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JOSM
24,2
170
Received 21 May 2012
Revised 18 October 2012
18 December 2012
Accepted 20 December 2012
Journal of Service Management
Vol. 24 No. 2, 2013
pp. 170-190
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1757-5818
DOI 10.1108/09564231311323953
A Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
analysis of social networking
services continuance
Huanhuan Cao, Jinhu Jiang, Lih-Bin Oh, Hao Li,
Xiuwu Liao and Zhiwu Chen
Department of Information Management and E-commerce,
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to apply Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to extend the
expectation-confirmation model of information systems continuance (ECM-IS) to analyze users’
continuance intention of social networking services (SNSs).
Design/methodology/approach – A survey is conducted on 202 users of social networking
services in China.
Findings – Fulfillment of self-actualization needs has a significant impact on continuance intention;
however, the direct impact of fulfillment of social needs on continuance intention is not significant but
fully mediated by satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications – The first limitation is that the participants in the sample are
undergraduates. Second, this study has used cross-sectional survey data to empirically test the model.
Third, the survey is conducted in a single country.
Practical implications – The results of this paper provide several marketing implications to better
manage SNSs. First, SNS managers should enhance instant communication functions, develop a
platform that is convenient for users to express themselves and provide more entertainment functions.
Second, SNS managers should focus on users’ expectations and experiences about website functions
and adjust or update website functions accordingly.
Originality/value – This paper contributes to the research on continuance intention of social
networking services from the perspective of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to capture motivations of
continuance intention. The authors believe their conceptualizations of fulfillment of self-actualization
needs and fulfillment of social needs, as well as their substantial findings, would be useful to researchers
and practitioners alike to better study and manage continuance intention of socially-oriented online
services.
Keywords Social networking sites, China, Customer loyalty, Customer retention, Individual behaviour,
Information systems, Information services
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Social networking services (SNSs) have seen rapid diffusion around the world. A recent
survey by comScore found that as of October 2011, the SNS usage rate has reached
82 percent of the world’s online population and is expected to continue to increase
(comScore, 2011). However, it was also found that the rate of SNS usage in China has
dropped from 51.4 to 46.6 percent (CNNIC, 2012). This finding reveals the trend that
This research was partially funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(NSFC Grant Nos. 71172188 and 71272139).
some Chinese users have stopped using a particular SNS after initial trial usage. Social
Therefore, it is useful to understand the factors that affect users’ continuance intention networking
in the context of Chinese SNSs, considering that the Chinese internet market has
significant growth potential. services
SNSs offer users a variety of online services (e.g. personal page creation,
information sharing, and “friends” connections) to communicate with others (Brandtz
and Heim, 2009; Boyd and Ellison, 2008). Moreover, SNSs can also provide services 171
for sellers or companies to engage, for example, in word-of-mouth marketing (Brock
et al., 2011; Trusov et al., 2009), brand marketing ( Jahn and Kunz, 2012), new product
diffusion, advertising, and customer relationship management (Shih, 2009). The success
of companies that use SNSs as online service delivery platforms depends on the
continuance usage of SNSs by individual users. Therefore, ensuring continuance usage
of SNSs is the premise for the development of e-commerce based on SNSs.
Some research efforts have focused on studying continuance intention of SNSs,
and the majority of existing empirical studies related to SNS continuance intention are
based on the expectation-confirmation model of the information systems continuance
model (ECM-IS). These studies have extended the ECM-IS with social exchange theory,
social capital theory, flow theory (Hu and Kettinger, 2008), self-image congruity and
regret (Kang et al., 2009), and motivation theory (Lin and Lu, 2011) to examine factors of
SNS continuance intention. However, these studies are primarily concerned with users’
attitudes and cognitions, without considering emotional and social factors of SNSs.
Hence, this paper takes a psychological perspective and adopts Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs framework to capture motivations of SNS continuance intention. We use the
ECM-IS (Bhattacherjee, 2001) as a base model because of its ability to accurately
explain the continuance intention of information systems (IS). This study departs from
earlier works and makes the following two main contributions:
(1) specifying a systematic classification of SNS user motivations based on
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; and
(2) building an integrated ECM-IS based on the proposed motivation classification
to better explain continuance intention of SNSs from a psychological-needs
perspective.

We believe that our findings can provide insights for companies using SNS as a
platform to support their operational needs and to provide online services.

2. Theoretical background
2.1 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory
An individual has a hierarchy of motivational needs (Maslow, 1954). The most basic
needs are physiological, including the need for food and sleep. The next level is safety
needs, including security and stability needs. In level three, we find needs of belonging
and love that are also termed social needs, including love, be loved, and a sense of
belonging. In level four, we find the needs for self-esteem, including achievements,
respect and recognition from others. Finally, Maslow believes that in the highest level
of needs are self-actualization needs, which refer to people’s aspirations to achieve
self-fulfillment and realize their potential. Sheldon et al. (2001) reviewed Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs theory and related research and proposed that pleasure-stimulation
is one of the ten most basic human needs. Pleasure-stimulation refers to “the feeling
JOSM that you get plenty of enjoyment and pleasure rather than feeling bored and under
stimulated by life” (Sheldon et al., 2001).
24,2 Happiness has two conceptions (i.e. hedonia and eudaimonia) (Waterman et al.,
2008). Happiness is achieved through the pursuit of pleasure, enjoyment, and
comfort in the hedonic view and through seeking to use or develop the best in oneself
in the eudaimonic view (Huta and Ryan, 2010). Moreover, eudaimonia also refers to
172 the feeling of moving toward self-realization (Waterman et al., 2008) and is similar
to self-actualization associated with more-frequent peak experiences (Huta and Ryan,
2010). From a philosophical perspective, activities that give rise to eudaimonia must
also give rise to hedonic enjoyment (Waterman et al., 2008). Hence, we extend
pleasure-stimulation to happiness as another basic need to capture the combined effect
of hedonia and eudaimonia.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory has been studied and adopted to construct
usage motivations of IS. Sun et al. (2005) presented a motivation sequence model based
on this hierarchy to identify the factors influencing the intention to revisit e-commerce
web sites. Furthermore, there are other studies that focused on exploring antecedents
based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Brandyberry et al. (2010) adopted the hierarchy
to determine antecedents of perceived usefulness in the individual adoption of SNSs.
Soliman and Lapointe (2009) incorporated a wider range of human needs by
integrating Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to establish a richer conceptualization of
perceived usefulness.

2.2 The expectation-confirmation model of IS continuance

Bhattacherjee (2001) proposed a post-acceptance model of IS continuance based on the
expectation-confirmation theory. Figure 1 shows the key constructs and relationships
in the ECM-IS.
The ECM-IS and its extended models have been empirically tested to explain the
continuance intention with different types of IS. Limayem et al. (2007) reviewed the IS
continuance model and indicated that the model relies uniquely on intention as the
primary predictor of IS continuance behavior. Thus, Limayem et al. (2007) introduced
the habit construct as a major antecedent. Many researchers have extended the ECM-IS
in the context of web site portals (Lin et al., 2005) and microblogging (Barnes and
Böhringer, 2011) and have found that the ECM-IS is still relevant in these web contexts.
To better explain why people choose SNSs over other communication media and to
clarify the needs that motivate people to use SNSs, perceived usefulness in the ECM-IS
was replaced by perceived enjoyment (Rosen and Sherman, 2006) and perceived
sociality (Kwon and Wen, 2010) in some studies. In the domain of mobile services,
Zhang and Mao (2008) adopted perceived information usefulness, perceived
entertainment usefulness, and perceived sociality usefulness to explain perceived

Perceived Usefulness

Figure 1.
ECM-IS model Confirmation Satisfaction Continuance Intention
usefulness in the context of short message service (SMS). Therefore, to extend the Social
construct of perceived usefulness to better elucidate the psychological needs that networking
motivate people’s continuance intention of SNSs, we turn to the uses and gratifications
literature for deeper insights. services

2.3 Uses and gratifications

Uses and gratifications (U&G) is a media use paradigm that focuses on the use and 173
choice of media (Brandtz and Heim, 2009). U&G explains why people choose a specific
medium over alternative communication media and illustrates the needs that motivate
people to use a particular medium (Cheung et al., 2011).
To understand why individuals choose and use SNSs, several researchers have
explored motives for using SNSs based on the U&G framework. Raacke and
Bonds-Raacke (2008) found that the main reasons for using Facebook and MySpace
were to meet friends and to seek information. Similarly, Jung et al. (2007) identified six
reasons for using Cyworld in Korea based on the U&G paradigm: entertainment,
self-expression, professional advancement, passing time, communication with family
and friends, and trends. Brandtz and Heim (2009) suggested primary motives for using
the four most popular SNSs in Norway: information, entertainment, social interaction,
and personal identity. Among these motives, social interaction was found to be the
most obvious reason for using SNSs. Jahn and Kunz (2012) reviewed studies on the
motivations of SNS usage and summed up three main motivation areas. These areas
are content-oriented motivation (i.e. functional value and hedonic value),
relationship-oriented motivation (i.e. social interaction value and brand interaction
value), and self-oriented motivation (i.e. self-concept value). Likewise, activities on
SNSs (i.e. connecting friends, self-expression, searching emotional support, and
seeking pleasure) can lead to subjective happiness and make users more immersed in
the use of SNSs (Kim and Lee, 2011). Chou and Lim (2010) also found that the use of
SNSs can result in higher levels of happiness.
Prior research has generally focused on identifying the determinants of motivations
and evaluating perceived value of SNSs. Because both values and needs play a role in
perceptual judgment (Carter and Schooler, 1949), this study takes a different focus
by examining users’ needs to gain a deeper understanding of the motivations of SNSs.
In the context of SNSs, the values of SNSs are well studied and remain relatively stable.
Thus, an investigation of SNS user needs can be more relevant to assess users’
perceptions of SNSs and how they can affect continuance intention. Building on the
existing research on SNS motivations, we believe that social needs (i.e. social interaction
and seeking emotional support needs) and self-actualization needs (i.e. self-expression
and happiness including hedonic and eudaimonic needs) are two main areas that require
our attention.

3. Research model and hypotheses

The preceding discussions have highlighted the fact that the construct of perceived
usefulness cannot fully capture the motives of continuing to use SNSs. With respect to
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, we found that social needs and self-actualization
needs are particularly relevant in capturing the motivations of SNSs. Specifically,
social needs consist of seeking social presence and emotional belonging. Seeking
social presence mainly reflects the interpersonal relationship aspect and social
JOSM interaction motivation of SNSs. Emotional belonging reflects acquaintance
24,2 interactions and emotional support motivations of SNSs. Self-actualization needs
include self-expression and seeking happiness. Self-expression is mainly reflected as a
self-disclosure aspect and self-expression behavior motivation of SNSs. Happiness is
mainly reflected as an entertaining aspect and enjoying frequent immersive experiences
in SNSs.
174 The fulfillment of needs from using interactive technology can influence the
subsequent actions towards and the affect of the technology (Hassenzahl et al., 2010;
Sheldon et al., 2001). Contextualizing the continuance intention of SNS usage, we use
fulfillment of needs to replace perceived usefulness in the original ECM-IS, as shown in
Figure 2. Integrating Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and the U&G paradigm
and considering the specific features of SNSs, the antecedents of SNS continuance
intention are divided into two groups: fulfillment of social needs and fulfillment of
self-actualization needs. Fulfillment of social needs is a second-order factor comprised
of fulfillment of social presence and fulfillment of emotional belonging, while
fulfillment of self-actualization needs is a second-order factor comprised of fulfillment
of self-expression and fulfillment of happiness.

3.1 Outcomes of fulfillment of social needs and fulfillment of self-actualization needs

Fulfillment of social needs consists of fulfillment of social presence and fulfillment of
emotional belonging. Social presence is defined as “the degree of salience of the other
person in the interaction and the consequent salience of interpersonal relationships”
(Short et al., 1976). Kwon and Wen (2010) stated that higher levels of social presence
will encourage higher individual motivation to interact with others. Functions related
to social presence in SNSs make users perceive that they are keeping in touch with
many people simultaneously, reducing psychological communication cost, and thus
improve the level of perceived ease of use. Cheung et al. (2011) indicated that in virtual
social networks, when individuals perceived that the communication mode was similar
to a “face-to-face” environment, they would have a stronger usage intention. Moreover,
the higher the level of social presence users perceive, the more likely they will obtain

Fulfillment of Social Presence Fulfillment of Emotion Belonging

Fulfillment of Social Needs H2

H5 H1
Continuance
Confirmation H7 Satisfaction H8 Intention
H6 H3
Fulfillment of H4
Self-Actualization Needs

Figure 2.
The research model Fulfillment of Self-Expression Fulfillment of Happiness
encouragement from other users. Therefore, we expect that the level of fulfillment Social
of social presence not only has a strong influence on the perception of usefulness and networking
ease of use but is also positively related to satisfaction and continuance intention.
Emotional belonging refers to intimate feelings between individuals and emotional services
contact, including contact strength and moral support (Tolstedt and Stokes, 1983).
Sinclair and Dowdy (2005) stated that emotional belonging would promote individuals
to perceive intimacy in a group and develop better interpersonal relationships with 175
others. Ridings and Gefen (2004) indicated that the most influential motivation of
joining a virtual community was seeking social support and friendship. Rau et al.
(2008) believed that the main motivation for people to participate in SNSs was meeting
their emotional rather than informational needs. Hence, we believe that the level of
fulfillment of emotional belonging will significantly affect users’ attitudes toward
SNSs and, subsequently, affect continuance intention. We expect that these two
first-order social needs in terms of social presence and emotional belonging will
collectively have a positive influence on satisfaction and continuance intention:
H1. Fulfillment of social needs positively influences satisfaction with SNSs.
H2. Fulfillment of social needs positively influences continuance intention.
Fulfillment of self-actualization needs includes fulfillment of self-expression and
fulfillment of happiness. Self-expression is defined as individuals’ desire to show
themselves (Derlega and Chaikin, 1977). In this paper, self-expression indicates that
individuals show their trustworthiness, competence and energy to obtain social
attractiveness. Tidwell and Walther (2002) found that compared with “face-to-face”
communications, partners in computer-mediated interactions were more likely to engage
in self-expression. Jung et al. (2007) stated that increasingly more individuals
used homepages provided by SNSs to express themselves while having the ability to
manage information disclosure effectively. Thus, when users perceive that higher levels
of fulfillment of self-expression could promote more social attractiveness, they will obtain
psychological satisfaction; this will further enhance their continuance intention.
Happiness includes hedonia and eudaimonia and that individuals not only obtain
entertainment through using SNSs but can also develop their potential (Huta and Ryan,
2010). The feeling of pleasure or absorption will have an effect on users’ behavior
intention (Kim et al., 2011), and this hedonic value is one of the important antecedents
of SNS customer loyalty (Gu et al., 2010). Cheung et al. (2011) found that entertainment
value has a significant effect on usage intentions of SNS users. Furthermore, both
eudaimonia and hedonia are related to life satisfaction and positive affect (Huta and
Ryan, 2010). When users perceive that SNSs could fulfill their happiness needs, they
will obtain psychological satisfaction and become more likely to continue using the
service. Thus, we expect that the two first-order fulfillments of self-actualization needs
in terms of fulfillment of self-expression and happiness will collectively have a positive
influence on satisfaction and continuance intention:
H3. Fulfillment of self-actualization needs positively influences satisfaction with
SNSs.
H4. Fulfillment of self-actualization needs positively influences continuance
intention.
JOSM 3.2 Effects of user confirmation on fulfillment of needs and satisfaction
24,2 Although low initial individual social and self-actualization needs can be easily
satisfied, such needs may increase as a result of the confirmation experience. According
to cognitive dissonance theory, users would experience cognitive dissonance or
psychological tension if their pre-acceptance expectations are disconfirmed during
actual use (Bhattacherjee, 2001). In the SNS context, rational users would try to remedy
176 this dissonance by distorting or modifying their level of fulfillment of social presence,
emotional belonging, self-expression and happiness to be more consistent with reality
(Bhattacherjee, 2001; Sørebø and Eikebrokk, 2008). The more users feel that their
fulfillment of social needs and self-actualization needs in SNSs are confirmed, the more
favorable their fulfillment of social needs and self-actualization needs are (He and
Wei, 2009). Thus, confirmation will tend to elevate users’ fulfillment of social needs and
self-actualization needs, and disconfirmation will reduce such fulfillment. Hence:
H5. Users’ extent of confirmation positively influences fulfillment of social needs.
H6. Users’ extent of confirmation positively influences fulfillment of
self-actualization needs.
The ECM-IS posits that user satisfaction is determined by two constructs: expectation
of the IS and confirmation of expectation following actual use. Confirmation is
positively related to satisfaction with SNS usage because it implies realization of the
fulfillment of social needs and self-actualization needs when using SNSs. The positive
relationship between confirmation and satisfaction was verified by Limayem and
Cheung (2008) in the case of internet-based learning technologies and by Thong et al.
(2006) in the context of information technology. Lin et al. (2005) indicated that
confirmation was the most salient factor influencing satisfaction in the context of
web site portal usage continuance. Hence:
H7. Users’ extent of confirmation positively influences satisfaction with SNSs.

3.3 Relationship between satisfaction and continuance intention

The ECM-IS has suggested that satisfaction positively influences continuance intention
(Bhattacherjee, 2001). Numerous studies based on the ECM-IS have also demonstrated
that satisfaction positively influences continuance intention (Limayem and Cheung,
2008; Thong et al., 2006; Wang et al., 2010). Moreover, Deng et al. (2010) examined the
influencing factors of customer loyalty in the context of instant messaging and found
that satisfaction not only affects customer loyalty directly but also can act as a mediating
variable between social value, emotional value, and customer loyalty. Vasalou et al.
(2010) stated that the ultimate goal of SNS providers was to encourage users to continue
using SNSs and that users’ satisfaction with SNSs was positively related with loyalty.
Hence:
H8. Satisfaction with SNSs positively influences continuance intention.

4. Research method
4.1 Measurement and data collection
A survey was administered to SNS users in China. All respondents had prior
experience using Chinese leisure SNS platforms. Out of 250 distributed surveys,
232 survey responses were received, resulting in a response rate of 92.8 percent. Social
Incomplete questionnaires were discarded, leaving 202 usable samples, which networking
corresponded to 80.8 percent of all distributed samples. Table I details the respondent
characteristics. services
The questionnaire was designed by adopting measures that have been validated by
previous research and refined for the context of SNSs. Fulfillment of social needs was
operationalized as a second-order construct with two first-order constructs, namely, 177
fulfillment of social presence and fulfillment of emotional belonging. Fulfillment of
self-actualization needs was also operationalized as a second-order construct with two
first-order constructs, namely, fulfillment of self-expression and fulfillment of happiness.
A backward translation process was performed to ensure consistency between the
Chinese and the English version of the instrument (Bock et al., 2005). A pre-test with
45 responses was conducted to determine any ambiguous items that needed to be
revised. Owing to low item correlation, one item from fulfillment of social presence and
one item from fulfillment of emotional belonging were dropped. All items were
measured by a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1 being “strongly disagree” to
7 being “strongly agree”. Appendix 1 provides the final wording of each measurement
item along with key references.

4.2 Reliability and validity

First, reliability and validity of higher-order constructs (i.e. fulfillment of social
needs and fulfillment of self-actualization needs) were assessed. As shown in Table II,
Cronbach’s a for fulfillment of social presence was above 0.7 (Nunnally, 1978).
However, Cronbach’s as for fulfillment of emotional belonging, fulfillment of

Frequency Percentage

Gender
Male 108 53.47
Female 94 46.53
Years of SNS experience
,0.5 8 3.96
0.5-1 15 7.43
1-2 39 19.31
2-3 54 26.73
.3 86 42.57
Number of SNSs used
1 60 29.70
2 84 41.58
3 41 20.30
4 9 4.46
.5 8 3.96
Average time of use at SNSs (weekly)
,3 h 7 3.47
3-14 h 96 47.52
14-21 h 70 34.65
21-28 h 20 9.90
.28 h 9 4.46 Table I.
Descriptive statistics of
Note: n ¼ 202 demographic information
JOSM Constructs Items Loadings Cronbach a CR AVE
24,2
Fulfillment of social presence (SP) SP1 0.802 * * * 0.720 0.842 0.641
SP2 0.853 * * *
SP3 0.743 * * *
Fulfillment of emotion belonging (EM) EM1 0.641 * * * 0.696 0.812 0.520
EM2 0.785 * * *
178 EM3 0.707 * * *
EM4 0.744 * * *
Fulfillment of self-expression (SD) SD1 0.731 * * * 0.634 0.809 0.515
SD2 0.702 * * *
SD3 0.714 * * *
SD4 0.723 * * *
Fulfillment of happiness (RE) RE1 0.734 * * * 0.645 0.794 0.568
RE2 0.617 * * *
Table II. RE3 0.885 * * *
Psychometric properties
for higher Notes: Significant at: *p , 0.05, * *p , 0.01 and * * *p , 0.001; CR – composite reliability,
order constructs AVE – average variance extracted

self-expression and fulfillment of happiness were below 0.7, having values in the range
of 0.634-0.696. According to Nunnally (1967), these values are acceptable because these
constructs are new constructs based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs contextualized for
SNS usage. Furthermore, all items had significant path loadings at the 0.01 level. For
composite reliability of a measure, 0.7 is a recommended value for a reliable construct
(Chin, 1998). The values of composite reliability coupled with average extracted
variance values greater than 0.5 indicates convergent validity among items measuring
the constructs (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Discriminant validity was fulfilled by
observing that the square root of the AVE is greater than the correlations of the
constructs with the other constructs (Fornell and Larcker, 1981), as shown in Table III.
Additional support for discriminant validity was obtained through the assessment of
cross-loadings, where the diagonal loadings should be significantly greater than the
off-diagonal loadings in the corresponding rows and columns (Hulland, 1999).
Appendix 3 shows the loadings and cross-loadings of all constructs.
Next, we reduced the second-order model to a first-order model when assessing our
conceptual model to avoid an identification model issue (Vesel and Zabkar, 2010).
Therefore, tests of reliability and validity of the measurement model were conducted on
the reduced first-order model. As we can see in Tables IV and V, the measurement model
demonstrated adequate reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity.

Constructs SP EM SD RE

SP 0.801
EM 0.310 0.721
SD 0.495 0.379 0.718
Table III. RE 0.392 0.408 0.499 0.754
Correlations between
first-order constructs Note: Square root of the AVE on the diagonal
 Social
Constructs Items Loadings Cronbach’s a CR AVE
networking
Confirmation (EC) EC1 0.866 * * * 0.817 0.891 0.733 services
EC2 0.881 * * *
EC3 0.818 * * *
Fulfillment of social needs (SON) SP 0.922 * * * 0.568 0.778 0.642
EM 0.650 * * * 179
Fulfillment of self-actualization needs (SEN) SD 0.843 * * * 0.664 0.857 0.748
RE 0.886 * * *
Satisfaction (SA) SA1 0.761 * * * 0.845 0.885 0.563
SA2 0.763 * * *
SA3 0.806 * * *
SA4 0.745 * * *
SA5 0.713 * * *
SA6 0.709 * * *
Continuance intention (CU) CU1 0.828 * * * 0.842 0.905 0.760
CU2 0.878 * * *
CU3 0.908 * * * Table IV.
Psychometric properties
Notes: Significant at: *p , 0.05, * *p , 0.01 and * * *p , 0.001; CR – composite reliability, for reduced
AVE – average variance extracted first-order model

Constructs EC SON SEN SA CU

EC 0.856
SON 0.495 0.801
SEN 0.354 0.601 0.865
SA 0.476 0.521 0.452 0.750 Table V.
CU 0.225 0.356 0.202 0.474 0.872 Correlations between
reduced first-order
Note: Square root of the AVE on the diagonal model constructs

To further assess discriminant validity of our measurement instruments,

a cross-loadings table (Appendix 2) was conducted (Hulland, 1999).

4.3 Common method bias

As with all self-reported data, there is potential for common method bias. To address
this issue, we performed statistical analyses to examine the severity of common
method bias. First, a Harman’s single-factor test (Podsakoff and Organ, 1986) was
conducted on the seven first-order constructs including confirmation, satisfaction,
continuance intention, fulfillment of social presence, fulfillment of emotional belonging,
fulfillment of self-expression and fulfillment of happiness. The results from this test
showed that the most covariance explained by one factor was 27.52 percent.
Subsequently, following Liang et al. (2007), we used PLS to determine common method
variance. As shown in Appendix 4, the results demonstrate that the ratio of
substantive variance to method variance is approximately 60:1. In addition, most of the
method factor loadings are insignificant, and the indicators’ substantive variances are
substantially greater than their method variances. Thus, we can conclude that
common method bias is unlikely to be a serious concern.
JOSM 5. Empirical analysis
24,2 5.1 Structural model assessment
The partial least squares (PLS) statistical technique implemented in the software
SmartPLS 2.0 (Ringle et al., 2005) was used to test the hypotheses proposed in this
paper. The results of the analysis are shown in Figure 3. H7 and H8 were supported, in
line with many previous studies applying the ECM-IS to explain continuance intention
180 (Limayem et al., 2007; Lin et al., 2005). For the hypotheses related to the outcomes of
fulfillment of self-actualization, H3, H4, and H6 were also supported. Regarding the
fulfillment of social needs’ hypotheses, H1 and H5 were supported; however, H2 was
rejected.
Wetzels et al. (2009) suggested a global fit measure GoF (0 , GoF , 1) to measure
the validity of the PLS path modeling. The recommended values for validating the PLS
model globally as having a small, medium, and large effect are 0.1, 0.25, and 0.36,
respectively (Wetzels et al., 2009). The GoF of our research model was 0.372, indicating
a large effect.

5.2 Mediation effect analysis

There were three mediating variables in our model: fulfillment of social needs,
fulfillment of self-actualization needs and satisfaction. To explore these mediation effects,
Sobel tests were applied and test results are shown in Table VI. Fulfillment of
social needs and fulfillment of self-actualization needs only partially mediated the link
between confirmation and satisfaction. Likewise, satisfaction also partially mediated
the link between fulfillment of self-actualization needs and continuance intention.
However, the effect of fulfillment of social needs on continuance intention was no longer
significant when satisfaction was controlled, indicating a full mediation between
fulfillment of social needs and continuance intention.

Fulfillment of Social Presence Fulfillment of Emotion Belonging

0.922*** 0.650***

Fulfillment of Social Needs H2:0.092

H5:0.495***
H1:0.268***
Continuance
H7: 0.277*** Satisfaction
Confirmation Intention
(R2 = 0.412)
H8:0.373*** (R2 = 0.294)
H6:0.354*** H3:0.192*
Fulfillment of
H4:0.266***
Self-Actualization Needs

0.843*** 0.886***

Fulfillment of Self-Expression Fulfillment of Happiness

Figure 3.
PLS analysis results
Note: Significant at: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001
6. Discussion and conclusion Social
6.1 Main findings networking
This paper has developed and empirically assessed a Maslow needs-based SNS
continuance intention model. We obtained several key findings. First, confirmation services
positively affects fulfillment of social needs and fulfillment of self-actualization
needs, which indicates that users will adjust their expectations of fulfillment of social
presence, fulfillment of emotional belonging, fulfillment of self-expression and 181
fulfillment of happiness to fit the actual situation according to their experience.
Confirmation has a stronger effect on fulfillment of social needs, indicating that user’s
fulfillment of social needs would be substantially adjusted along with their increased
experience of using SNSs.
Second, confirmation, fulfillment of self-actualization needs, and fulfillment of social
needs are found to have a significant impact on satisfaction. Among these constructs,
confirmation appears to be the strongest factor, followed by fulfillment of social needs
and fulfillment of self-actualization needs. The results indicate that users’ satisfaction
with SNSs typically comes from adjustments of their expectations, consistent with
earlier studies (Limayem et al., 2007; Bhattacherjee, 2001). We also note that fulfillment
of social needs contributes more toward increasing satisfaction compared to fulfillment
of self-actualization needs.
Third, satisfaction and fulfillment of self-actualization needs have a significant
impact on continuance intention; however, the effect of fulfillment of social needs on
continuance intention is completely mediated by satisfaction. Satisfaction with SNSs
is the strongest determinant of SNS continuance intention. This finding is in line
with other studies examining continuance usage intention (Limayem et al., 2007;
Bhattacherjee, 2001; Lin et al., 2005). In addition, fulfillment of self-actualization needs
has a positive direct effect on continuance intention. This finding means that
self-actualization needs (i.e. self-expression and happiness) fulfilled by SNS platforms
can significantly improve users’ continuance intention. However, the direct effect of
fulfillment of social needs on continuance intention is not significant. This result might
be explained as follows. Fulfillment of social presence dominates the effect of
fulfillment of social needs on continuance intention. Presently, there are many instant
messaging tools that Chinese users can use to meet their social interaction needs
(CNNIC, 2012). Compared to these instant messaging tools, the interaction timeliness of
SNSs is still relatively poor, which can result in a lower level of fulfillment of social
presence. Moreover, results also show that fulfillment of social needs influences
continuance intention through satisfaction.

Independent Mediate Dependent

variables variables variables ta tb Test statistic p-value

EC SON SA 9.101 3.207 3.025 * * 0.002

EC SEN SA 5.786 2.494 2.290 * 0.022
SON SA CU 3.207 4.903 2.684 * * 0.007
SEN SA CU 2.494 4.903 2.223 * 0.026
Notes: Significant at: *p , 0.05, * *p , 0.01 and * * *p , 0.001; ta – t-value between independent Table VI.
variable and mediating variable and tb – t-value between mediating variable and dependent variable Results of Sobel test
JOSM 6.2 Theoretical contributions
24,2 The present study has several theoretical contributions. First, this study is one of the
first to use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory to study SNSs. Prior studies on SNS
motivations focus on values (Raacke and Bonds-Raacke, 2008; Jahn and Kunz, 2012;
Brandtz and Heim, 2009); however, our research focuses on lower-order needs of SNS
users. Our work provides a more detailed classification of need motivations of SNSs
182 and proposed two groups of antecedent variables (fulfillment of social needs and
fulfillment of self-actualization needs) and four corresponding high-order motivations
(fulfillment of social presence, fulfillment of emotional belonging, fulfillment of
self-expression, and fulfillment of happiness). Our conceptualizations empirically
supported that these constructs can be a suitable replacement for assessing perceived
usefulness when studying socially intensive online services.
Second, this study extended the ECM-IS and proposed a conceptual model of
continuance intention in the SNS context. Although there have been some studies on
adopting SNSs (Cheung et al., 2011; Kwon and Wen, 2010), most studies have used the
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) or its variants to investigate the behavior of
adopting SNSs (Rosen and Sherman, 2006). However, continuance intention of SNSs is
still a relatively unexplored area. This study extended the ECM-IS to assess the social
needs and self-actualization needs of SNS users.
Third, existing studies on SNSs have focused on Facebook and other web sites with
the majority of its users from the Western world (Raacke and Bonds-Raacke, 2008;
Christofides et al., 2009; Hew, 2011). There is a lack of studies that examine Chinese SNSs
and the psychological needs of users from the world’s largest and fastest-growing
internet market. This study explored factors affecting continuance intention in a
Chinese context and offered some theoretical extensions and empirical support that
would be useful for other researchers interested in exploring cross-cultural issues in
SNS usage.

6.3 Managerial implications

From a practical standpoint, our findings provide several implications for marketing
managers with respect to the development of SNSs and increasing users’ continuance
intention. First, our results highlight the predominant effect of fulfillment of
self-actualization needs and fulfillment of social needs on continuance intention and
satisfaction. Therefore, SNS managers should pay attention to social presence,
emotional belonging, self-expression and happiness that users can fulfill. With regards
to social presence and emotional belonging, SNS managers could attempt to improve
instant messaging functionalities, create a platform for acquaintances to interact, and
make it convenient for users to obtain advice and communicate with others with
similar interests. Regarding self-expression and happiness, SNS managers should
strive to develop a platform that is suitable for users to express themselves and that
provides more functions for users to obtain entertainment and develop their potential
at the same time.
Second, satisfaction is the most significant among all the variables affecting
intention of usage continuance. This finding indicates that user satisfaction still plays
a key role in SNSs and is essential in promoting continuance intention. The implication
for SNS managers is that they should continue to focus on users’ expectations and
experiences about web site functions to satisfy user needs.
 Finally, confirmation significantly affects two of Maslow’s needs, suggesting that Social
users modify their fulfillment of SNS needs with increased usage experience. networking
Therefore, SNS managers should continuously focus on users’ fulfillment of social
needs and self-actualization needs and put forward measures to maintain user services
satisfaction and increase continuance intention. Particularly, SNS managers should
pay attention to users’ evaluations of web site functions, collect users’ feedback in a
timely manner, and update web site functions appropriately. 183
6.4 Limitations and future research
This study has several limitations that offer potential directions for further research.
First, the participants in the sample are undergraduates. While such a sample could be
a limitation for generalizability, students represent the main population of SNS users.
Nevertheless, young executive working adults are also a prominent group of SNS
users. Future research should attempt to replicate our analysis to include SNS users
from other demographic groups to validate our findings. Second, this study has used
cross-sectional survey data to empirically test the model. However, users’ perceptions
and experiences of the web site will change with increasing usage experience (Cheung
and Lee, 2009). Therefore, future research could examine how the effects of antecedent
variables on the continuance usage intention of SNSs change over time. Finally,
another interesting direction for future research is to compare the effects of fulfillment
of social needs and fulfillment of self-actualization needs on continuance intention of
SNSs in different cultural contexts.
Grounded in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and the ECM-IS, this study has
theoretically developed and empirically evaluated an integrative research model
incorporating fulfillment of self-actualization needs and fulfillment of social needs for
assessing the continuance intention of SNSs. The results suggest that fulfillment of
self-actualization needs can significantly improve continuance intention; however, the
impact of fulfillment of social needs on continuance intention is affected by satisfaction,
indicating that fulfillment of self-actualization needs and fulfillment of social needs are
two notable antecedents of continuance intention in the SNS context. The SNS platform
has become an indispensable technology for companies to provide various informational
and interactive services to meet the needs of their customers. We believe our
conceptualizations of fulfillment of self-actualization needs and fulfillment of social needs
as well as our substantial findings would be useful to researchers and practitioners alike
to better study and manage continuance intention of socially oriented online services.

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Corresponding author
Jinhu Jiang can be contacted at: jiangjinhu@mail.xjtu.edu.cn

(Appendices follow overleaf.)

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JOSM Appendix 1
24,2
Constructs Items Survey instruments References

Confirmation EC1 My experience with using SNSs Bhattacherjee (2001)

was better than what I expected
188 EC2 The service level provided by
SNSs was better than what I
expected
EC3 Overall, most of my expectations
from using SNSs were confirmed
Fulfillment of social SP1 There is a sense of human contact Kwon and Wen (2010), Cheung
presence in SNSs et al. (2011)
SP2 There is a sense of sociability in
SNSs
SP3 While engaged with the SNSs, the
SNS world was more real or
present to me more compared to
the “real world”
Fulfillment of EM1 Let out my emotions easily to Ridings and Gefen (2004), Rau et al.
emotion belonging others (2008)
EM2 Express my problems to others
who will help
EM3 Talk to others when I am lonely
EM4 Let others know I care about their
feelings
Fulfillment of self- SD1 I share my photos with others Jung et al. (2007), Hew (2011)
expression SD2 I share my knowledge with others
SD3 I share my stories with others
SD4 I comment on others’ photos,
stories and so on
Fulfillment of RE1 Forget about work or other things Cheung and Lee (2009), Cheung
happiness RE2 To pass time away when bored et al. (2011)
RE3 To relax and to be entertained
Satisfaction SA1 Absolutely terrible/absolutely Bhattacherjee (2001), Limayem
delighted et al. (2007), Lin et al. (2005)
SA2 Very dissatisfied/very satisfied
SA3 Very displeased/very pleased
SA4 Very frustrated/very contented
SA5 Very unwise decision/very wise
decision
SA6 Very incorrect decision/very
correct decision
Continuance CU1 I intend to continue using SNSs Bhattacherjee (2001), Limayem
intention rather than discontinue its use et al. (2007), Lankton et al. (2010)
CU2 My intentions are to continue
using SNSs than use any
alternative means
Table AI. CU3 If I could, I would like to continue
Measures my use of SNSs
Appendix 2 Social
networking
Items CU EC SA SEN SON services
CU1 0.828 0.235 0.420 0.330 0.355
CU2 0.878 0.168 0.372 0.261 0.282
CU3 0.908 0.173 0.453 0.322 0.310 189
EC1 0.144 0.866 0.423 0.348 0.451
EC2 0.181 0.881 0.402 0.305 0.416
EC3 0.250 0.818 0.401 0.250 0.401
SA1 0.327 0.353 0.761 0.414 0.381
SA2 0.422 0.391 0.763 0.368 0.425
SA3 0.305 0.441 0.806 0.400 0.472
SA4 0.313 0.426 0.745 0.295 0.317
SA5 0.409 0.289 0.713 0.274 0.351
SA6 0.382 0.239 0.709 0.268 0.383
SD 0.375 0.256 0.307 0.843 0.560 Table AII.
RE 0.245 0.350 0.464 0.886 0.487 Loadings and
SP 0.357 0.502 0.513 0.521 0.922 cross-loadings of reduced
EM 0.195 0.231 0.275 0.457 0.650 first-order constructs

Appendix 3

Items CU EC EM RE SA SD SP

CU1 0.828 0.235 0.219 0.269 0.419 0.357 0.342

CU2 0.878 0.169 0.204 0.160 0.370 0.323 0.256
CU3 0.908 0.173 0.112 0.271 0.452 0.321 0.341
EC1 0.143 0.867 0.252 0.360 0.424 0.250 0.437
EC2 0.181 0.881 0.199 0.312 0.404 0.235 0.418
EC3 0.250 0.818 0.127 0.242 0.403 0.214 0.437
EM1 0.033 0.225 0.641 0.220 0.142 0.230 0.170
EM2 0.172 0.144 0.785 0.442 0.279 0.338 0.275
EM3 0.123 0.163 0.707 0.271 0.124 0.158 0.195
EM4 0.219 0.150 0.744 0.312 0.238 0.333 0.248
RE1 0.137 0.233 0.265 0.734 0.242 0.405 0.244
RE2 0.051 0.219 0.213 0.617 0.243 0.366 0.315
RE3 0.323 0.334 0.454 0.885 0.536 0.352 0.351
SA1 0.327 0.353 0.258 0.473 0.761 0.258 0.353
SA2 0.421 0.391 0.223 0.403 0.763 0.265 0.429
SA3 0.304 0.441 0.307 0.469 0.806 0.234 0.437
SA4 0.312 0.426 0.158 0.375 0.745 0.154 0.320
SA5 0.408 0.289 0.120 0.240 0.714 0.258 0.387
SA6 0.381 0.239 0.208 0.261 0.709 0.229 0.383
SD1 0.272 0.146 0.353 0.393 0.298 0.731 0.317
SD2 0.178 0.087 0.287 0.422 0.171 0.702 0.282
SD3 0.232 0.338 0.178 0.287 0.214 0.714 0.505
SD4 0.351 0.131 0.251 0.229 0.155 0.723 0.300 Table AIII.
SP1 0.355 0.388 0.323 0.253 0.462 0.356 0.802 Loadings and
SP2 0.319 0.459 0.241 0.412 0.391 0.503 0.853 cross-loadings of
SP3 0.171 0.356 0.181 0.300 0.379 0.400 0.743 all constructs
 24,2

190
JOSM

Table AIV.

bias analysis
Common method
Construct Indicator Substantive factor loading (R1) R12 Method factor loading (R2) R22
Appendix 4

Confirmation (EC) EC1 0.842 * * * 0.709 0.029 0.001

EC2 0.908 * * * 0.824 20.033 0.001
EC3 0.816 * * * 0.666 0.005 0.000
Fulfillment of social presence (SP) SP1 0.672 * * * 0.452 0.106 0.011
SP2 0.841 * * * 0.707 0.015 0.000
SP3 0.865 * * * 0.748 20.116 0.013
Fulfillment of emotion belonging (EM) EM1 0.699 * * * 0.489 20.058 0.003
EM2 0.726 * * * 0.527 0.083 0.007
EM3 0.809 * * * 0.654 20.109 0.012
EM4 0.661 * * * 0.437 0.077 0.006
Fulfillment of self-expression (SD) SD1 0.751 * * * 0.564 0.019 0.000
SD2 0.828 * * * 0.686 20.121 0.015
SD3 0.524 * * 0.275 0.142 0.020
SD4 0.646 * * * 0.417 20.026 0.001
Fulfillment of happiness (RE) RE1 0.910 * * * 0.828 20.161 * 0.026
RE2 0.778 * * * 0.605 20.115 0.013
RE3 0.626 * * * 0.392 0.242 * 0.059
Satisfaction (SA) SA1 0.720 * * * 0.518 0.045 0.002
SA2 0.638 * * * 0.407 0.132 0.017
SA3 0.734 * * * 0.539 0.082 0.007
SA4 0.817 * * * 0.667 20.086 0.007
SA5 0.797 * * * 0.635 20.084 0.007
SA6 0.811 * * * 0.658 20.105 0.011
Continuance intention (CU) CU1 0.757 * * * 0.573 0.089 0.008
CU2 0.935 * * * 0.874 20.074 0.005
CU3 0.918 * * * 0.843 20.008 0.000
Average 0.770 0.604 20.001 0.010
Note: Significant at: *p , 0.05, * *p , 0.01 and * * *p , 0.001