A study on the determinants of the service switching intention on the social network site users

Abstract

The market competition has been intensified by the development of transportation and telecommunication. The phenomenon is also applied on the Internet-based services. Customers are moving from the current service to the new one. Even so, the leading firms in the Korean IT market have never been altered, such as Naver in searching engine and Kakao-talk in messenger app. However, Social Network Site (SNS) got though a considerable change after global firms became popular. Because the service is influencing our lives a lot, it is necessary to investigate the phenomenon. Moreover, the global leading firm, Facebook, already lost its leading position in the Korean SNS market. To understand the situation and to explain the determinants on the SNS users’ switching intention, the author explores wide literatures related to the service switching intention. Of the process, the Push-Pull-Mooring framework is deducted as an appropriate tool to accomplish the research goal. After undergoing modification to fit the framework to the SNS characteristics, the author gathered survey data from twenties who are the main user group of SNS. Total 307 samples were collected by twenties, the largest SNS user group, and the data analysis was done by using structural equation modeling (SEM) technology. As a result, the author found out that perceived social capital is a predictor of the degree of the SNS satisfaction. In addition, alternative attractiveness is more critical on the switching intention than the low degree of satisfaction. These factors boost users to switch to another service. On the other hand, high switching cost and low frequency of prior switching experience moor users to settle at the current one. Moreover, the habitual using attitude on the service turned out to an antecedent on prior switching experience. This research has implications in theoretical by suggesting a modified model to explain the SNS users’ switching intention, and in practical by proposing the easi...