Browsing by Author "Nelmapius, Albert Hugo"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A motivational perspective on the user acceptance of social media
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-03) Nelmapius, Albert Hugo; Boshoff, Christo; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Business Management.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The use of social media as a unique marketing communication tool to engage with a new age of consumers has become an essential element of any organisation's strategic planning. On social media sites, consumers are engaging with and producing information, as opposed to traditional media where the marketer is in control of the media message content and information dissemination. The challenge for marketers in this new market communication context is to create a venue for conversation with the customer without appearing to control the conversation. In order for the marketer to be this invisible influencer, marketers need to understand the dynamic perceptions, motivations and uses of social network sites. User acceptance theories can be a valuable framework for exploring human behaviour in this computer-mediated environment. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the intentions of users and non-users of social network sites to either continue using social network sites or to use social network sites in the future, by using a comprehensive, decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour. Due to the size and complexity of the decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour, the antecedents to the Intention to use social network sites were divided into two sub-models, namely motivators and barriers to social network sites usage. In addition to the antecedent motivators and barriers, the gratifications sought from social network usage were also explored, to identify the reasons for continued social network sites usage or non-usage. This choice of continued usage of or non-usage of social network sites by both user and non-user groups, was further investigated, using a logistical regression analysis, to quantify the probability of group. The demographical attributes of the users of social network sites with regard to certain specific social network site use, were also investigated. The study utilised a questionnaire with closed-ended questions to collect demographical information of the respondents. A seven-point Likert scale was selected as the appropriate measurement scale, taking into consideration that the variables under investigation were latent and, therefore, not directly observable. The Likert scaled questionnaire was used to draw a quota sample of 307 users of Facebook and 337 non-users of Facebook. The data was analysed using the statistical computer programmes LISREL 8.80, AMOS 18 and SPSS 21. The results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the genders with regard to the reported number of years’ membership of Facebook, number of hours spent on Facebook per week, the number of Facebook visits per week and the number of Facebook friends. A statistically significant difference did exist, however, between males and females, with regard to the number of hours spent on Facebook per week. The differences among the age categories showed a statistically significant difference only in relation to the number of the Facebook friends’ dimension, with the age group 15-25 having statistically significantly more friends than the older age categories. The results denoted that three of the potential barriers of Facebook usage, namely Dispositional trust, Internet self-efficacy and Psychological risk, had the same influence on the intention of individuals to use Facebook among both users and non-users of Facebook. These constructs are an intrinsic, dispositional part of the character and abilities of an individual and suggest that the reason for the lack of use by non-users of Facebook is not due to systematic differences, in the characteristics between the users and non-users of Facebook. The one exception is Privacy risk, which was found to be a statistically significant barrier to Facebook usage by Facebook non-users only and represents an important finding for social media marketers, as it serves as evidence that privacy concerns do influence users, to such an extent that they will choose not to use technology as a result of these concerns. In a similar manner to the barriers to Facebook use, the results indicated that the motivators of Facebook usage (Perceived enjoyment, Perceived usefulness, Perceived ease of use, Need for cognition and Susceptibility to norm influence) had the exact same influence on the Intention to use Facebook for both users and non-users of Facebook. The motivators of Facebook were all external influences, except for the Need to belong (intrinsic), which was found to be an insignificant predictor of Facebook usage. This finding implies that there is no difference in the external influences exerted on both users and non-users of social network sites and, therefore, external influences are not the cause of the lack of use of social network sites by non-users. The results showed significant statistical differences between the gratifications sought by Facebook usage between the users and non-users of Facebook. The results further indicated a greater Continued intention to use Facebook by the users of Facebook compared to non-users in terms of gratifications sought. Based on these findings and the results of the motivators and barriers of Facebook usage, it is concluded that non-users’ lack of social network site usage is not as a result of systematic dispositional difference with users or because of differing external influences, but rather due to the fact that non-users of social network sites are not motivated sufficiently by specific gratifications created by social network site usage. The results for specific gratifications, rather than dispositional characteristics or external influences, thus, has a greater influence on non-users’ lack of participation in social network sites. This could suggest that specific gratifications are the reason for the usage of social network site by users of these sites. Marketers, therefore, need to ensure that any marketing offerings should address the specific gratifications needs of their target market, in order to attract more traffic to their social network sites. An important objective of this study was to compare users of Facebook with the non-users, to establish whether specific dispositional, situational or outcome variables were significant in influencing group membership. A logistic regression analysis was used to assess which variables had the biggest influence on group membership. The results showed that the variables: specific Age categories, Perceived ease of use, Perceived usefulness, Psychological risk, Perceived enjoyment and Susceptibility to norm influence were all significant predictors of Facebook usage. However, the variables gender, the age categories 26-35 years and 36-45 years, Dispositional trust, Internet self-efficacy, Need for cognition and Privacy risk were not statistically significant predictors of group membership. This research provides marketers with a full range of social network site perceptions to consider, so they can devise customised, multi-layered marketing offerings to encourage the use of social network sites for e-Commerce.