Born Fast, Die Young?: A Study of the User's Social Network Site Continuance

Literature Review

Our research model is built on two theoretical foundations, including the IS continuance model and the impression management theory. We adopt these two collections of research for the following reasons: First, an SNS is primarily a service based information system (Wellman, 2001). Thus, factors investigated by the general IS continuance model (Bhattacherjee, 2001) should be taken into account, when we study the user’s SNS continuance intention. Second, an SNS is essentially a social medium (Ellison et al., 2007). When a user shares information with others on SNS, his or her social image will be represented by the information (such as photos, videos, status updates) shared in the cyber space (Mehdizadeh, 2010). Thus, factors from impression management studies should also be considered, when we investigate the user’s intention to stay in a virtual gregarious community and an online social networking system.