Retaining Users in a Commercially-Supported Social Network

A commercially-supported social network has become an emerging channel for an organization to communicate with and provide services to customers. The success of the commerciallysupported social network depends on the ability of the organization to keep the customers in participating in the network. Drawing from the theories of information adoption, information systems continuance, and web usability, the author develops a model to explore how a commercially-supported social network can encourage customers to continue participating and using the information in the network. The theoretical model will be proved through an online survey of customers using the commercially-supported social networking sites of several high technology companies operating in the same sector. The result will be compared with previous studies to learn about the explanatory power of the research model, and to identify the main factors determining users’ intention to continue using a commercially-supported social network. Theoretical and practical implications and limitations are discussed. Keywords—Social network, Information adoption, Information systems continuance, Web usability, User satisfaction.

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