Implications of Social Networking Sites on Internet User's Acceptance Behaviour

Social networking sites have positive benefits both for users and the online marketers using them. The focus of research in this topic has mostly been determinants (e.g. Socio cultural, Demographic, Psychological, Environmental and Marketing). However, a prior key question is what leads a user to use a social networking site. The user process of adoption and use of such recommenders involves subjective factors which need a psychological approach. This perspective has been neglected so far. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and validate an integrative model which adapts various elements and models in order to explain such a process. The field study consisted of a simulated online social networking process undertaken by a valid sample of 300 internet users with a regularly updated account. Many of the constructs’ measurement scales have been adapted from previously validated scales never before applied to this study’s context, and the authors have consequently rigorously validated them here too. Detailed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses are applied to assess the empirical validity of the model. The user’s psychological angle has been overlooked by previous studies on the adoption and use of social networking destinations. To the best of the knowledge, this is the first attempt to validate a model aimed at comprehensively approaching the user’s adoption of a social networking site. The findings provide several theoretical contributions and implications for markets and new global markets could use this data to improve their marketing strategy development decisions.