran)
Mojde Khazeni Razavi (Department of Information Management, Management and Accounting Faculty, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran)

Aslib Journal of Information Management

ISSN: 2050-3806

Article publication date: 10 August 2018

Issue publication date: 28 August 2018

3117

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to focus on understanding how social influence and personality of individuals differentiate between users’ social network fatigue and discontinuance behavior. Furthermore, the most common discontinuance behavior among users was investigated.

Design/methodology/approach

The research model was tested with the data from 163 Instagram users based on online and offline surveys. The partial least squares method was used to test the proposed hypotheses of this study.

Findings

The results indicate that social influence affects users’ discontinuance behavior and social network fatigue. Social network fatigue is greater in users with higher reported social influence compared to those with a lower one. Moreover, in response to social network fatigue, users prefer to keep their activities under control instead of switching to alternative social network sites (SNSs) or a short break in social network activities.

Practical implications

By achieving a better understanding of users’ feeling and behaviors, social network providers may codify their strategies more efficiently.

Originality/value

The study is novel in exploring users’ SNS fatigue and their discontinuance behavior by integrating social influence and personality. The authors defined a new concept of effect of social influence on social network fatigue. Additionally, the authors examined which discontinuance behaviors in individuals were more prevalent.

Keywords

Citation

Shokouhyar, S., Siadat, S.H. and Razavi, M.K. (2018), "How social influence and personality affect users’ social network fatigue and discontinuance behavior", Aslib Journal of Information Management, Vol. 70 No. 4, pp. 344-366. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-11-2017-0263

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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