Investigating users' sustained information seeking on academic social networking sites

What is it about?

Previous research has investigated the use of ASNSs from content, service and motivation aspects. Unlike the existing literature overlooking users’ information activities on ASNSs, the current study investigates both motivators, mediator, and moderator of users’ sustained information seeking on ASNSs. The study also employs a multi-methods analysis combining a structural equation modeling analysis of survey data with a content analysis of participants’ post-survey feedback to confirm the proposed model and provide related insights. The study shows that both information usefulness and information adoption are strong predictors of users’ sustained information seeking, while users’ satisfaction with ASNSs may partially mediate the relationship between the predictors and the outcome. Moreover, the relationship between predictors and users’ satisfaction with ASNSs is also contingent on users’ self-efficacy for critical thinking.

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