doi:10.1111/isj.12030 Info Systems J(2014)24,323–346323
The push,pull and mooring effects in virtual
杜伦
migration for social networking sites
I-Cheng Chang,*Chuang-Chun Liu†&Kuanchin Chen‡
*Department of Accounting,National Dong Hwa University,No.1,Sec.2,Da Hsueh Rd.,
Shoufeng,Hualien97401,Taiwan,email:icc@mail.ndhu.edu.tw,†Department of Health
Administration,Tzu Chi College of Technology,880,Sec.2,Chien-kuo Rd.,Hualien City,
武警少校
Hualien970,Taiwan,and‡Department of Business Information Systems,Western Michigan
University,3344Schneider Hall,Kalamazoo,MI49008-5412,USA
Abstract.Social networking sites(SNSs)have become increasingly common in
recent years,and their u has become integrated into the daily lives of millions
of people across the world.Attracting new urs and retaining existing ones are
critical to the success of SNS providers.This study applies the push-pull-mooring
model of the migration theory to improve our understanding of factors that influence
the switching behavior of SNS urs.Following the migration theory,this study
empirically examines the three categories of antecedents for SNS switching
intention:,dissatisfaction and regret),,alternative attractiveness),
and ,switching costs)factors.The results show that the three categories
of factors had varying degrees of effects on switching intention.Additionally,the
strong moderation effects of both pull and mooring factors help answer the question
why switching does not necessarily occur when push factors are in effect.Managerial
implications are provided.
Keywords:social networking sites,regret,satisfaction,switching costs,alternative
attractiveness,migration theory
I NT RO D U C TI O N
Mass collaboration is currently easier in the Web2.0environment(White et al.,2010).Web2.0 applications allow people to build and maintain social networks online.Social networking sites (SNSs)have become regarded as one of the main success of the internet in recent years (Cheng et al.,2009).SNSs allow urs to create profiles and articulate and communicate with others(Boyd&Ellison,2007).This type of medium provides urs with a public platform for the digital exchange of information(Sledgianowski&Kulviwat,2008).The majority of SNS providers rely on online advertising revenues and attempt to increa network externalities to attract interestedfirms for marketing and advertising(Sledgianowski&Kulviwat,2009). Facebook,Friendster,LinkedIn,LiveJournal,and MySpace are among the SNSs that have been extensively and commonly ud(Brady et al.,2010)with millions of registered members
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璀璨什么意思
who access the SNSs as part of their daily lives(Boyd&Ellison,2007).Moreover,various smaller and specialized SNSs have emerged over the past few years,providing living proofs of the success of this new business model(Costa,2008).However,veral SNS rvices with less traffic were discontinued under thisfiercely competitive environment(Cheng et al.,2009);thus,it is crucial for SNS providers to continuously attract and retain urs to remain competitive. Several extant studies have focud on various aspects of social networking on the internet. Examples include the primary functions of SNSs in the management of social networks(Ellison et al.,2007);lf-prentation through profiles(Liu,2007);the proliferation of special interest networks(Ploderer et al.,2008);network structure(Maia et al.,2008);and privacy,curity, and trust issues(Dwyer et al.,2007).However,to the best of our knowledge,empirical studies that examine factors that affect the switching intentions of SNS urs are still quite limited. Understanding the factors that affect switching intentions is esntial becau ur migration is critical to the success of an SNS.
Regret has been suggested as a critical affective conquence in decision making.People regret their decisions as they realize that an alternative choice would have resulted in a better outcome(Tsiros&Mittal,2000;Zeelenberg,1999).Zeelenberg(1999)defines regret as‘the negative,cognitively bad emotion that we experience when realizing or imagining that our prent
situation would have been better had we acted differently’;that is,regret is experienced after a wrong decision is chon and expected results are not produced(Zeelenberg&Pieters, 1999,2004;Liao et al.,2011).However,the role of regret in the virtual world is less known.SNS urs who regret from adopting the rvices may have a higher probability of being dissatisfied, which could ultimately lead to a decision to switch to a different rvice provider.Therefore,this study examines dissatisfaction and regret to understand how the factors affect the switching behavior of SNS urs.
As competition and costs of attracting new customers increa,companies primarily require focusing their strategic efforts on preventing the switching intentions of urs(Zhang et al., 2009).Attractiveness of rvices provided by competitors may influence a ur’s intention to switch,while the lack of a strong competitor could be a reason of existing urs to stay.In this latter ca,urs may gradually abandon their existing SNSs when a more attractive alternative is available.Therefore,the motivation for continuing an unsatisfactory relationship diminishes in the prence of a highly attractive alternative(Sharma&Patterson,2000).Even when urs are satisfied and not regretful with their choice of existing SNS,they may still switch to another SNS that is more attractive;that is,both being satisfied and not having regret do not necessarily prevent urs from switching to alternatives(Reichheld,1996;Woodruff,1997).Moreover, urs may consider the cost of s
四级各部分分数
witching when they encounter an attractive alternative SNS rvice(Cheng et al.,2009).Urs may not switch from their current SNS even when a new SNS rvice is appealing becau the change may be too costly(in both tangible and intangible forms).Therefore,the pull factor(alternative attractiveness)and mooring factors(switching costs)may directly influence switching intentions.Moreover,the two factors were regarded as moderators of the relationships between push factors(regret and satisfaction)and switching intentions.Push factors(dissatisfaction and regret),pull factors(alternative attractiveness),and mooring factors(switching costs)can provide a better understanding of the switching behaviors of SNS urs.
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Virtual migration for social networking sites325
The push-pull-mooring(PPM)model originates from human migration studies(Lee,1966;Moon, 1995).The three components of this model include the push(negative factors at the origin that push an individual away),pull(positive factors at the destination that pull an individual toward it),and mooring factors(personal and social factors that facilitate or hamper the migration decision)(Bansal et al.,2005;Moon,1995).SNS urs are like SNS‘residents’who u one rvice provider and possibly
migrate to another provider when it becomes a better alternative.When urs switch between SNS providers,they analogically‘migrate’between different SNS providers,and therefore, the SNS switching behavior can be treated as migration among SNSs;a human migration model is thus relevant for analyzing switching between SNSs.
As with many human migrations,switching among SNSs takes a gradual approach that starts from one ur testing out a new rvice.If this goes favorably,it is then followed by a ries of activities to motivate his or her circle of friends over to the new rvice.It is worth noting that the concept of switching in this prent study refers to moving to a new provider as the person’s primary SNS with or without a total cut-off of existing or other SNS rvices.This is similar to human migrations where one migrates to a new location while still maintains afinancial or social tie to the environment of previous residence.This conception of switching is consistent with the existing literature in that the properties of products or rvices are frequently associated with specific forms of switching.For example,consumers unlikely own car insurance from multiple vendors,but they frequently do so with other types of products,such as credit cards and per-sonal technologies(Y e et al.,2008;Y e&Potter,2011).As they indicated,a switch entails a complete substitution in the former type of products,while it can be a partial/gradual substitution or even parallel u with a varying degree of e
mphasis for the latter type of products.SNSfits best as a technology product,where complete substitution is unlikely to happen overnight. Therefore,Y e and Potter’s definition of switching as‘urs’partial reduction or full termination in usage of a specific technology product while substituting it with usage of an alternative product that satisfies identical needs’(p.587)is most relevant to our work.
Several studies have explored consumer switching behavior in marketing(Ganesh et al., 2000;Jones et al.,2000;Burnham et al.,2003;Bansal et al.,2005;Lopez et al.,2006;Anton et al.,2007).However,few studies in the internet rvice(IS)literature have empirically examined the motivating forces of SNS switching intention.Understanding why urs switch SNS providers is an important rearch issue for practitioners.Therefore,we propod and empirically tested a model of SNS switching behavior bad on the three esntial forces of the migration theory: ,dissatisfaction and regret),,alternative attractiveness),and mooring factors (i.e.,switching costs).Moreover,we analyzed how pull and mooring factors moderate the relationships between push factors and switching intentions of SNS urs.Thefindings in this study are expected to provide new insights into the roles of the critical variables.
L IT E R AT UR E R E V IE W
经营师
SNSs
党员证明
Social networking sites are a form of social media.The easily accessible social media have prompted a significant change in human social networks(Boyd&Ellison,2007).SNSs are
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Web-bad communities that make it possible for urs to easily share information through the internet.SNSs refer to the prence of machines and humans,indicating that humans are ini-tially connecting to machines and then to people(Wellman et al.,1996).SNSs such as Facebook,MySpace,and Friendster have shown dramatic growth over the last few years.At the most basic level,SNSs allow urs to create online profiles or personal homepages and communicate and interact with other members through interfaces such as chat rooms,online forums,and message boards.Moreover,SNSs allow members to create their own private social networks by adding friends,joining groups,and reviewing their list of connections (Boyd&Ellison,2007).Urs can arch through the profiles of their social network,share information,and display what they desire other members to view on their profile.Moreover, members can customize the appearance of their persona
l page and add media content such as photos,videos,and musicfiles,and share them with others(Dwyer et al.,2007).
Various issues along with using SNSs have attracted a recent surge of studies.Boyd& Ellison(2007),as one of thefirst SNS studies,focus mostly on the networks,their structure, curity and privacy issues,and the management of friends and online impressions.SNSs continue to be studied across a diver range of disciplines(Boyd&Ellison,2007).Insights regarding the switching behavior among SNSs are currently lacking.Understanding the factors that influence the switching intentions of SNS urs is esntial becau the turnover of SNS urs has a significant impact on SNS success(Cheng et al.,2009).The prent study aims to offer one way tofill this gap.
Migration theory
Migration is defined as‘the movement of a person(a migrant)between two places for a certain pe-riod of time’(Boyle et al.,1998)and generally indicates a permanent or temporary(mi-permanent) change of residence(Lee,1966).Permanent migration refers to a situation where people leave their place of origin forever,and temporary migration refers to a situation where people maintain their per-manent place of residence but are away for a time(Jackson,1986).Rearchers of human geogra-ph
y differentiate between voluntary migrants and refugees.Voluntary migrants are people who can freely decide to migrate(Jackson,1986),whereas involuntary migrants(refugees)have no choice but to migrate becau of factors such as war,chaos,percution,or natural disasters(Bansal et al.,2005;Boyle et al.,1998).SNS urs can be divided into voluntarily and involuntary migrants. Voluntary migrants may freely choo to migrate(switch)between SNS rvice providers. Converly,involuntary migrants(refugees)may have no choice but to migrate(switch)becau their current SNS rvice is discontinued.This study examines the determinants of switching be-tween different brands of SNS rvice providers(an analogous phenomenon to national migration).
PPM model of migration
The PPM model is regarded as the dominant paradigm in migration literature(Bansal et al., 2005).Ravenstein introduced the‘Laws of Migration’in1885,which are regarded as the foun-dations of the push-pull model.Thereafter,the concept of mooring variables was propod by Longino(1992),which Moon(1995)incorporated into a push-pull model of migration to explain
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the migration of populations.This model is the most important theoretical contribution to migration literature to date(Jackson,1986).The PPM model suggests that migrants’decisions to move from one geographic area to another are influenced by the PPM factors(Ravenstein,1885;Moon, 1995;Zhang et al.,2008).Push factors are negative factors that compel people to leave their original place,whereas pull factors are positive factors that attract people to a destination (Moon,1995).Mooring refers to lifestyle and cultural and spatial issues that behave as intervening variables,which facilitate or inhibit the decision to migrate(Moon,1995).蘑菇汤的做法
The PPM model has been applied in other disciplines such as consumer behavior and mar-keting domains.Bansal et al.(2005)built a PPM model that provided a unifying framework for explaining consumer rvice switching behavior and advid rearchers to u the PPM model to improve the understanding of such behavior.The PPM model can be applied to explain customer switching behaviors,which can assist marketers in mapping the competing forces that impact switches within their customer ba(Cheng et al.,2009).Although consumer behavior and marketing literature have provided veral uful insights into the phenomenon of consumer switching,previous rearch that sufficiently explained ur switching between technology ,SNS)is rare.Therefore,empirically examining factors that influ-ence the switching behaviors of SNS urs by
using the PPM model is of both theoretical and practical interest.The results can assist SNS providers to retain urs and prevent them from switching to other SNS rvices.
Switching behavior has been discusd for over a decade within the marketing discipline (Keaveney,1995).Numerous studies emphasized customer switching in different rvice industries,such as credit card(Burnham et al.,2003),car insurance(Anton et al.,2007), auto-repair and hairstyling(Bansal et al.,2005),fixed-line telephone(Lopez et al.,2006),and banking rvices(Ganesh et al.,2000).However,only a few empirical studies examine and ad-dress the issues of switching behavior in the ISfield(Ranganathan et al.,2006).Online rvice switching has recently attracted the attention of rearchers and ,Kim et al., 2006;Zhang et al.,2009Hou et al.,2011;Hsieh et al.,2012).Unlike some products or rvices where us are mostly tied to one single ,car insurance,landline telephone and hairstyling)at any given time,consumption of some other ,credit cards,bank accounts and SNSs)may not be limited to only one vendor.Therefore,switching in this latter type of products or rvices is more of focus shifting but less of a total substitution.Even in the ca of total substitution,the process could be gradual,resulting in a concurrent u of multiple products for some periods.
旅途的花样Regret theory and satisfaction
When a consumer’s perception of product performance meets the expected standard,satisfac-tion is confirmed(McKinney et al.,2002).Otherwi,disconfirmation occurs(Tsiros,1998).The satisfaction construct has been ud extensively in the migration literature(Bansal et al.,2005). Regret is a negative emotion that occurs when people identify a better alternative than the current one(Landman,1987;Zeelenberg et al.,2000).
Regret and satisfaction both reprent the regard toward a result after a comparison process (Tsiros&Mittal,2000).However,regret is different from satisfaction from the psychological
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