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The influence of extro/introversion on the intention to pay for socialnetworking sites

Direct quotes from: Lu, H.-P. and K.-L. Hsiao (2010). "The Influence of Extro/Introversion on the Intention to Pay for Social Networking Sites." Information & Management 47: 150-157.

S1006251 Jeyhun HajiyevS1006248 Chris Chen

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Outline

AbstractIntroductionTheory and hypotheseMethodResultLimitationDisscussion

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AbstractSocial networking sites (SNSs) have

attracted increased attention and members in recent years, there has been little research on it: particularly on how a users’ extroversion or introversion can affect their intention to pay for these services and what other factors might influence them.

They proposed and tested a model that measured the users’ value and satisfaction perspectives by examining the influence of these factors in an empirical survey of 288 SNS members.

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Abstractthe differences due to their psychological

state were explored. The causal model was validated using PLS-Graph 3.0; six out of eight study hypotheses were supported.

The results indicated that perceived value significantly influenced the intention to pay SNS subscription fees while satisfaction did not.

extroverts thought more highly of the social value of the SNS, while introverts placed more importance on its emotional and price value.

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IntroductionSNSs are a new and effective

web service for human communication and sharing information with others.

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IntroductionAccording to the estimates of

eMarketerin 2009, 79.7 million people, 40% of US Internet users, will have created at least one content on social networks per month in 2009, either through updating a profile or communicating publicly.

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IntroductionFor SNS managers, more active

members can result in more revenue, such as advertising and subscription fees.

Spending on social networking advertising is expected to reach US $1420 million by 2011, and grow to US $2.4 billion by 2013.

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IntroductionAlthough social networking sites

continuously provide new user services, such as blogs, photos, music, and videos, in the hope of increasing their users’ intention to update their content on these services or pay for them, many members are still reluctant to pay for.

Therefore, factors influencing users’ intention to pay for the services merited this paper’s investigation.

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IntroductionBased on studies which have

explored the motivation for paying for Internet services :

- The major motivation for paying for digital products or services were user perceived value and satisfaction.

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IntroductionBefore making a decision to pay for a

subscription, the members of an SNS considered their past experiences and compared what they received with what they paid to the SNS.

Consequently, one of our research purposes was to investigate the influence of these two factors on intention to pay for an SNS subscription.

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Introductionpeople with different personality

types may have different psychological needs for communication and interaction

this is particularly true of the differences between extroverted and introverted types

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IntroductionPrior research has found that

extroverts and introverts had different communication preferences and that this affects behavior on the Internet.

Moreover, personalities influence users’ purchasing decisions

Therefore,researchers also explored the impact of extro/introversion type on perceived value and the intention to pay for an SNS.

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Theory and hypotheses

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Theory and hypotheses (perceived value)This has been considered an

important factor of purchase intention in past work and has received increasing attention recently.

Perceived value is the consumer’s overall assessment of the utility of a product or service, determined by a consumer’s perception of what is received and given.

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Theory and hypotheses (perceived value)The ratio of quality to price is a

common way of assessing value, which increases as quality increases or price decreases.

Prior research suggested several types of value, such as: functional value, social value, emotional value, epistemic value, and conditional value

Any or all of these may influence customers’ purchase decision.

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Theory and hypotheses (perceived value)Sweeney and Soutar proposed a

modified model,which is included four dimensions of perceived value: emotional value, social value, price/value for money, and performance/quality value.

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Theory and hypotheses (perceived value)The researcher treated it as the

major perception formed by the dimensions of perceived value and assumed that Sweeney and Soutar’s four components would all have a positive effect on the overall perceived value.

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Theory and hypotheses (perceived value)Accordingly, they hypothesized:

◦ H1. Perceived emotional value, social value, price/value for money, and performance/quality value will have positive effects on the overall perceived value of web services.

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Theory and hypotheses (perceived value)

◦Recently, a few studies demonstrated that perceived value positively affected customers’ repurchase or adoption intention.

◦Furthermore, researchers have shown that perceived value was a better predictor of using or adopting IS that were not free of charge.

H2. Overall perceived value will have positive effects on the intention to pay for the subscription to an SNS.

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Theory and hypotheses (extrovert and introvert) 1/2Extroverted individuals are primarily

oriented to social settings, focusing their energy on people and objects, but introverts are more interested in an internal environment, preferring to listen and reflect.

Cunningham et al. suggested that extroverts would have different preferences for website design than introverts: ◦ extroverts would enjoy pictures of people and

prominent contact information.◦ introverts are more likely to be attracted by

pictures of nature and solitude and less prominent contact information.

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Theory and hypotheses (extrovert and introvert) 2/5Ross et al. found:

◦ Highly extroverted people joined more virtual groups than introverts.

Ebeling-Witte et al. found: ◦ extroverts are more likely to use the Internet for

social interaction.

The researcher hypothesized: H3a. Social value will positively influence

the overall perceived value more strongly for extroverts than introverts.

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Theory and hypotheses (extrovert and introvert) 3/5 Ross et al. demonstrated:

◦ people with a higher shyness score are likely to use the Internet to relieve feelings of loneliness and depression, and to avoid, instead of attend to, stressful matters.

◦ Shyness has a strong positive relation with introversion. Therefore, introverts may have a stronger preference for the emotional value of SNS services.

The researcher hypothesized: H3b. Emotional value will positively influence

the overall perceived value more strongly for introverts than extroverts.

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Theory and hypotheses (extrovert and introvert) 4/5more introverts choose online media to

apply for casual work, such as emailing a resume to an organization, and to interact with friends.

Consequently, they may care about the performance or value of SNS services more.

The researcher hypothesized: H3c. Performance/quality value will

positively influence the overall perceived value more strongly for introverts than extroverts.

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Theory and hypotheses (extrovert and introvert) 5/5With the development of SNS services,

providers began to provide some virtual items, such as clothes and decoration which required payment. ◦ Extroverts tend to wear more decorative but more

expensive clothing.◦ Introverts prefer practical, comfortable clothes,

and tend to decorate less and buy practical virtual items online.

The researcher hypothesized: H3d. Price/value for money will positively

influence the overall perceived value more strongly for introverts than extroverts.

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Theory and hypotheses (satisfaction) A customers’ feeling of satisfaction may result from

a cognitive process of evaluating the service received against one or more comparison standards, such as expectation and value.

If the value of a product/service is perceived as being lower than its cost, the customer will probably be dissatisfied, leading to less intention to purchase or continue to pay for services.

The researcher hypothesized: H4. Overall perceived value will have a positive

effect on overall satisfaction. H5. Overall satisfaction will have a positive effect

on the intention to pay for the subscription to an SNS.

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Theory and hypotheses (control variables) To evaluate our research model, additional

control variables were added: gender, age, and personal income.

The personal income significantly affected maintenance expenditure while individuals of different age and gender may have different perceptions of subscription to an SNS.

Thus, these variables were expected to influence user intention.

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Methodonline survey was conducted to

investigate the role of psychological factors in intention to pay for SNS services. ◦Are there differences in perceived

value between extroverts and introverts?

◦Do the differences in perceived value have an effect on people’s intention to pay for services?

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Method (subject)VIP members of iPartment (www.i-

part.com.tw), who pay subscription fees for services, were the population for study.◦ iPartment is the most popular avatar SNS in

Taiwan and China.◦ As of March 2008, iParment had attracted over

1.5 million members in Taiwan and over 10 million members in China.

◦ iPartment provides personal homepages for users to maintain and update their profile.

◦ All decorative items can be purchased using real money or credit cards in the iPartment shop. Items also can be given to other users as gifts.

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Method (Research instrument-questionnaire)The first part was a Chinese version of

the Myers, Briggs, Type Indicator MBTI (Form G), certified by (Consulting Psychologists Press) CPP Inc. and used to test individual personality; it contains 94 forced-choice items.◦ people were scored in four pairs

psychological vectors: Extroversion versus Introversion, Sensing versus Intution, Thinking versus Feeling and Judging versus Perceiving.

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Method (Research instrument-questionnaire)The second part involved a 16-item

measure of perceived value, a 2-item measure of the intention to repurchase and a 4-item measure of overall satisfaction with the services.

All 22 items were measured on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from ‘‘disagree strongly’’ (1) to ‘‘agree strongly’’ (5).

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Method (Research instrument-questionnaire)The four dimensions of perceived value were

described as follows:1. Emotional value: the utility derived from the

feelings or affective states that are generated by the product/service of iPartment.

2. Social value: the utility derived from the product/service of iPartment in enhancing social self-concept.

3. Price/value for money: the utility derived from the service of iPartment due to the reduction of its perceived short-term and long-term costs.

4. Performance/quality value: the utility derived from the perceived quality and expected performance of the product/service of iPartment.

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Method (Sample for survey)A sample of 1200 was obtained by

using the ‘‘random visit’’ function provided by the iPartment website.

VIP members had a higher probability of being visited, which was one of the benefits provided by iPartment.

A, total of 223 responses were received, resulting in a response rate of 18.6%.◦ 6 were incomplete or repeated. 217 people

were used to conduct a Pearson correlation test.

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Method (Sample for survey)

Table 1 show that extroversion/introversion personality and the services of decoration on avatars/virtual rooms, guest books, photo albums, invitation for visiting, and browsing others’ articles had significant correlations, which confirmed the assumption of our study.

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Method (Sample for survey)

the other survey which contained an MBTI test and 22 items of the constructs of the model was undertaken from 1 April 2008 to 30 April 2008 to collect data for testing our hypotheses.

From 1600 potential respondents, a total of 353 responses were received for a response rate of 22.1%.

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Method (Analysis)two-stage approach was adopted

to test the model:◦First, tests for convergent and

discriminant validity were made to examine the construct validity.

◦Second, the theoretical model was tested by using PLS-Graph Version 3.00.

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ResultAmong the 288 respondents,

28% were male. Most were under the age of thirty

(87%). Modal personal income per

month was under NT$16,000 (48%).

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Result37% of the respondents were

students, and 35% were office worker.

A majority of respondents (56%) used their own iPartment for an average of 1–3 hr per day.

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Result

Table 2 shows average item scores and standard deviations of constructs

The perceived emotional value and performance/ quality value scale had the highest and second highest score.

This suggested that users generally agreed that using iPartment made them feel relaxed and gave them pleasure, and that iPartment offered good product/service quality.

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ResultIn terms of hypotheses, perceived

value significantly affected overall satisfaction and intention to repurchase.

Within the extroverts and introverts sub-sample, perceived value had significant impact on overall satisfaction and repurchase intention also.

H2 and H4 were thus supported.

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ResultHowever,The effect of overall

satisfaction on the intention was not significant within combined dataset and sub-samples.

H5 was not supportedIn addition,none of the 3 control

variables significantly influenced member’s intention

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Result

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ResultH3 on the differences between

intro/extroverts’ p.v was tested by statistically comparing correspanding path coefficients in structural model

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ResultIn Table 5,Introverts’ PEV and

PVFM had stronger impacts on overall perceived value

Extroverts’ PSV had more influence on their overall perceived value.

Hence,H3a,H3b,H3d were supported

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DiscussionThe perceived value of web services

was an important predictor of users’ overall satisfaction and behavioral intent.(intention to pay for subscription)

People might be more likely to pay for a subscription if provided with a higher value of web service.

overall satisfaction would be increased with a raise in perceived value.

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Discussion

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DiscussionThe reasearcher found that

overall satisfaction did not have a significant effect on intention.

satisfaction is both market- and context- sensitive

value of the service is a more important than satisfaction

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DiscussionFor all respondents, the perceived

emotional value, social value, price/value for money, and performance/quality value had strong effects on the perceived value of web services.

Emotional value had the strongest indirect effect (0.375 * 0.499 = 0.187) on intention to pay for a subscription.

The results revealed that users considered not only the price/value for money but also its quality and social value.

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DiscussionSocial value was an important

factor of the intention to pay for a subscription to an SNS.

Although past research found that our control variables (gender, age, and personal income) would influence users’ behavior on websites, our study did not find they had an effect on payment intention.

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Discussionextroverts had more intention to

pay for web services if the services enhanced their social self-concept.

SNSs can apparently satisfy extroverts’ need to interact with people and help them gain energy

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Discussionintroverts put more emphasis on

the price/value for money and emotional value.

introverts were more cost-sensitive about virtual items and cared more about the pleasure that web services provided them.

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Discussionintroverts’ and extroverts’

concerns about the performance/quality of SNS services were approximately the same.

introverts’ overall perceived value had a more significant effect on their intention.

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DiscussionExtroverts care less about the

price value of the items and care more about the interaction with others.

Extroverts tend to use the photo albums service to disclose their photos to others.

For online self-disclosure, they are also more willing to pay for VIP services.

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ImplicationsOur study showed that increasing

the perceived value of an SNS could increase users’ intention to pay a subscription for additional services if they seemed valuable.

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LimitationsFirst, it focuses exclusively on the effect of

perceived value and satisfaction on the intention of SNS members to pay for a subscription. Other relational constructs could affect the intention to pay.

Second, the findings were acquired from a single study that was targeted to a specific user group, iPartment users. Caution must be taken when generalizing these results to other types of services or contexts.

Third, our study only focused on VIP members because the number of responses from non-VIP members was small. Fourth, our study was cross-sectional.

Finally, the sample may have been biased since all the respondents participated voluntarily.

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DiscussionThe key contents discussed or

presented in paper.◦Key construct / factors which influence

user’s intention to pay for the SNS services as well as the impact of extroverted/introverted personalities on perceived value were discussed

◦In terms of hypotheses, perceived value significantly affected overall satisfaction and intention to pay.

◦ The effect of overall satisfaction on the intention was not significant within the combined dataset and sub-samples.

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DiscussionDescribe whether the paper is related to

the MIS field. And explain the contributions of that paper in the MIS field.

If we consider MIS as the process of gathering, sorting and analyzing the information in order to communicate with right time, SNS are some kind of equipment for decision makers to gather and filter the information from customers (users)’ data, attitudes and comments.

If they manage the information in right way, they will be able to define the needs of users and improve the value on products and services.

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DiscussionHow would you use the findings or the

contributions found in the paper in the future. And, why do you think so?◦ We can apply their findings for other types of SNS.◦ While new users subscribe to a website, SNS

providers should not only retain customer characteristics (datas), but should also follow the information related to their social relations (to follow users behavior in social network and provide information what they like and need)

◦ Segmenting and targeting customers in terms of extroverted / introverted personality will help to identify the profitable users.

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