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JRIM
5,2/3

Consumer adoption of social

networking sites: implications
for theory and practice

170

Carlota Lorenzo-Romero

Received May 2011

Revised May 2011
Accepted August 2011

Department of Marketing, Faculty of Economics and Business,

University of Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain

Efthymios Constantinides
School of Management and Governance, University of Twente, Enschede,
The Netherlands, and

Mara-del-Carmen Alarcon-del-Amo
Department of Marketing, Faculty of Economics and Business,
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study factors affecting the acceptance of social networking
sites (SNS), analyze users practices and behavior in these environments and assess the degree of
acceptance of SNS in The Netherlands.
Design/methodology/approach An extended technology acceptance model (TAM) was used to
analyze the factors influencing the level of acceptance and use of SNS applying a structural equation
modeling technique. Data were collected by means of an online national survey among Dutch SNS
users.
Findings Results support all hypotheses with positive relationships and influence between
analyzed constructs; the only exception was the hypothesis on the relation between perceived risk and
perceived usefulness.
Research limitations/implications The survey was conducted in The Netherlands. This
research can be considered as the basis for a more extensive research, covering other geographical
areas, that will produce results allowing more specific and accurate predictions regarding the
acceptance of SNS as marketing management tools.
Practical implications The findings reveal a number of issues that are important for companies
eager to explore the potential of the SNS as a strategic tool and as a means of improvement of their
managerial processes in the area of marketing strategy.
Social implications SNS are considered of great importance, both for individuals and businesses,
since they support and expand existing social or business networks and allow the creation of new
ones. The study underlines the importance of these networks as a communications and customer
engagement channels.
Originality/value The traditional TAM has been widely studied to analyze the adoption of new
technologies. However, the adoption of SNS has been so far very little studied. The study provides new
insights in this adoption process. Alongside this, the study added two personal variables of SNS users
(i.e. trust and perceived risk), improving the traditional TAM approach.
Journal of Research in Interactive
Marketing
Vol. 5 No. 2/3, 2011
pp. 170-188
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2040-7122
DOI 10.1108/17505931111187794

Keywords The Netherlands, Social networking sites, Consumer behaviour, Consumer adoption,
Extended technology acceptance model, Online survey, Structural equation modelling,
Marketing implications
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Social networking sites (SNS) have contributed to increasing numbers of contacts
between users sharing common interests and to the creation of online communities and
digital social networks. Having one or multiple accounts in SNS has become one of the
most popular and faster growing internet activities; SNS applications attract already
hundreds of millions of users and these numbers are growing fast. SNS are considered of
great importance both for individuals and businesses, since they support the
maintenance of existing social ties and the formation of new connections between users
through the internet (Boyd and Ellison, 2007). Businesses increasingly acknowledge
the potential role of the online social networks as marketing instruments
(Constantinides et al., 2008; Waters et al., 2009; Hogg, 2010; Spaulding, 2010) and also
as tools allowing observing and analyzing user behavior (Donath, 1998). These options
attract already substantial commercial and research attention. SNS can be especially
useful for connecting with customers, contributing to customer learning and getting
customer input (Tikkanen et al., 2009).
The objective of this paper is to empirically examine the adoption and use of SNS by
Dutch internet users and study facts related to the users behavior. While these issues
are of vital importance for better understanding the importance of SNS for theory and
practice there is very little research based on data representing broad populations. For
that purpose an online national survey was conducted. The adoption and use were
assessed by means of an extended technology acceptance model (ETAM) whereby the
dimensions of perceived risk and trust were added to the classic TAM (Davis, 1989).
SNS were treated as new communication systems based on the internet technology
(Willis, 2008; Zhou, 2011). Practical implications are discussed; the findings offer
companies new perspectives on the issue and identify ways that SNS could be engaged
as channels of information and communication with target markets as part of the
marketing management process.
2. Literature review
Boyd and Ellison (2007) define SNS as:
[. . .] services based on internet that allow individuals to build a public or semi-public profile
within a system, create a list of other users that share a connection, and see and navigate
through their list of connections and of those created by others within the system.

A more recent definition is that proposed by Kwon and Wen (2010), who state that
SNS are:
[. . .] websites that allow building relationships online between persons by means of collecting
useful information and sharing it with people. Also, they can create groups which allow
interacting amongst users with similar interests.

Most researchers agree that the majority of SNS mainly support already existing social
relationships. Ellison et al. (2007) and Lenhart and Madden (2007) found that SNS were
used to maintain existing offline relationships or consolidate these connections, more
often than they were used for meeting new people. Relationships build online can be
based on weak links, but normally there is some element of offline relationship between
the persons who are online friends like for example sharing the same study location.
This is one of the main aspects that differentiate SNS from other forms of public

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computer-mediated communication such as discussion groups, forums, blogs, etc.

(Ellison et al., 2007; Boyd, 2008).
TAM is the suitable model used to explain the adoption of SNS because of the efficacy
of this model to predict the adoption of any technology (Mathieson, 1991; Venkatesh and
Davis, 2000; Gefen et al., 2003; Shih and Fang, 2004), and the possibility of extended it
including other constructs (Moon and Kim, 2001; Pikkarainen et al., 2004; Kuo and Lee,
2009). In addition, some research (Willis, 2008) applied a TAM to explain the adoption of
SNS and observed significant positive effects between the constructs studied.
Many studies have examined the factors that lead people to adopt and use the SNS
through TAM (Shin and Kim, 2008; Willis, 2008; Shin, 2008, 2010; Lee, 2010). However,
few approaches have focused on the influence of trust and perceived risk in this adoption
process (Dwyer et al., 2007; Shin, 2010), since both variables are essential when
uncertainty is present (Luhmann, 1979; Mayer et al., 1995), like the online environments.
So, this research considers this gap by developing an extended TAM through the
incorporation of different external dimensions (trust and perceived risk) to improve the
explanation power of this model.
Some studies based on the TAM have indicated that there is a direct and positive
effect between attitude, intention to use and final use of a technology that an individual
chooses to adopt. However, other studies do not consider the attitude as an important
variable in the adoption. For example, Davis (1989) excluded from the final model the
attitude construct because it did not mediated the effect of perceived ease of use on
intention to use, and the link of perceived usefulness with intention to use seemed more
important. This situation happened because Davis model explained the adoption of a
technology in a working environment, which employees should use it, regardless of the
positive or negative attitude that they had, as happen in the adoption of some
technologies used because are usefulness to get some objectives. However, in the SNS
case being a voluntary-use technology for entertainment and socialization, the attitude
that an individual has we think that is very important in deciding whether to use the
technology or not, as proved in previous studies on voluntary-use technologies
(Lin, 2006).
SNS, next to the networking possibilities they offer to users can also empower them
as consumers; this because online networks offer users the possibility to obtain more
information about companies, brands and products (often in the form of user reviews)
and make better buying decisions (Lorenzo et al., 2009). Regarding the potential of SNS
as marketing tools, these can play different roles as part of marketing strategy
(Constantinides et al., 2008; Waters et al., 2009; Tikkanen et al., 2009; Hogg, 2010;
Spaulding, 2010, Park et al., 2010):
(1) Creating social networking environments and motivating customers and
prospects to use them lead to engagement with the customers and increasing
customer trust and loyalty.
(2) Customer information available in SNS voluntarily uploaded by the users
allows companies to obtain a great amount of information about their
customers, their personality and lifestyle as well as information on their trust in
the internet, perceived ease of use, perceived risk, attitudes to SNS and so on.
(3) Companies can use SNS as source of customer voice for the development or
testing of new products or services.

(4) Finally, based on user analysis and segmentation, companies could selectively
inform their customers even on personalized level, about their products or
services, provide them with useful and interesting information or use the SNS
as customer service channels.
2.1 Research hypotheses
The relationship between attitude and intention to use an online system is obvious and
also essential for behavioral models. This relationship has been demonstrated by several
researchers in different contexts: adoption of information technology and systems
(Davis, 1989; Davis et al., 1989; Mathieson, 1991; Taylor and Todd, 1995; Bhattacherjee
and Premkumar, 2004), adoption of web applications (Lederer et al., 2000; Lin and Lu,
2000), adoption of e-commerce applications (Gefen and Straub, 2000; Pavlou, 2002),
visiting web sites (Sanchez and Roldan, 2004), adoption of e-mail (Gefen and Straub,
2000) and the most relevant for our study the adoption of virtual communities
(Papadopoulou, 2007; Shin, 2008) and SNS (Willis, 2008; Zhou, 2011). The evidence that
the attitude has a positive effect on the intention to use leads us to the following
hypothesis:
H1. The attitude towards SNS has a positive and significant effect on the intention
to use these web sites.
Some TAM-based studies include the current use of technology (Davis, 1989; Shang et al.,
2005) and other studies include the intention to use parameter (Mathieson, 1991; Lin and
Lu, 2000; Luarn and Li, 2005). Some authors have introduced both concepts and detected
a causal relationship between them (Davis et al., 1989; Taylor and Todd, 1995;
Shang et al., 2005; Wu and Wang, 2005). In this line, we have introduced both variables,
as we believe that the variable intention to use acts as intermediary between the effect
exerted by the perceptions (ease of use and perceived usefulness) and final use by the
individual. Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:
H2. The intention to use SNS has a positive and significant effect on the final use
of these web sites.
Perceived usefulness is considered an extrinsic motivation to the user, and is defined as
the degree to which a person believes that using a particular technology will enhance
their performance (Davis, 1989, p. 320). Perceived usefulness in the internet context
indicates that this medium can be useful to anyone to achieve a particular result. In the
case of SNS, this utility could be socializing, making new contacts, being informed of
topics of interest, etc. from a social perspective, or facilitate work assignments from a
professional perspective. It depends on the finality of use of the SNS and the kind of
SNS that they use (professional or leisure SNS).
In the TAM the perceived technology usefulness directly affects the use through the
intention to use. Davis et al. (1989) argue that although the direct effect of a belief (i.e. the
perceived usefulness) on the intention to use is in conflict with the premises of the theory
of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) several studies provide the theoretical
justification as well as empirical evidence of direct links between perceived usefulness
and intention to use (Davis et al., 1989; Mathieson, 1991; Igbaria, 1993; Taylor and Todd,
1995; Bhattacherjee and Premkumar, 2004; Kuo and Lee, 2009). Furthermore, Lee et al.
(2003) indicate that the relationship between the perceived usefulness and intention

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to use in the context of the TAM is statistically supported since there are 74 studies that
show a significant relationship between both variables. Willis (2008) obtained a positive
and significant relation between both constructs within SNS.
The relationship between perceived usefulness and intention to use a certain
technology is based on the idea that people shape their intentions towards the use of
the technology thinking about how to improve the performance of their work, beyond
the positive or negative feelings that may have towards their own use (attitude). The
reason is that individuals will use this innovation (in our case SNS), only if they
perceive that the use will help them achieve their goals (Castaneda et al., 2007).
Therefore, we propose the third hypothesis:
H3. The perceived usefulness of SNS has a positive and significant effect on the
intention to use them.
Davis (1989) found an indirect relationship between perceived ease of use and the
intention to use mediated by perceived usefulness; several studies confirm this indirect
relationship (Davis et al., 1989; Karahanna and Straub, 1999). Recent empirical studies
have found that perceived ease of use has a positive and significant effect on the
intention to use defined as wish to use (Lee et al., 2005; Ramayah, 2006; Kuo and Lee,
2009). When the interaction with the technology is easier the feeling of efficiency by the
user should be greater and hence the intention to use it should be greater (Chung, 2005).
Willis (2008) obtained significant and positive effects between both variables after the
empirical analysis applied to SNS. Based on the theoretical assumption, we propose the
following hypothesis:
H4. The perceived ease of use of SNS has a positive and significant effect on the
intention to use them.
According to Castaneda et al. (2007), the ease of use has a double impact on the attitude,
because of self-efficacy and instrumentality. The efficiency or effectiveness is one of the
factors of intrinsic motivation for a person. Therefore, this effect of the ease of use is
directly related to the attitude. On the other hand the ease of use can also be instrumental,
contributing to increasing performance. This increase means less effort, thanks to the
ease of use, allowing getting more work done with the same effort (Davis et al., 1992).
This instrumental effect on the attitude occurs via perceived usefulness as the original
TAM postulates (Castaneda et al., 2007). Furthermore, this effect has been amply
demonstrated in empirical studies (Davis et al., 1989; Agarwal and Prasad, 1999;
Venkatesh and Davis, 2000; Liu and Wei, 2003; Shih, 2004; Shang et al., 2005). Therefore,
we propose the following hypotheses:
H5. The perceived ease of use of SNS has a positive and significant effect on the
attitude towards these sites.
H6. The perceived ease of use of SNS has a positive and significant effect on the
perceived usefulness of using them.
In the TAM, the ease of use and the perceived usefulness are considered as beliefs that
are postulated a priori and they are considered constructs which determine the attitude
(Davis et al., 1989). This assertion is based on one of the pillars of the theory of
reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) arguing that attitudes towards a behavior

are influenced by relevant beliefs (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Davis, 1989; Davis et al.,
1989). Furthermore, there is empirical evidence of these relationships (Davis et al., 1989;
Venkatesh and Davis, 2000). Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:

Consumer
adoption of SNS

H7. The perceived usefulness of SNS has a positive and significant effect on the
attitude towards these sites.
2.2 Trust and perceived risk: ETAM in SNS
Some researchers have included the trust construct in studies about the adoption or
acceptance of electronic services (Gefen and Straub, 2000; McKnight et al., 2002;
Pavlou, 2002; Gefen et al., 2003). Trust in a web site is important to attract new users
and an important condition for the web site adoption and use (Gefen et al., 2003;
Lorenzo et al., 2009; Hoadley et al., 2010). Moreover, the importance of trust is increased
with higher perceived risk situations characterized by the absence of physical contact
(Mayer et al., 1995; Lynch and Ariely, 2000; Metzger, 2006). The lack of rules of conduct
creates dependency on others to behave in a socially acceptable way, which is trust in
others, essential for the continuity of a relationship (Ridings et al., 2002).
Gefen et al. (2003) and Castaneda et al. (2007) argue that trust is an indirect
determinant of intention to use and it has a direct effect through attitude. This
relationship has been empirically demonstrated by several authors (Pavlou, 2002;
Shin, 2008). Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:
H8. Trust towards SNS has a positive and significant effect on the attitude
towards these sites.
The more individuals trust a web site and other individuals the less effort they put in
assessing the benevolence of the merchant and participants; on a trusted site, where
consumers assume the benevolence of the online merchant, they will not spent time and
cognitive effort browsing across the web site, reading the privacy policy, terms of use,
etc. and therefore they will perceive it as easier to use (Shin, 2008). This effect has been
studied by several authors concluding that trust influences the perceived usefulness
(Pavlou, 2002; Shin, 2008) and the perceived ease of use (Pavlou, 2002; Gefen et al., 2003;
Shin, 2008). In line with empirical evidence, we propose the following hypotheses:
H9. Trust towards SNS has a positive and significant effect on the perceived
usefulness of these web sites.
H10. Trust towards SNS has a positive and significant effect on the perceived ease
of use of these web sites.
We consider necessary to include a measure of users perceived risk within the TAM,
as individuals, consciously or unconsciously, perceive risk when evaluating the
adoption and/or use of online services. According to Bensaou and Venkataman (1996),
there are two forms of uncertainty in the online transactions: uncertainty behavioral
and environmental. Similarly, in the Ring and Van de Vens (1994) classification, risks
are from the infrastructure (environmental risk) or from the relationship arising from
dealings with other people (behavioral risk).
The perceived risk associated with participation in SNS can reduce the perception of
behavioral and environmental control. This lack of control can negatively affect
the intention to use. However, individuals may participate in SNS if their perceptions

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of risk about the behavior and environment uncertainty are aliviated, in order to gain
control over their participation in these sites (Pavlou, 2003).
In this line, Igbaria (1993) identified that the adoption of information systems
creates discomfort for users. Use of the internet adds uncertainty and dangers by its
nature. In fact, there is empirical evidence that perceived risk decreases the perceived
usefulness and the intention to use (McKnight et al., 2002; Featherman and Pavlou,
2003). Therefore, we propose the following hypotheses:
H11. Perceived risk towards SNS has a negative and significant effect on the
perceived usefulness of these web sites.
H12. Perceived risk towards SNS has a negative and significant effect on the
intention to use them.
The perceived ease of use of an online service is likely to affect the perceived risk; services
perceived as complex can be considered risky. For example, Moore and Bensabat (1991)
demonstrated that the complexity of a system reduces the intention to use and decreases
the perceived ease of use. The perceived ease of use in the TAM is perhaps a construct
similar to usability, which can reduce the perceived risk (Featherman and Pavlou, 2003).
Because highly usable electronic services are less likely to generate concerns about the
use, perceived ease of use can function as an important factor to reduce the risk.
Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:
H13. The perceived ease of use of SNS has a negative and significant effect on the
perceived risk.
3. Methodology
3.1 Sample and data collection
The sample population was a national panel of 400 Dutch users of SNS from 16 to
74 years old. The sample was drawn using a non-probability method by quota
sampling, to ensure that all subgroups of the target population are represented in the
sample with regard to gender, age and area of residence (Table I). The fieldwork was
done in October 2009. An online questionnaire was used for this study. The constructs
used in our study were adapted from previous studies and measured by multiple item
five-point Likert-type scales, with the exception of use which was measure with two
items (frequency of use and spending time peer week).
3.2 Reliability and validity measures
To assess measurement reliability and validity a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
containing all the multi-item constructs in our framework was estimated with EQS 6.1
(Bentler, 1995) through the use of the robust maximum likelihood method. Raw data
screening showed evidence of non-normal distribution (Mardias coefficient normalized
estimate 80.44) and although other estimation methods have been developed for use
when the normality assumption does not hold, the recommendation of Hu et al. (1992)
for correcting the statistics rather than using a different estimation model have been
followed. So, robust statistics (Satorra and Bentler, 1988) will be provided.
The results of the final CFA are reported in Table II and suggest that our
re-specified measurement model provides a good fit to the data on the basis of a
number of fit statistics.

%
Gender
Male
Female
Age (years)
16-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65-74
Province
Groningen
Friesland
Drenthe
Overijssel
Gelderland
Utrecht
North-Holland
South-Holland
Zeeland
North-Brabant
Limburg
Amsterdam, Rotterdam, s-Gravenhage
Flevoland
Region
District 1 three large cities
District 2 rest west
District 3 north
District 4 east
District 5 south
Small towns

Consumer
adoption of SNS

43.0
57.0
19.0
29.0
23.0
14.5
10.5
4.0

177

3.5
5.8
1.5
5.0
11.3
8.8
15.8
11.8
1.5
15.3
6.0
10.8
3.3
10.8
32.8
10.8
19.5
22.8
3.5

Having achieved our adjusted model we verified its reliability and validity. Reliability of
the constructs is presented in Table II and demonstrates high-internal consistency of the
constructs. In each case, Cronbachs a exceeded the 0.7 recommendation of Nunnally
and Bernstein (1994) except the for the USE scale that is 0.58. However, Jenkinson et al.
(1994) state that values of a . 0.8 are ideal, but values of a . 0.5 are acceptable.
Composite reliability (CR) represents the shared variance among a set of observed
variables measuring an underlying construct (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Generally,
a CR of at least 0.6 is considered desirable (Bagozzi, 1994). This requirement is met for
every factor. Average variance extracted (AVE) was also calculated for each construct,
resulting in AVEs . 0.5 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Therefore, the seven scales
demonstrate acceptable levels of reliability, except the USE scale which Cronbachs a
was lower than 0.7, but that it is not a priori problem, because the other three indicators
were acceptable.
Content validity is a characteristic of items that are representative and drawn from
an established literature (Cronbach, 1971; Vila et al., 2000). All the items included in the
scale have been analyzed in the literature on internet in academia and for this reason

Table I.
Socio-demographic data
of Dutch sample studied

JRIM
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Variable

Indicator

Use

USE1
USE2
PU1
PU2
PU3
PU4
PEU2
PEU3
PEU4
PEU5
PEU6
PEU7
PEU8
PEU11
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
IU1
IU2
IU3
IU4
PR1
PR2
PR4
PR6
PR7
T1
T2
T3
T4
T5
T6

Perceived usefulness

178
Perceived ease of use

Attitude

Intention to use

Perceived risk

Trust

Table II.
Internal consistency and
convergent validity of the
theoretical construct
measures

Factor loading

Robust t-value *

Cronbachs a

CR

AVE

0.884
0.578
0.775
0.738
0.701
0.844
0.787
0.835
0.800
0.803
0.902
0.871
0.821
0.782
0.774
0.842
0.813
0.830
0.845
0.879
0.789
0.851
0.732
0.863
0.934
0.542
0.556
0.632
0.718
0.772
0.780
0.830
0.790
0.786

11.995
6.974
14.698
14.477
13.599
18.474
16.510
19.242
19.221
19.525
20.170
19.336
17.701
14.287
14.035
15.020
14.275
17.083
16.955
16.859
17.779
17.188
14.841
22.447
25.409
11.215
11.614
14.834
11.583
14.630
14.038
15.735
13.007
14.987

0.580

0.71

0.56

0.846

0.85

0.59

0.944

0.94

0.68

0.912

0.91

0.67

0.885

0.89

0.66

0.839

0.84

0.52

0.903

0.90

0.61

Notes: *p , 0.001; robust goodness-of-fit index: x 2 (506 degree of freedom, df) 987.14;
x 2/df 1,95; NFI 0.855; NNFI 0.914; CFI 0.923; RMSEA 0.049

we consider that content validity is ensured. Although due to the lack of valid scales
adapted to SNS adoption, it was necessary to adapt the initial scales.
Convergent validity indicates whether the items that compose a determined scale
converge on only one construct. It was tested by checking whether the factor loadings
of the confirmatory model were statistically significant (level of 0.01) and higher that
0.5 points (Sanzo et al., 2003; Steenkamp and Geyskens, 2006). Moreover, the average of
the item-to-factor loadings are higher than 0.70 (Hair et al., 2006). In addition, we used
the AVE to contrast convergent validity. Fornell and Larcker (1981) have suggested
that adequately convergent validity measures should contain , 50 per cent
error variance (AVE should be 0.5 or above). Results were satisfactory, as shown in
Table II.

Discriminant validity verifies if a determined construct is significantly distinct from

other constructs that are not theoretically related to it. Evidence of this validity was
provided in three ways (Table III).
Looking to Table III we can make the following remarks: first, none of the 95 per cent
confidence intervals of the individual elements of the latent factor correlation matrix
contained a value of 1.0 (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988). Second, the shared variance
between pairs of constructs was always less than the corresponding AVE (Fornell and
Larcker, 1981), except for attitude and intention to use scales, which AVE is lower to the
squared correlation (0.712). Bagozzi (1994) argues that discriminant validity exists if the
correlations between the variables in the confirmatory model are not much higher than
0.8 points; in our study this is supported between each pair of constructs.
Therefore, construct validity was verified by assessing the convergent validity and
discriminant validity of the scale (Vila et al., 2000).
Nomological validity of a theoretical model can be tested by performing a x2
difference test in which the theoretical model is compared to the measurement model.
A finding of no significant difference indicates that the theoretical model is successful
in accounting for the observed relationships between the latent constructs (Anderson
and Gerbing, 1988).
On the basis of these criteria, we concluded that the measures in the study provided
sufficient evidence of reliability, convergent and discriminant validity. Thus, the
revised measurement model was retained as the studys final measurement model.
3.3 Structural model analysis
With the objective of testing the proposed hypotheses we developed a structural
equations model. The results are reported and shown in Table IV and in Figure 1,
respectively.
The overall fit of the model is acceptable because the goodness of statistics is
satisfactory, with the x2/df ratio close to 2.0.
The results show that attitude towards SNS has a significant positive effect on
intention to use (b 0.673, p , 0.01), and thus, H1 was supported.
Intention to use has a significant positive effect on final use of SNS (b 0.452,
p , 0.01), and thus, H2 was supported. In this case the standardized path coefficient
is lower than other, what it means that perceived usefulness on intention to use is not
as important as other relationships, as for example, the attitude on the intention to use.
Perhaps it is because SNS are voluntary-use technologies mainly used for
entertainment, so the attitude of an individual is very important in the intention to use.
Perceived usefulness has a significant positive effect on intention to use (b 0.119,
p , 0.05), therefore, H3 was supported.
Perceived ease of use has a significant positive effect on intention to use (b 0.180,
p , 0.01), attitude (b 0.199, p , 0.01) and perceived usefulness (b 0.140, p , 0.05),
and thus, H4-H6 were all supported. Perceived usefulness has a significant positive
effect on attitude (b 0.483, p , 0.01); thus, H7 was also supported.
Trust on SNS has a significant positive effect on attitude (b 0.305, p , 0.01),
perceived usefulness (b 0.255, p , 0.01) and perceived ease of use (b 0.340,
p , 0.01). Therefore, H8-H10 were all supported.
Perceived risk in SNS has a negative but not significant effect on perceived
usefulness (b 2 0.094, p . 0.1); thus, H11 was not supported. However, perceived

Consumer
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179

Table III.
Discriminant validity
of the theoretical
construct measures
[0.218, 0.474]
0.59
0.071
0.401
0.366
0.042
0.104

[0.121, 0.353]
[0.151, 0.383]
0.68
0.183
0.285
0.180
0.114

Perceived ease of use

[0.343, 0.563]
[0.527, 0.739]
[0.314, 0.542]
0.67
0.712
0.102
0.276

Attitude
[0.327,
[0.495,
[0.442,
[0.792,
0.66
0.160
0.245

0.567]
0.715]
0.626]
0.896]

Intention to use

[2 0.253, 20.013]
[2 0.324, 20.084]
[2 0.53, 20.318]
[2 0.436, 20.204]
[2 0.51, 20.29]
0.52
0.057

Perceived risk

[0.065,
[0.205,
[0.225,
[0.423,
[0.399,
[20.345,
0.61

0.285]
0.441]
0.449]
0.627]
0.591]
2 0.133]

Trust

Note: The diagonal represents the AVE, while above the diagonal de 95 per cent confidence interval for the estimated factors correlations is provided,
below the diagonal, the shared variance (squared correlations) is represented

0.56
0.120
0.056
0.205
0.200
0.018
0.031

Perceived usefulness

180

Use
Perceived usefulness
Perceived ease of use
Attitude
Intention to use
Perceived risk
Trust

Use

JRIM
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Hypothesis Path
Attitude ! intention to use
Intention to use ! use
Perceived usefulness ! intention to use
Perceived ease of use ! intention to use
Perceived ease of use ! attitude
Perceived ease of use ! perceived usefulness
Perceived usefulness ! attitude
Trust ! attitude
Trust ! perceived usefulness
Trust ! perceived ease of use
Perceived risk ! perceived usefulness
Perceived risk ! intention to use
Perceived ease of use ! perceived risk

H1
H2
H3
H4
H5
H6
H7
H8
H9
H10
H11
H12
H13

Standardized path
coefficients

Robust
t-value

0.673 * *
0.452 * *
0.119 *
0.180 * *
0.199 * *
0.140 *
0.483 * *
0.305 * *
0.255 * *
0.340 * *
20.094n.s.
20.090 *
20.427 * *

9.665
7.240
2.077
4.310
3.716
2.159
7.017
5.640
4.354
5.677
2 1.535
2 2.487
2 6.573

Notes: * p , 0.05, * * p , 0.01; n.s. non-significance; robust goodness-of-fit indices:

x 2 (514 df) 1,003.46; x 2/df 1.95; NFI 0.852; NNFI 0.914; CFI 0.921; RMSEA 0.049

Consumer
adoption of SNS

181

Table IV.
Structural model results

Perceived
Usefulness
0.483**

0.255**
0.140*
0.305**

Trust
0.340**
0.094

0.119*
Attitude

0.199**

0.673**

Intention
to Use

0.452**

Use

0.180**

Perceived
Ease of Use
0.090*

0.427**
Perceived
Risk

**=p<0.01; *=p<0.05

risk has a significant negative effect on intention to use (b 2 0.090, p , 0.05), and
thus, H12 was supported. It is important to note that the standardized path coefficients
of these relationships (perceived risk with perceived usefulness and intention to use)
are the lowest of our model. Maybe this is because perceived risk does not have a very
strong influence on these variables.
Finally, perceived ease of use has a significant negative effect on perceived risk
(b 2 0.427, p , 0.01); thus, H13 was supported.
Rejection of perceived risk and usefulness of social networking is consistent with
results of some TAM research (Horst et al., 2007). In fact, several works, aware of their
non-significance, did not formulate this hypothesis, because they considered that the
perceived risk only is an antecedent of behavioral intention (Liu and Wei, 2003; Hsu and
Chiu, 2004; Wu and Wang, 2005). For example, Im et al. (2008) tested three models: an
original TAM without perceived usefulness, a model with perceived risk modeled
as an antecedent of perceived usefulness and a model with perceived risk modeled as
an antecedent of behavioral intention. Finally, the first model (without perceived risk)
was a better fit than the other model (with perceived risk as an antecedent).

Figure 1.

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182

4. Conclusions and discussion

SNS offer to people new ways to build and maintain social networks, create
relationships, share information, generate and edit content and participate in social
movements through the internet. They also allow the locating of individuals sharing
the same backgrounds and interests based on the characteristics published in personal
profiles. SNS have contributed to increasing the number of contacts maintained by the
individuals, as well as facilitating the strengthening of links between them. Next to the
importance of SNS as social phenomena, they are a domain of interesting marketing
opportunities for businesses engaged in internet marketing. Understanding the
motivations of people to make use of SNS and identification of the parameters affecting
the adoption of these applications are vital for marketers eager to utilize these
environments as part of their marketing strategy (Park et al., 2010). The objective of
this study is to contribute in this direction by identifying and evaluating factors
influencing the adoption and use of the SNS technology by individuals.
With respect to the empirical part of this study, an extended TAM has been
developed, including two types of internal constructs (trust and perceived risk), in order
to explain the variables that influence level of acceptance of SNS by users. Our model
indicates that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of SNS have a direct impact
on intention to use them and an indirect impact through attitude. Furthermore, the
perceived ease of use influences the perceived usefulness. In other words the intention to
use positively influences the degree of final use of SNS.
With regard to the question how trust and perceived risk can influence the process
of acceptance of SNS, we concluded that trust affects positively and directly the
attitude towards these web sites; likewise it affects positively the perceived usefulness
and perceived ease of use. However, perceived risk influences negatively the intention
to use them. Another conclusion of the study is that the ease of use has a negative
influence on perceived risk, i.e. when perceived ease of use is greater, perceived risk
will be lower. However, perceived risk of SNS is not a significant determinant of how
useful is perceived the SNS.
4.1 Practical implications
This research is an important step in understanding the motives and factors affecting
the adoption of SNS by internet users and useful for practitioners intending to adopt
SNS as part of their marketing strategy. The confirmation of the aptitude of the ETAM
in explaining the adoption of SNS suggests that marketers intending to integrate SNS
into their marketing toolbox should provide cues enhancing the feelings of trust, ease
of use and usefulness while at the same time take steps to reduce the perceived risk of
joining these sites in order to generate a positive attitude towards their web sites and
encourage people to return to visit.
The findings confirm that the attitudes of SNS users are important in predicting
intention to use. To attract the participation in the SNS, online businesses and SNS
providers need to develop strategies to cultivate positive attitudes towards the use of
SNS. The results indicate that establishing trust in the SNS and providing user-friendly
web sites, which reduces the perceived risk, and are useful, are very important
characteristic that affect on the creation of positive attitudes.
Changing users attitudes is easier than changing feelings about usefulness or
perceived ease of use (Thompson and Hunt, 1996). As Yang and Yoo (2004) stated,

many theories and programs have been developed for the change to positive attitudes,
such as the direct influence of individuals (e.g. improving peoples motivations,
abilities, memories or mood states), the improvement of contextual clues (e.g. classical
conditioning) or the consideration of persuasive messages (e.g. the credibility of the
message, memory message, two-face communication, etc.).
Although peoples attitudes can change, continuous efforts should also be given to
maintain the positive attitude, which is temporary, unstable and malleable (Thompson
and Hunt, 1996). Motivations, skills, experience and education are all factors that
influence the development and maintenance of attitudes. Therefore, maintenance and
change of attitude should be considered as a complementary tool to techniques that can
be used to improve user acceptance of new technologies (Yang and Yoo, 2004).
The finding that trust influences perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and
attitude indicates that firms providing SNS functionality should establish user trust by
ensuring that services are conducted in accordance with the users expectations and
deliver concrete evidence that they fulfill their promises and commitments to customers.
Considering that trust has essentially two goals, trust in the other party and trust in
control mechanisms (Pavlou, 2003), marketers using SNS as part of their marketing
strategy can substantially influence the customer trust towards the application by
facilitating transactions, installing firewalls, using authentication mechanisms and
ensuring the protection of privacy and information (Bhimani, 1996; Benassi, 1999;
Cassell and Bickmore, 2000). In addition, SNS providers without strong brand names
need to establish a relationship of trust with consumers through the development and
communication of guidelines for users and ensure that participants (both individuals
and companies) adhere to these guidelines. SNS providers should inform potential users
that risk taking and privacy are important concerns and that they do their best to
minimize risks attached to using SNS and that they respect/protect peoples privacy.
Therefore, using SNS as marketing tools requires having explicit policies and data
protection mechanisms in place and provide the same of customer protection and
privacy as in the offline environment (Shin, 2010).
4.2 Limitations and future research
A main limitation of this work is that the survey was limited to one European country,
The Netherlands. To generalize the results of this research, we should repeat the study
using a wider sample of users with other ethnic or cultural backgrounds. Specifically,
the sample should represent a greater diversity of nationalities in order to form a more
comprehensive idea as to the adoption of SNS in Europe or in other geographical areas.
Future research must be focused on the analysis of data through multi-group studies in
order to identify differences and similarities between different nationalities (Brettel and
Spilker-Attigwith, 2010) respect to their level and adoption level of SNS, based
on the different structures of participation in digital cultures. This will require carrying
out a cross-cultural study between countries through structural model.
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About the authors
Carlota Lorenzo-Romero has a degree in Business Administration and PhD on E-marketing from
the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). Currently she is an Assistant Professor in
Marketing in the Business Administration Department, Faculty of Economics and Business of
Albacete, University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). Her research interests are electronic
commerce, Web 2.0, social networking sites, store atmosphere, e-merchandising,
consumer behaviour, marketing research, experimental designs and quantitative analysis.
Carlota Lorenzo-Romero is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: Carlota.
Lorenzo@uclm.es
Efthymios Constantinides obtained a degree in Economics in Athens and followed
post-graduate studies in Economics of European Integration in Amsterdam. He received his PhD
on Marketing in Virtual Environments. After a corporate career of ten years he worked for
ten years as a Senior Lecturer Marketing for the International Agricultural College Larenstein
(The Netherlands), and since 2001 has been working as an Assistant Professor E-commerce at
the School of Management and Governance of the University of Twente (The Netherlands). His
research interests are consumer behaviour and marketing strategy in virtual environments;
in particular, on utilizing the social web environment as source of market intelligence and as an
active marketing instrument.
Mara-del-Carmen Alarcon-del-Amo has a degree in Business Administration from the
University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). Currently she is a PhD student of Marketing at the
same university. She has received a PhD grant for four years to develop her thesis. Her research
interests are Web 2.0, social networking sites, consumer behaviour, marketing research and
quantitative analysis.

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