Understanding Individual Adoption and Use of Social Computing: a User-System Fit Model and Empirical Study

During the last few years, the phenomenon of Web 2.0, or social media, has gained growing attention both in academic research and in practice. Evidence suggests that a complex and rich set of motives drive individuals to use social media. However, traditional models of IT acceptance generally do not account for these motives, and thus are not particularly suited to explain the adoption and use of social media. Indeed, a central construct in many of these models, the „usefulness‟ construct, exclusively focuses on productivity and/or performance-related motivations and seems too narrow in a social media context. The current study makes an effort to provide improved understanding of that important phenomenon by offering two contributions. First, the research expands the existing conceptualizations of usefulness through the construct of „needs-supplies fit‟. Based on theories of motivational needs and person-environment fit, needs-supplies fit is conceptualized as a second-order construct with dimensions that span a wide spectrum of needs, including both extrinsic and intrinsic needs. Building on the extant literature and extensive interviews, this research develops a user-system fit model. The model comprises the perceived user-system fit construct, a third-order multidimensional construct that is a combination of four dimensions of fit: user-expression, needs-supplies, demands-abilities, and user-group fit. Perceived user-system fit, is hypothesized to be positively associated with social media use. The model is tested using a Web-based survey of 643 undergraduate students in a large Canadian university. Results indicate that 4 of 5 hypotheses are supported and that the user-system fit model explains 32.2% of social media usage of respondents.