Service quality, satisfaction, stickiness, and usage intentions: An exploratory evaluation in the context of WeChat services

WeChat is now deeply ingrained into the daily life of Chinese people. The objectives of this study are to examine the impact of service quality (interaction quality, environment quality, and outcome quality) on WeChat users' satisfaction and to assess the influence of their satisfaction and stickiness on usage intentions. Structural equation modelling was employed to analyze the data which were randomly collected from the four first-tier cities in China. The number of valid observations were 310. The main findings show that environment quality and outcome quality are two important predictors of satisfaction. Users' satisfaction has a positive effect on their stickiness to WeChat and usage-intentions. Stickiness is found to positively influence users' intentions for using WeChat services. However, the impact of interaction quality on satisfaction is surprisingly not significant. The mediating role of stickiness between satisfaction and usage intentions is confirmed. The outcomes provide insights into how WeChat can improve its service quality which in turn will enhance users' satisfaction, their willingness to stick to WeChat, and their continuous usage intentions. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.