Perceived Usefulness of Facebook : Effects of Personality Traits and Gender

Social network sites (SNS), such as MySpace and Facebook, have become an essential part of people’s daily lives as they have changed the ways people interact with each other. This study investigates the influence of the bigfive factor model on the usefulness of SNS taking into consideration the role of gender. This research has two parts. First, we have examined the impact of personality traits on perceived usefulness for both genders. Second, we have explored gender differences in those relationships. The model was tested using a survey of 397 Facebook users from a major university in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Statistical analysis was performed to test the relationships among the different research variables using structural equation modeling (SEM). Our findings indicate that the role of personality traits in determining the usefulness of SNS is different between female and male users, which we believe will help researchers and practitioners in the design and marketing of SNS in the future. 

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