Affiliations: [a] Department of Information Management, National Pingtung University, Taiwan
| [b] Department of Information Management, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Sheng Wu, Department of Information Management, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, No. 1, Nan-Tai Street, Yungkang Dist., Tainan City 710, Taiwan. Tel.: +886 6 2533131#8310; Fax: +886 6 2541621; E-mail: shengwu@stust.edu.tw.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:The rapid development of information technology has changed the interactive behaviors in people’s daily lives. OBJECTIVE:The purpose of this paper is to investigate as to whether the characteristics of the social network service (SNS) can increase the motivation (antecedent) of the SNS users; and in turn, increase their affection and cognitive (beliefs) towards the SNS; and then increase their purchase behavior (consequence). METHODS:This study uses the antecedent belief consequence (ABC) theory, and collects data from the SNS users in Taiwan, with a total of 188 valid surveys were completed for model testing. RESULTS:The findings show that: (1) The SNS characteristics (information and service qualities), indeed, have influenced the affection and cognitive of the SNS users, but the system quality can only influence the affection of the SNS users. (2) The purchase behavior of the SNS users have been influenced by the cognitive of the SNS users only, but not by the affection. CONCLUSIONS:The result demonstrates that the beliefs of the SNS users should be considered when the researchers investigate the purchase behavior of the SNS users. This paper also discusses the contribution to the research and the SNS management practice.
Keywords: Social network service, ABC theory, online social network characteristics
